SILOAM or SHILOAH (Heb. she lo'akh), it is also spelled Siloali.
The name Siloali or Siloam is found only three times in Scripture as applied to water; once in Isaiah (viii:6), who speaks of it as running water ; again, as a pool, in Nell. iii:15; and lastly, also a pool, in the account of our Lord's healing the man who had been born blind (John ix:7-11). None of these passages affords any clue to the situation of Siloam; but this silence is supplied by Josephus, who makes frequent mention of it as a fountain (De Brll. Jud. v, 4, sec. I, 2), and indi copious stream, which is conducted into an en closed garden planted with fig-trees. It is after wards subdivided, and seems to be exhausted in irrigating a number of gardens occupied with figs, apricots, olive and other trees, and some flourish ing legumes. The small upper basin or fountain excavated in the rock is merely the entrance, or rather the termination of a long and narrow sub sates its situation at the mouth of the valley of Tyropccon, where the fountain, now and long since indicated as that of Siloam, is still found. The pool of Siloam is within and at the mouth of the valley of Tyropceon, and about eighty paces above its termination is that of Jehoshaphat. The water flows out of a small artificial basin un der the cliff, the entrance to which is excavated in the form of an arch, and is immediately re ceived into a larger reservoir, fifty-three feet in length by eighteen feet in width. The water passes out of this reservoir through a channel cut in the rock, which is covered for a short distance; but subsequently it opens and discloses a lively terranean passage beyond, by which the water comes from the Fountain of the Virgin. This has been established beyond dispute by Dr. Robinson, who, with his companion, had the hardihood to crawlthroughthepassage. They found it 1,75o feet in length, which, owing to its windings, is several hundred feet more than the direct distance above ground. It is thus proved that the water of both these fountains is the same, though some travelers have pronounced the water of Siloam to be bad, and that of the other fountain good. It has a peculiar taste, sweetish and very slightly brackish, but not at all disagreeable. Late in the season, when the water is low, it is said to Income more brackish and unpleasant. The most remarkable circumstance is the ebb and flow of the waters, which, although often mentioned as a characteris tic of Siloam, must belong equally to both foun tains. This establishes the fact that the springs feeding the waters al e intermittent. Dr. Robin son himself witnessed this phenomenon in the fountain of the Virgin, where the water rose in five minutes one foot in the reservoir, and in an other five minutes sunk to its former level. The
intervals and the extent of the flow and ebb in this and the fountain of Siloam, vary with the season; but the fact, though it has not yet been accounted for. is beyond dispute.
The following account of the channel and its inscription is from Major C. R. Conder (Pales tine, p. 27, sq.). "The course of the channel is serpentine, and the farther end near the pool of Siloam enlarges into a passage of considerable height. Down this channel the waters of the spring rush to the pool whenever the sudden flow takes place. In autumn there is an interval of sev eral days; in winter the sudden flow takes place sometimes twice a day. A natural siphon from an underground basin accounts for this flow, as also for that of the 'Sabbatic river' in North Syria. When it occurs the narrow parts of the passage are filled to the roof with water.
"This passage was explored by Dr. Robinson, Sir Charles Warren, and others: but the inscrip tion on the rock close to the mouth of the tunnel was not seen, being then under water. \Vhen it was found in 188o by a boy who entered from the Siloam end of the passage. it was almost obliter ated by the deposit of lime crystals on the letters. Professor Sayce, then in Palestine, made a copy. and was able to find out the general meaning of the letters. In t&St Dr. Guthe cleaned the text with a weak acid solution. and I was then able, with the aid of Lieutenant Mantell, R. E., to take a proper 'squeeze.' It was a work of labor and re quiring patience, for on two occasions we sat for three or four hours cramped up in the water in order to obtain a perfect copy of every letter, and afterwards to verify the copies by examining each letter with the candle so placed as to throw the light from right, left, top, bottom. We were re warded by sending home the first accurate copy published in Europe. and were able to settle many disputed points raised by the imperfect copy of the text before it was cleaned." The inscription records only the making of the tunnel; that it began at both ends; that the work men heard the sound of the picks of the other party, and thus guided they advanced. and when they broke through were only a few feet apart. The character of the letters seem to indicate that the scribes ofjudah had been accustomed for a long time to write upon papyrus or parchment.
It was from Siloam that water was brought in a golden vessel to the Temple during the feast. of Tabernacles (see p. 364, col. 2) ; to which our Lord probably pointed when he stood in the tem ple and cried, "If any man thirst, let him conic unto me, and drink" (John %di :37).