Water-Supply

Water-Supply.

To Hezekiah was due also the regulation of the water-supply in Jerusalem, so that the city might be prepared for a siege. The only natural spring of real value is Gihon on the southeastern side in the Kidron Valley (now called "Virgin's Spring" or "Spring of the Steps"), which from early times seems to have been used to provide the city with water. Undoubted traces have been found of an early conduit, partly open and partly underground, which conducted the water from the spring around the hill into the city of David (perhaps the earlier "Shiloah" of Isa. viii. 6; see Schick in "Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly Statement" [hereafter cited as "P. E. F. S."], 1886, p. 197). In 1867 a rock tunnel was discovered by Warren that brought the water westward into a basin cut in the rocks; to this access was had by a shaft from above (perhaps the "king's pool," Neh. ii. 14), from the top of which a series of corridors led to an exit on the Hill of Ophel. Hezekiah cut off the flow of water to the north and had a conduit excavated through the rock, thus leading the water within the city limits to the Siloam Pool (II Chron. xxxii. 30; II Kings xx. 20). This Siloam conduit, which was discovered in 1880, is 1,757 feet in length. At about 19 feet from the Siloam end was found the famous inscription detailing the manner in which the undertaking had been carried out (see Siloam Inscription). The usefulness of this work may be gaged by the fact that it is specially mentioned to Hezekiah's honor by Ben Sira (Ecclus. [Sirach] xlviii. 17). It seems probable also that this king built a special fortification around Siloam ("wall of the pool of Siloah," Neh. iii. 15; "between the two walls," Isa. xxxii. 11; Jer. lii. 7). The graves of the common people (Jer. xxvi. 23, xxxi. 40) were probably in the Kidron Valley. The wall built by Manasseh (II Chron. xxxiii. 14) encompassed Ophel; starting west of Gihon, it must have been an additional protection for the southeastern fortifications. Its position can not be accurately determined.

Jerusalem