King Hezekiah’s Aqueduct or the Pool of Siloam Tunnel: Another score for Biblical Accuracy
Posted: Tuesday, March 01, 2011
by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html
After the death of Solomon, the Israelite nation was torn apart and became the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. The northern portion continued to be called Israel and the southern portion became known as Judah. From thence on, the northern kingdom, Israel, never had a godly king but stayed astray from God until they were overrun and taken into captivity. Ten of the twelve tribes followed Rehoboam and made their capital in Samaria, while the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin remained in Jerusalem and maintained their capital there. This division came in 975 B.C.
Israel beginning with Rehoboam, had 19 kings before they were overrun and subjugated by Assyria in 721 B.C. Every king they had was evil and did not guide the nation in the paths of God. Which is what caused their being overrun. God had warned them time and again that this is what he would allow to happen to them if they did not repent and return to him.
Judah had 19 kings and one queen rule them until they were finally overrun in 586 B.C. They had their share of evil rulers also, but they did have some good ones and some others who were not as wicked as those of Israel. (Hezekiah's Tunnel-Wikipedia photo by permission)
One of their good ones was Hezekiah and our story begins with him. He had an underground tunnel dug as an aqueduct from an outer spring to the in-city pool of Siloam. This is mentioned only briefly in scripture in 2 Kings 20:20. This scripture refers to another on in 2 Chronicles 32:2-4.
The watercourse was a tremendous feat of engineering by any standards. At one time, critics of the Bible said openly that it was impossible, because of the great difficulty of the project: this was another example, they said, of the way in which Bible accounts had become exaggerated and then recorded as historical fact. This argument cannot be used against the Bible today because the watercourse has been discovered.(Hezekiah’s Aqueduct: biblelight.org)
This aqueduct saved the city of Jerusalem when King of Assyria, Sennacherib laid siege of the city. When King Hezekiah heard of the Assyrians coming to lay siege on the city. He had his men go out and block all the water supplies around the city so that Sennacherib would not have free access to plenty of water.
But because of Hezekiah’s and the prophet Isaiah’s prayers, God intervened and the scriptures tell us this:
And Jehovah sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty men of valor, and the leaders and captains, in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he was come into the house of his god, they that came forth from his own bowels slew him there with the sword. Thus Jehovah saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all others, and guided them on every side. (2 Chronicles 32:21-22 ASV)
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