King's Dale (עֵמֶק הִמֶּלֶך, E'mnek ham-Mle'lek, Valley of the King; Sept. τὸ πεδίον τῶν βασιλέων, ἡ κοιλὰς τοῦ βασιλέως), a place incidentally mentioned in two passages of Scripture only. When Abraham was returning with the spoil of Sodom, the king of Sodom went out to meet him "at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale" (Ge 14:17); and in the narrative of the death of Absalom the incidental remark is inserted by the historian, " Now Absalom in his lifetime had reared up for himself a pillar which is in the king's dale" (2Sa 18:18). The locality has usually been supposed to be ii the Valley of Jehoshaphat or Kidron, and that the well-known monument, now called the tomb of Absalom, is the pillar raised by that prince (Benjamin of Tudela, in Early Trav. in Pal. p. 84; Raumer, Palia;f. p. 303; Barclay, City of the Great King, p. 92). The style of the monument, which is of the later Roman age, militates against this theory, unless we suppose that this structure merely represents the older traditionary site. SEE ABSOLOMS TOMB. The names given to the valley, Enouk, Shamveh, prove that a " plain" or broad valley" was meant, and not a ravine like the Kidron; but this would tolerably well apply to its broader part at the junction with that of Hinnom. SEE
JEHOSHAPHAT, VALLEY OF. Others locate the king's dale at Beersheba, others at Lebanon (Reland, Palest. p. 357), others near the Jordan (Stanley, Jewish Church, i, 44). But if we identify Salem with Jerusalem, then doubtless the king's dale was close to that city; and it seems highly probable besides that Absalom should have raised his memorial pillar in the vicinity of the capital (Krafft, Die Topographie Jerusalems, p. 88). Still others regard the place as that elsewhere called the " Valley of Rephaim," and now usually designated as the Plain of Rephaim. This is on the direct route from the north to Hebron; a practicable road leads down from it through the wilderness to the shore of the Dead Sea; and it is so close to Jerusalem that Melchisedec, from the heights of Zion, could both see and hear the joyous meeting of the princes of Sodom with the victorious band of Abraham, and the reclaimed captives (comp. Kurtz, Hist. of the Old Covenant, i, 218; Wilson, Lands of the Bible, i, 488; Kalisch, On, Genesis 14:17). SEE REPHAIM, VALLEY OF. The epithet "King's," however, seems rather to favor a connection with the "king's garden", SEE JERUSALEM, which lay near the Pool of Siloam (2Ki 25:4). SEE SHAVEH.
King's Evil is the name in England of a disease which the people believed their kings had the power of curing by touch. So strong was the popular conviction that the ecclesiastical authorities devised a special form of religious service to be recited while the king was touching the diseased person. It is as follows:
"The first gospel was exactly the same with that on Ascension Day. At the touching of every infirm person, these words were repeated, 'They shall lay their hands on the sick, and they shall recover.' The second gospel began at the first of St. John, and ended at these words, 'full of grace and truth.' At putting the angel (or gold) about their necks, 'That light was the true light which lights every man that cometh into the world,' was repeated, Lord have mercy upon us. Christ have mercy upon its. Lord have mercy upon us. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, etc.
Minister. O Lord, save thy servants. Answer. Which put their trust in thee. Minister. Send unto them help from above.
Answer. And evermore mightily defend them. Minister. Help us, O God, our' Saviour. Answer. And for the glory of thy name's sake deliver us; be merciful unto us sinners, for thy name's sake. Minister. O Lord, hear our prayer. Answer. And let our cry come unto thee. THE COLLECT Almighty God, the eternal health of all such as put their trust in thee, hear us, we beseech thee, on the behalf of these thy servants, for whom we call for thy merciful help; that they, receiving health, may give thanks unto thee in thy holy Church, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The peace of God, etc." "The evidence which has sometimes been offered for supposed miraculous cures of the king's evil is none at all for the miracle. but goes to prove that patients were touched, and afterwards recovered. Symptoms of many diseases abate spontaneously; and especially in the case of scrofula, a strong excitement of mind is supposed by medical men to exert often a reaction in the absorbents. The touch of a hanged man's hand has been held in at least equal repute for scrofula and wens, doubtless for alike reason. If Jesus had laid his hands on many sick persons, and some of them had recovered within a week, how different would have been the state of the case! (See Paley on tentative miracles and gradual cures.) Asthe reality of a cure by the touch of a royal hand cannot be believed without the utmost degree of superstition, it is probable that the service was used as a petition for the cure, and that the touching the part affected was asuperstitious act, followed by a cure in those cases in which the action of the mind was favorable to such an effect. Thus the cure itself would be explicable from natural causes."