SILOAM (or Shiloah) INSCRIPTION

SILOAM (or Shiloah) INSCRIPTION
SILOAM (or Shiloah) INSCRIPTION, an inscription found in 1880 in the village of Siloam (Arab. Silwān) in Jerusalem. It contains six lines engraved on the rock wall of a tunnel known as the "Siloam tunnel" which, running through the spur of a hill, conveys water from the spring of Gihon to the east of the spur into the pool of Siloam to the west. In biblical times, the wall of Jerusalem made a southward loop, and the pool of Siloam lay within it. The language of the inscription is biblical Hebrew and its script is Paleo-Hebraic. It is about 32 cm. (12 in.) high and 72 cm. (28 in.) long and tells the story of the digging of the tunnel, a very respectable engineering feat for its day. The purpose of the inscription was apparently to commemorate the completion of the excavation by two groups of diggers who began working at the same time from the two ends of the tunnel until they met. The inscription and the tunnel date back to the days of king hezekiah of Judah, who sealed the springs outside the walls of Jerusalem in order to prevent the water from being used by a besieging army. In order to secure the supply of water for the city during the time of siege, he diverted the waters of the Gihon spring through the tunnel into the city (II Kings 20:20; II Chron. 32:3–4, 30; cf. Isa. 22:11). The project was terminated almost certainly before 701 B.C.E., the year of Sennacherib's campaign against Judah. In the 19th century, the inscription was cut out of the tunnel wall and removed to the Museum of Istanbul (then Constantinople). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Pritchard, Texts, 321; Pritchard, Pictures, 275, 744; J. Simons, Jerusalem in the Old Testament (1952), 175–92; Burrows, in: ZAW, 70 (1958), 221–7 (Eng.); Stoebe, in: ZDPV, 71 (1955), 124–40; Amiran, in: Qadmoniot, 1 (1968), 13–18; Hecker, in: M. Avi-Yonah (ed.), Sefer Yerushalayim (1957), 191–218. (Bustanay Oded)

Encyclopedia Judaica. 1971.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать курсовую

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Siloam — * For the Arab village and neighborhood, see Silwan * For the ancient city and contemporary Jewish neighborhood, see City of DavidSiloam is an ancient Greek name derived from the more ancient Hebrew: Shiloah), the Arabic: Silwan, was derived form …   Wikipedia

  • JERUSALEM — The entry is arranged according to the following outline: history name protohistory the bronze age david and first temple period second temple period the roman period byzantine jerusalem arab period crusader period mamluk period …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • City of David — City of David, Holyland Model of Jerusalem Tourist inside Hezekiah s tunnel 20 …   Wikipedia

  • Gihon —    A stream.    1) One of the four rivers of Eden (Gen. 2:13). It has been identified with the Nile. Others regard it as the Oxus, or the Araxes, or the Ganges. But as, according to the sacred narrative, all these rivers of Eden took their origin …   Easton's Bible Dictionary

  • DAVID — (Heb. דָּוִד), youngest son of Jesse of the Ephrathite family that lived in Beth Lehem in Judah (I Sam. 16:1; 20:27–28; I Chron. 2:13–15; cf. Micah 5:1). In the Bible SOURCES I Samuel 16–II Kings 2 is our main source for David, supplemented by I… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”