Commentaire sur La Genèse 2:13

גיחון GICHON — It is so called because it flows on with a roar, its roaring being very noisy,—similar in meaning to (Exodus 21:28) וכי יגח “And if an [ox] gore” — for when it gores it rushes on roaring (Berakhot 59b.).

ושם הנהר השני גיחון, this river flows in a southerly direction flowing around the whole land of Kush from which it enters Sarnediv known as the great sea, (Mediterranean) according to the experts in geography. After the Torah used the expression הסובב when describing the manner in which the first two rivers wended their way on the surface of the earth, it switches to the verb הלך in describing the flow of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. It appears that these first two rivers did not cross a certain country diagonally but detoured around it. גיחון, this name appears to reflect the manner in which this river splits up into many smaller rivers. [again we appear to face the concept of “tributaries” as being reversed, the main river creating something like a delta, i.e. breaking up into smaller distributaries. Ed.] The word means “exit” We find it appearing in this context in Job 40,23 כי יגיח ירדן אל פיהו, or in Ezekiel 32,2 ותגח בנהרותיך, as well as in similar instances. Incidentally, the שילוח is also called גיחון, seeing it splits into so many different rivulets in order to irrigate the gardens in Jerusalem.