Hezekiah's Tunnel

Biblical Record

The Bible does not describe the tunnel's appearance in detail. It records only that Hezekiah made a watercourse and brought water into the city of Jerusalem.

• 2 Kings 20:20 lists among Hezekiah's achievements "how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city."
• 2 Chronicles 32:30 records that Hezekiah "stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David."
• 2 Chronicles 32:2-4 supplies the background. When Sennacherib king of Assyria invaded, Hezekiah and his leaders stopped up the springs and the brook outside the city so that the enemy would find no water when they arrived.
• Isaiah 22:9-11 likewise refers to repairing the walls, gathering water, and making a reservoir between the two walls during the same period.

Background

The Gihon Spring, Jerusalem's most important water source, lay in the valley outside the ancient city wall, which made water difficult to obtain during a siege. Hezekiah's Tunnel diverts this spring water through the bedrock beneath the hill so that it flows toward Siloam on the south side of the city. The tunnel is reported to be about 530 meters (roughly 1,750 feet) long, and rather than running straight, it winds in an S-shaped course.

In 1880 an inscription carved in ancient Hebrew script was discovered on the wall near the tunnel's southern exit. Commonly known as the Siloam Inscription, it describes how workers digging from opposite ends heard one another's voices and finally met, allowing the water to flow. The inscription is reported to be housed today in the Istanbul Archaeology Museums in Türkiye.

Significance in the Wider Bible

The place where the water collects at the end of the tunnel is connected with the Pool of Siloam. Isaiah 8:6 uses "the waters of Shiloah that go softly" as an image of trust in God. In the New Testament, in John 9, Jesus tells the man born blind to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam. John's Gospel explains that Siloam means "Sent" (John 9:7). Thus the water brought into the city in Hezekiah's time for its defense becomes, in the New Testament, the setting of one of Jesus' signs.

Interpretation and Debate

• Linking text and site: The Bible speaks only of a "conduit" and of "bringing water" and does not use the word "tunnel." Identifying the present tunnel with Hezekiah's watercourse is an inference drawn by scholars who have examined the archaeological evidence together with the biblical text. The Siloam Inscription itself does not name a king. Most scholars date the project to Hezekiah's reign in the late eighth century BC, though a minority hold to a different date.
• Differing emphases of the two texts: 2 Chronicles presents the water project positively, as one of the ways in which Hezekiah prospered. Isaiah 22:11, by contrast, rebukes the people because, while preparing the walls and the water supply, "ye have not looked unto the maker thereof." Preachers and commentators therefore read these passages in two directions: one sees diligent preparation joined with faith, while the other sees a warning against relying on human defenses instead of God.
• Historicity: Conservative scholars frequently cite the inscription and the tunnel as evidence supporting the historicity of the biblical record. Critical scholars also generally accept that major waterworks were carried out in Hezekiah's time, but opinions differ on how individual remains should be matched with particular texts.

In the Korean Church

Hezekiah's Tunnel is known as a frequently visited site on pilgrimages to Israel. Pilgrims walk through the narrow passage, with water flowing around their feet, and emerge near the Pool of Siloam. In preaching, the tunnel is often mentioned in connection with Hezekiah's response to the Assyrian invasion (2 Chronicles 32; 2 Kings 18-20).