What is the…
Hiddekel

also known as: Hid-dekel

Hebrew: חִדֶּקֶל —transliteration: Chiddeqel

Hiddekel is the name of two Biblical rivers.

1. Hiddekel of Eden

   This is a river created by God in the pre-Flood world in the land of Eden. It is now extinct, destroyed by the worldwide Flood catastrophe.

   It was the 3rd of 4 rivers of the paradise world God created (Genesis 2:14).

2. The four rivers produced by the river of Eden: Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, and Perath (Euphrates) River—See: Genesis 2:10-14 LSB.

3. Hiddekel of Mesopotamia

   also known as: Dekel, Dikla, Digla, Idikla, Tiggar, Tigra, Tigris

   The Hebrew name Hiddekel is also associated with a river of the post-Flood world, the Tigris.

   Matthew G. Easton writes of this river,

   Hiddekel was called by the Accadians Idikla; i.e., “the river of Idikla.”

   Hebraist, Orientalist, lexicographer, and theologian Wilhelm Gesenius interpreted the word as meaning “the rapid Tigris.” (Wilhelm Gesenius, Thesaurus philologicus criticus linguae Hebraeae et Chaldaeae veteris testamenti, 1835, p. 448).

   The [modern, post-Flood] Tigris river rises in the mountains of Armenia, 15 miles south of the source of the Euphrates, which, after pursuing a southeast course, it joins at Kurnah, about 50 miles above Bassorah. Its whole length is about 1,150 miles.

More information

• What is Eden in the Bible?
• Was the Garden of Eden a real place? Where is it today?
• What does the Bible say about Mesopotamia?
• What is Aram Naharayim (Aram-Naharaim)?
• What are the Rivers of Babylon in the Bible
• Rivers of the Bible
• Places in the Bible