Pool


"A pond, or reservoir, for holding water (Heb. berekhah; modern" "Arabic, birket), an artificial cistern or tank. Mention is made" of the pool of Gibeon (2 Sam. 2:13); the pool of Hebron (4:12); the upper pool at Jerusalem (2 Kings 18:17; 20:20); the pool of Samaria (1 Kings 22:38); the king's pool (Neh. 2:14); the pool of Siloah (Neh. 3:15; Eccles. 2:6); the fishpools of Heshbon "(Cant. 7:4); the "lower pool," and the "old pool" (Isa. 22:9," 11). "The "pool of Bethesda" (John 5:2, 4, 7) and the "pool of Siloam" "(John 9:7, 11) are also mentioned. Isaiah (35:7) says, "The" "parched ground shall become a pool." This is rendered in the" "Revised Version "glowing sand," etc. (marg., "the mirage," "etc.). The Arabs call the mirage "serab," plainly the same as" "the Hebrew word sarab, here rendered "parched ground." "The" "mirage shall become a pool", i.e., the mock-lake of the burning" "desert shall become a real lake, "the pledge of refreshment and" "joy." The "pools" spoken of in Isa. 14:23 are the marshes caused" by the ruin of the canals of the Euphrates in the neighbourhood of Babylon. "The cisterns or pools of the Holy City are for the most part excavations beneath the surface. Such are the vast cisterns in the temple hill that have recently been discovered by the engineers of the Palestine Exploration Fund. These underground "caverns are about thirty-five in number, and are capable of" storing about ten million gallons of water. They are connected with one another by passages and tunnels.

"The name given to three large open cisterns at Etam, at the head" "of the Wady Urtas, having an average length of 400 feet by 220" "in breadth, and 20 to 30 in depth. These pools derive their" "chief supply of water from a spring called "the sealed" "fountain," about 200 yards to the north-west of the upper pool," to which it is conveyed by a large subterranean passage. They "are 150 feet distant from each other, and each pool is 20 feet" "lower than that above it, the conduits being so arranged that" "the lowest, which is the largest and finest of the three, is" "filled first, and then in succession the others. It has been" estimated that these pools cover in all a space of about 7 "acres, and are capable of containing three million gallons of" "water. They were, as is generally supposed, constructed in the" days of Solomon. They are probably referred to in Eccles. 2:6. "On the fourth day after his victory over the Ammonites, etc., in" "the wilderness of Tekoa, Jehoshaphat assembled his army in the" "valley of Berachah ("blessing"), and there blessed the Lord." "Berachah has been identified with the modern Bereikut, some 5" "miles south of Wady Urtas, and hence the "valley of Berachah" "may be this valley of pools, for the word means both "blessing" "and "pools;" and it has been supposed, therefore, that this" victory was celebrated beside Solomon's pools (2 Chr. 20:26). "These pools were primarily designed to supply Jerusalem with water. From the lower pool an aqueduct has been traced conveying "the water through Bethlehem and across the valley of Gihon, and" "along the west slope of the Tyropoeon valley, till it finds its" way into the great cisterns underneath the temple hill. The "water, however, from the pools reaches now only to Bethlehem." The aqueduct beyond this has been destroyed.


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Related Bible Dictionary Terms:
Siloah The pool of    Siloam Pool of