Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SILOAM

Iron Age II water systems in the City of David (strata 14-10), featuring the Siloam channel
(City of David Archaeological Project)

Channel II, the water supply system in ancient Jerusalem that opened ca. 3 m. (10 ft.) above the floor of the Gihon Spring and followed a course that ran outside the fortification wall on the City of David’s east slope. It is a composite system, consisting partly of a rock-hewn tunnel and partly of a rock-hewn and stone-capped channel, that varies in width from 0.4-0.6 m. (1.3-2 ft.) and in height from 1.4-2.75 m. (4.6-9 ft.). Roughly half of its estimated 400 m. (1312 ft.) length has been investigated.

Because the Gihon is a siphon-type, karstic spring whose outflow gushed forth intermittently, its excess waters could not be used efficiently unless they could be captured, stored, and distributed. The Siloam Channel was designed to control the excess waters of the Gihon in three ways: by conveying them to a reservoir located in the southern reaches of the Tyropoeon Valley; by releasing them onto agricultural plots in the Kidron Valley through windowlike openings in its east wall; and by supplementing them with runoff collected through openings in its roof.

The Siloam Channel was superseded and partly canceled by the Siloam Tunnel, which diverted its waters and changed the direction in which water flowed through its south end. Thus, although the Siloam Channel’s precise date of construction is not known, it must predate the Siloam Tunnel and may be identified with “the waters of Shiloah (Siloam) that flow gently” (Isa. 8:6) and the “upper watercourse of Gihon” (2 Chr. 32:30) that Hezekiah stopped and brought down to the west side of the City of David.

Bibliography. Y. Shiloh, Excavations in the City of David, 1: 1978-1982: Interim Report of the First Five Seasons. Qedem 19 (Jerusalem, 1984); L. H. Vincent, Underground Jerusalem: Discoveries on the Hill of Ophel (1909-11) (London, 1911).

Jane M. Cahill

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SILOAM

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)