Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

WATER WORKS

One of three “pools of Solomon” S of Bethlehem that supplied water for Jerusalem;
Hasmonean period, 2nd century b.c.e. (Phoenix Data Systems, Neal and Joel Bierling)

The inhabitants of ancient Palestine developed ingenious techniques to manage seasonal and scarce water resources. Stone terrace walls were constructed along the contours of the steep hillsides, providing new land for cultivation, controlling erosion, and impeding the flow of water down the slopes so it would have time to infiltrate the soil. In the Negeb and Transjordan, wall complexes dating as early as the beginning of the 4th millennium b.c.e. were constructed across streambeds, creating a series of dams to control the seasonal floods and irrigate low-lying fields of desert “runoff farms.” The Nabateans, masters of water management during Hellenistic and Roman times, made the deserts of southern Israel and Jordan bloom.

Cisterns were excavated to catch and store rainwater in areas where the water table could not be reached or perennial springs were absent. Caves and natural rock basins were easily adapted for this purpose. However, developing technology permitted structures to be hewn in stone that were distinctly bottle-shaped with a narrow neck leading to the surface. Slaked lime plaster made cisterns watertight when geological circumstances demanded, and openings were protected with circular stone collars and heavy stone covers. Cisterns served both public and private purposes, and the Israelites considered them an amenity ranking with the vine, fig, and olive in idealistic descriptions of their land (Deut. 6:10-12; 2 Kgs. 18:31 = Isa. 36:16; Neh. 9:25; cf. 2 Chr. 26:10).

Springs and wells permitted the easiest access to fresh water, but they were often located inconveniently outside the city walls or deep beneath the mounds on which cities were built, requiring extensive ingenuity to reach them. Shafts and tunnels leading to aquifers or springs were excavated at Hazor, Yoqneam, Gezer, Beer-sheba, Arad, Kadesh-barnea, Gibeon, Megiddo, Ibleam, and Jerusalem. At Tell es-Sayʾidyeh a roofed stairway was constructed along the slope of the mound to the spring. Jerusalem’s Gihon Spring was diverted underneath the Ophel hill, where it could be reached by a vertical shaft (“Warren’s Shaft”) from inside the city. Later, perhaps in the 8th century, although the date is not certain, a tunnel 533 m. (1750 ft.) long (“Hezekiah’s Tunnel”) was hewn connecting the Gihon with the pool of Siloam.

Pools were designed to store water from runoff and springs. The most famous ones mentioned in the Bible were at Gibeon (2 Sam. 2:13), Hebron (4:12), Samaria (1 Kgs. 22:38), Heshbon (Cant. 7:4), and Jerusalem (2 Kgs. 18:17 = Isa. 36:2; Neh. 2:14; 3:15-16; Eccl. 2:6; Isa. 7:3; 22:9; John 9:7). The growing population of Jerusalem in postexilic times led to the need for numerous reservoirs there. Josephus refers to the pool of the Serpent, Tower Pool, and Struthion Pool. Another, the pool of Israel, was located along the northern wall of the temple enclosure. Water was brought to Jerusalem from the pools of Solomon and springs south of Bethlehem by a complex aqueduct system. The ruins of an aqueduct constructed by Herod the Great to bring water to Caesarea from the heights to the north can be seen today.

Bibliography. R. Amiran, “The Water Supply of Israelite Jerusalem,” in Jerusalem Revealed, ed. Y. Yadin (New Haven, 1976), 75-78; D. Cole, “How Water Tunnels Worked,” BARev 6/2 (1980): 8-29; W. G. Dever, “The Water Systems at Hazor and Gezer,” BA 32 (1969): 71-78; R. J. Forbes, “Irrigation and Drainage,” in Studies in Ancient Technology, rev. ed., 2 (Leiden, 1965): 1-79; “Water Supply,” in Studies in Ancient Technology 1, 3rd ed. (Leiden, 1993): 149-94; T. E. Levy, “How Ancient Man First Utilized the Rivers in the Desert,” BARev 16/6 (1990): 20-31; A. Mazar, “The Aqueducts of Jerusalem,” in Jerusalem Revealed, ed. Yadin, 79-84; Y. Olami and Y. Peleg, “The Water Supply of Caesarea Maritima,” IEJ 27 (1977): 127-37; J. P. Oleson, “The Origins and Design of Nabataean Water-Supply Systems,” in Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan V, ed. K. ʿAmr, F. Zayadine, and M. Zaghloul (Amman, 1995), 707-19; J. B. Pritchard, The Water System of Gibeon (Philadelphia, 1961); Y. Shiloh, “Underground Water Systems in Eretz-Israel in the Iron Age,” in Archaeology and Biblical Interpretation, ed. L. G. Purdue, L. E. Toombs, and G. L. Johnson (Atlanta, 1987), 203-44; T. Tsuk, “Reservoirs,” OEANE 4:422-23; J. Wilkinson, “Ancient Jerusalem: Its Water Supply and Population,” PEQ 106 (1974): 33-51.

James H. Pace

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

WATER WORKS

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)