2-Chronicles - 32:30



30 This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper spring of the waters of Gihon, and brought them straight down on the west side of the city of David. Hezekiah prospered in all his works.

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Explanation and meaning of 2-Chronicles 32:30.

Differing Translations

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This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works.
This same Ezechias was, he that stopped the upper source of the waters of Gihon, and turned them away underneath toward the west of the city of David : in ail his works he did prosperously what he would.
And he, Hezekiah, stopped the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works.
And Hezekiah himself hath stopped the upper source of the waters of Gihon, and directeth them beneath to the west of the city of David, and Hezekiah prospereth in all his work;
It was Hezekiah who had the higher spring of the water of Gihon stopped, and the water taken down on the west side of the town of David. In everything he undertook, Hezekiah did well.
This same Hezekiah was the one who blocked the upper font of the waters of Gihon, and who diverted them down to the western part of the City of David. In all his works, he prosperously accomplished whatever he willed.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

See 2-Chronicles 32:3 note. Either then or afterward, Hezekiah conducted the water of this spring by an underground channel down the Tyropoeon valley to a pool or reservoir (marginal reference).

The upper watercourse - He made canals to bring the waters of Gihon from the west side of Jerusalem to the west side of the city of David.

This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of (t) Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works.
(t) Which also was called Shiloh, of which mention is made in (Isaiah 8:6; John 9:7).

This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper water course of Gihon,.... Which Procopius Gazeus says was the same with Siloam, and which it seems had two streams, and this was the upper one; Mr. Maundrell says (c), the pool of Gihon"lies about two furlongs without Bethlehem gate westward; it is a stately pool, one hundred and six paces long, and sixty seven broad, and lined with wall and plaster, and was, when we were there, well stored with water:"
and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David; through canals under the plain of the city of David; as the Targum, by a subterraneous passage; and Siloam, as Dr. Lightfoot (d) observes from Josephus, was behind the west wall, not far from the corner that pointed toward the southwest:
and Hezekiah prospered in all his works; natural, civil, and religious, 2-Chronicles 31:21.
(c) Journey from Aleppo, &c. p. 108. (d) Chorograph. in John, c. 5. sect. 2.

stopped the . . . watercourse of Gihon, and brought it . . . to the west side of the city, &c.--(Compare 2-Kings 20:20). Particular notice is here taken of the aqueduct, as among the greatest of Hezekiah's works. "In exploring the subterranean channel conveying the water from Virgin's Fount to Siloam, I discovered a similar channel entering from the north, a few yards from its commencement; and on tracing it up near the Mugrabin gate, where it became so choked with rubbish that it could be traversed no farther, I there found it turn to the west in the direction of the south end of the cleft, or saddle, of Zion, and if this channel was not constructed for the purpose of conveying the waters of Hezekiah's aqueduct, I am unable to suggest any purpose to which it could have been applied. Perhaps the reason why it was not brought down on the Zion side, was that Zion was already well-watered in its lower portion by the Great Pool, 'the lower pool of Gihon.' And accordingly WILLIAMS [Holy City] renders this passage, 'He stopped the upper outflow of the waters of Gihon, and led them down westward to the city'" [BARCLAY, City of the Great King]. The construction of this aqueduct required not only masonic but engineering skill; for the passage was bored through a continuous mass of rock. Hezekiah's pool or reservoir made to receive the water within the northwest part of the city still remains. It is an oblong quadrangular tank, two hundred forty feet in length, from one hundred forty-four to one hundred fifty in breadth, but, from recent excavations, appears to have extended somewhat farther towards the north.

The same Hezekiah covered the upper outlet of the water Gihon, and brought it down westwards to the city of David, i.e., by a subterranean channel into the city of David (see on 2-Chronicles 32:3). The form ויישׁרם is Piel ויישּׁרם; the Keri is the same conjug., only contracted into ויּשּׁרם, as ויּבּשׁ for וייבּשׁ, the ו of the third person having amalgamated with the first radical, under the influence of the ו consec. With the last clause in 2-Chronicles 32:30 cf. 2-Chronicles 31:21; 1-Chronicles 29:23.

Stopped, &c. - A rivulet near Jerusalem consisting of two streams, the upper which was brought into one pool, called the upper pool, Isaiah 7:3, and the lower which was brought into another, called the lower pool, Isaiah 22:9. The former he diverted and brought by pipes into Jerusalem, which was a work of great art and labour.

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