The Connection Between the Pool of Siloam and Hezekiah’s Tunnel

I left you in the previous Nugget with some sleuthing to do. I divided these Nuggets in order to provide you with an opportunity to learn to read the Bible correctly. To fully understand what is going on we need to read the Bible account in full. I suggested you investigate the reference to the Pool of Shiloah. Here are the key references to the pool.

And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great army to Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller’s field.

2 Kings 18:17

Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made the pool, and the conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

2 Kings 20:20

And Shallun the son of Col-hozeh, the ruler of the district of Mizpah repaired the fountain gate; he built it and covered it and set up the doors, the bolts, and the bars, and the wall of the pool of Shelah by the king’s garden, even up to the stairs that go down from the city of David. After him Nehemiah, the son of Azbuk, the ruler of half the district of Beth-zur, repaired up to the place over against the sepulchres of David, and to the pool that was made, and to the house of the mighty men.

Neh 3:15-16

Then YHWH said to Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shear-Jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fuller’s field;

Isa 7:3

For as much as this people have refused the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son; now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the River, strong and many, even the king of Assyria and all his glory: and it shall come up over all its channels, and go over all its banks;

Isa 8:6-7

And you saw the breaches of the city of David, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool;

Isa 22:9

you made also a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you looked not to him that had done this, neither did you respect him that purposed it long ago.

Isa 22:11

And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field.

Isa 36:2

Yes it is true, we don’t have the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah but with the longer passages I gave you in the previous Nugget and these references to the pool we can piece together the story. Notice both King Ahaz and his son Hezekiah are found during their reign at the upper pool, the water source outside the city walls. God told Ahaz to trust in the gently flowing waters of Shiloah. But he refused and sought the help of Assyria (symbolised by the mighty River, Euphrates). His son, Hezekiah, was the one to trust God and refuse to bow to the King of Assyria.

There is a 533 metre long tunnel hewn through the rock under Jerusalem.  A series of shafts had been dug down in attempts to authenticate the Bible and test whether the things that are written in Bible are actually true. The Bible text tells us Hezekiah had the people make a water source for the city from the Pool of Shiloah to allow access to the water from inside the city so they could withstand the attack of the Assyrians.  This water course was the means whereby Hezekiah could ensure they had a supply of water with access from inside the city. If that was not the case then the attackers would have defeated them easily. All they would have had to do was wait until the inhabitants inside ran out of water. God said to trust Him but Ahaz refused. Hezekiah was the King who did what God told him.

Critics claimed Hezekiah and Sennacherib (King of Assyria) never met, that there was no extra biblical evidence. (See Sennacherib’s Prism). Critics claimed this story about a water course being hewn from the rock was nonsense. They maintained the Jews in the time of Hezekiah did not have the technology to carry out such work. The story was a Jewish myth, no such tunnel had ever been found. Two boys playing by the lower pool inside the city found the inscription which marks the tunnel which runs from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam.

The observant ones among you readers will have noticed the variation in the name given to the waters and the pool. Is it Shiloah, Siloah, Shelah or Siloam? The answer is all of the above. I am sure you realise that place names vary over time. But there is also a linguistic feature of the variation in place names which results before the spelling of names is standardised over time. Despite the changing names given to the pool we are still talking about the lower pool inside the ancient city of Jerusalem which is connected to its source, the Gihon Spring.