Of course we went wading in Hezekiah’s Tunnel.
I’d been reading about it for years.
I wanted to see (?) it. (It has no lights).
Or at least experience it. (The frigid water felt lovely on a nine-mile hiking day!).
But mostly, it was the history that drew me to a wet, cool, narrow, dark, and slippery tunnel.
Who was Hezekiah?
Recognized as one of Judah’s “good” kings, Hezekiah saw the march of the Assyrians into Israel and specifically around Jerusalem.
He reigned Judah from about 725BC to 687 BC. (Dates are not clear).
A righteous king, he directed the purification and repair of the Temple, reformed the Jewish priesthood, and reestablished Passover observances in Jerusalem.
But, Jerusalem was a prize and other nations knew it.
After these [Hezekiah’s] deeds of faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and entered Judah; he encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them over to himself. And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come, and that his purpose was to make war against Jerusalem, he consulted with his leaders and commanders to stop the water from the springs which were outside the city; and they helped him.
2 Chronicles 32:2-4 (NKJV)
In addition to ordering the Siloam Pool tunnel construction, he oversaw the strengthening of Jerusalem’s walls and towers. He knew war was coming.
Other than the Bible study, what is the history of Hezekiah’s Tunnel?
Also called the Siloam Tunnel, the narrow passageway stretches through solid rock from the Gihon Spring on Jerusalem’s northeastern corner, to the Pool of Siloam.
About a third of a mile long with a slight gradient (so the water will flow from the spring to the pool), it’s unlit.
Lost to history for many hundreds of years, it only came to light when a teenage boy played hooky from school, according to Eric Metaxas in Is Atheism Dead?
Water still runs through it. On the November day we walked through, the water reached nearly to my knees. (I’m 5′ 9″).
We entered the tunnel from the area known as the City of David.
My thoughts while gingerly wading through?
As I wrote recently, visiting Israel meant running into overlaping layers of time.
One moment, I thought about the Bible passage.
The next, I remembered reading Lynn Austin’s novel Song of Redemption about the building of the tunnel.
Except, then I recalled Bertha Spafford Vester’s story in Our Jerusalem about her adopted brother, Jacob Spafford.
As I pushed through the dark, narrow space lit only by the cell phone of a guy two steps ahead of me, and a tall dad four people back, I did have a thought.
“What on earth was Jacob doing ditching school and wandering through this chilly corridor with only a torch to light the way? more than 100 years ago?”
(Motherhood never really goes away).
Water, of course, flows through it.
The girls hiking with us had to roll their shorts very high. (One girl needed her father to carry her).
It felt a little slippery underfoot, but on that warm day, the water cooled very nicely.
The walls were close enough together, I ran my hands along them to maintain balance.
Water ran underfoot, we plodded ahead, occasionally commenting, but mostly marveling at the smooth walls and building marvel.
Before we knew it, we exited into sunlight: the Pool of Siloam.
Hezekiah’s builders did a fine job.
Tweetables
What is Hezekiah’s Tunnel? Click to Tweet
Slipping through a narrow Jerusalem archaeological wonder full of water on a warm day. Click to Tweet
Thanks for this, Michelle. When we were in Israel my husband went through the tunnel. I passed because my knees were bad, but would have loved to experience this!
I walked through the tunnel in my 20’s. We used candles back then. It’s an experience that I will never forget. As a young adult, the opportunity to experience anything that was documented in the Bible so long ago before my time was exciting to me.