Siloam is in Scripture always called a pool. It is not an CSX, that is, a marsh-pool (Isa. xxxv, 7) ; nor a Xj3i, a natural hollow or pit (xxx, 14); nor a iTipia, a natural gathering of water (Gen. i, 10; Isa. xxii, 11);
The V'illnce of Silir/in (Silonm) imd the Lower Part oTllie Valley ofihe Kedmn, fhowirsrthc "Kinir'p Onrrtens," which Hie watered by the Pool. The biickirrouiul is the hi^'hliiiuls of.Judah. The view is from a photograph by James Graham, Esq., tukeu from beneath the south wall of the iluram.
SILOAII
745
SILYA
nor a "iX3, a well (Gen. xvi, 14) ; nor a "i13, a pit (Lev. xi,3G); nor ail "pS", a spring ({Jen. iii, 17); butan3";i3, a regularly built pool or tank (2 Kings xx, 20; Nch. iii, 15; Eceles. ii, 6). This last word is still retained in the Arabic, as an}' traveller or reader of travels knows. While Nehemiah calls it a paol, Isaiah merely speaks of it as " the waters of Shiloah ;" while the New Test, gives Ko\vnl3i)dpa, and Jose[)lui3 Trij-yi). The rabbins and .Jewish travellers call it a fountain ; in which they are sometimes followed by tiie European travellers of all ages, though more generally they give us piscina, natatoriii, and siagimm.
It is the least of all the .Icrusalem pools: hardly the sixth part of the Birket el-M(imiU<t ; hardly the tenth of the Birket es-Sultaii, or of the lowest of the three pools of Solomon at El-Bural: Yet it is a sacred spot, even to the jMoslem ; much more to the Jew; for not only from it was the water taken at the Feast of Taber- nacles, but the water for the ashes of the red heifer (Dach, Talm. Buhyl. p. 380). Jewish tradition makes (iihoii and Siloam one (Lightfoot, Cent. Chor. in Matt. p. 51 ; Schwarz, p. 2G5), as if Gihon were " the bursting forth" (n"'^, to break out), and Siloam the receptacle of the waters "sent." If this were the case, it might be into Siloam, through one of the many subterranean aqueducts with which Jerusalem abounds, and one of which probably went down the Tyropceon, that Heze- kiah turned the waters on the other side of the city, when he "stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David" (2 Chron. xxxii, 30).
The rush of water down these conduits is referred to by Jerome ("per terrarum concava et antra saxi duris- simi cum magno sonitu venit," in Isa. viii, 6), as heard in his day, showing that tlie water was more abundant ■ then than now. The intermittent character of Sikiam is also noticed by him , but in a locality perforated by so many aqueducts, and supplied by so many large wells and secret springs (not to speak of the discharge of the great city baths), this irregular flow is easily accounted for both by the direct and the siphonic action of the water. How this natural intermittency of Siloam could be made identical with the miraculous troubling of Bethesda (John v, 4) one does not see. The lack of water in the pool now is no proof that there was not the great abundance of which Josephus speaks (War, v, 4, ] ) ; and as to the " sweetness" he speaks of, like the " aqure dulces" of Virgil {Georc/. iv, 61), or the Old Test. p7\'Q (Exod. XV, 25), which is used both in reference to the sweetness of the Marah waters (il)id.) and of the "stolen waters" of the foolish woman (Prov. ix, 17; it simply means fresh or pleasant, in opposition to bitter (1^; TTi/cpoc). The miracle performed on the blind man gave rise, most probabl}', to the tradition of the healing qualities of the water. We may here note that the sacredness and efficacy of the water are still held by Jewish tradition, but more particularly at its source, the well of the Virgin. It is the ix":2"i)i S rb^ni:— the liathing-place of rabbi Ismael, where the high-priest used to plunge himself, and where the modern Jews of Jerusalem visit as one of their holy places, especially on the first day of their year {Roslt Ilushshuna) and the day of atonement ( Yom Kippur').
The expression in Isaiali, "waters of Shiloah that go softly," seems to point to the slender rivulet, flowing gently, though once very profusely, out of Siloam into the lower breadth of level, where the king's gardens, or " royal paradise," stood, and which is still the greenest spot about the Holy City, reclaimed from sterility into a fair oasis of olive-groves, fig-trees, pomegranates, etc., by the tiny rill which flows out of Siloam. A winter- torrent like the Kedron, or a swelling river like the Euphrates, carries havoc with it by sweeping off soil, trees, and terraces; but this Siloam-fed rill flows softly, fertilizing and beautifying the region through which it
passes. As the Euphrates is used by the prophet as the symbol of the wasting sweep of the Assyrian king, so Siloam is taken as tlie type of the calm prosperity of Israel under Messianic rule, when " the desert rejoices and blossoms as the rose." The word softly or secretly (CJX5) does not seem to refer to the secret transmission of tlie waters through the tributary viaducts, but, like Ovid's "moUes acpue," "blandie aqure," and Catullus's " molle flumen," to the quiet gentleness with which the rivulet steals on its mission of beneficence, through the gardens of the king. Thus " Siloah's brook" of I\Iilton, and "cool Siloam's shady rill," are not mere poetical fancies. The "fountain" and the "pool" and the "rill" of Siloam are all visible to this day, each doing its old work beneath the high rock of Moriah, and almost be- neath the shadow of the Temple wall.