Gardens
Mentioned in Scripture, of Eden (Gen 2:8, Gen 2:9); Ahab’s garden of herbs (1 Kgs 21:2); the royal garden (2 Kgs 21:18); the royal garden at Susa (Esth 1:5); the garden of Joseph of Arimathea (John 19:41); of Gethsemane (John 18:1).
The “king’s garden” mentioned 2 Kgs 25:4, Neh 3:15, was near the Pool of Siloam.
Gardens were surrounded by hedges of thorns (Isa 5:5) or by walls of stone (Prov 24:31). “Watch-towers” or “lodges” were also built in them (Isa 1:8; Mark 12:1), in which their keepers sat. On account of their retirement they were frequently used as places for secret prayer and communion with God (Gen 24:63; Matt 26:30–36; John 1:48; John 18:1, John 18:2). The dead were sometimes buried in gardens (Gen 23:19, Gen 23:20; 2 Kgs 21:18, 2 Kgs 21:26; 1 Sam 25:1; Mark 15:46; John 19:41). (See Paradise.)
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), by Matthew George Easton.
