a subterraneous passage begins, through which the water flows, and through which a man may
make his way, sometimes walking erect, sometimes stooping, sometimes kneeling, and sometime
crawling, to Siloam. This conduit is 1708 feet long, 16 feet high at the entrance, but only 16 inches
at its narrowest tributaries which sent their waters down from the city pools or temple wells to swell
Siloam. It enters Siloam at the northwest angle; or rather enters a small rock-cut chamber which
forms the vestibule of Siloam, about five or six feet broad. To this you descend by a few rude steps,
under which the water pours itself into the main pool. This pool is oblong, about 52 feet long, 18
feet broad and 19 feet deep; but it is never filled, the water either passing directly through or being
maintained at a depth of three or four feet. The present pool is a ruin, with no moss or ivy to make
it romantic; its sides fallen in; its pillars broken; its stair a fragment; its walls giving way; the edge
of every stone was round or sharp by time; in some parts mere debris, though around its edges wild
flowers, and among other plants the caper trees, grow luxuriantly. The present pool is not the
original building; it may be the work of crusaders, perhaps even improved by Saladin, whose
affection for wells and pools led him to care for all these things. Yet the spot is the same. This pool,
which we may call the second, seems anciently to have poured its waters into a third before it
proceeded to water the royal gardens. This third is perhaps that which Josephus calls “Solomon’s
pool,” and which nehemiah calls the “king’s pool.” (Nehemiah 2:14) The expression in (Isaiah 8:6)
“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. Siloam is a mere spot even
to the Moslem; much more to the Jew. It was to Siloam that the Levite was sent with the golden
pitcher on the “last and great day of the feast” of Tabernacles; it was from Siloam that he brought
the water which was then poured over the sacrifice, in memory of the water from the rock of
Rephidim; and it was to this Siloam water that the Lord pointed when he stood in the temple on
that day and cried, “If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink.” The Lord sent the blind
man to wash, not in, as our version has it, but at (eis), the pool of siloam; for it was the clay from
his eyes that was to be washed off.
Siloam, Tower, In
(Luke 13:4) Of this we know nothing definitely beyond these words of the Lord. In connection
with Ophel, there is mention made of “a tower that lieth out,” (Nehemiah 3:26) and there is no
unlikelihood in connecting this projecting tower with the tower in Siloam, while one may be almost
excused for the conjecture that its projection was the cause of its ultimate fall.
Silvanus
[Silas]
Silver
In very early times silver was used for ornaments, (Genesis 24:53) and for vessels of various
kinds. Images for idolatrous worship were made of silver or overlaid with it, (Exodus 20:23; Hosea
13:2); Habb 2:19 Bar. 6:39, and the manufacture of silver shrines for Diana was a trade in Ephesus.
(Acts 19:24) But its chief use was as a medium of exchange, and throughout the Old Testament
we find “silver” used for money, like the French argent. Silver was brought to Solomon from
Arabia, (2 Chronicles 9:14) and from Tarshish, (2 Chronicles 9:21) which supplied the markets of
Tyre. (Ezekiel 27:12) From Tarshish it came int he form of plates, (Jeremiah 10:9) like those on
which the sacred books of the Singhalese are written to this day. Spain appears to have been the
chief source whence silver was obtained by the ancients. Possibly the hills of Palestine may have
frankie
(Frankie)
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