Conduit. Meaning an aqueduct or trench through which water was carried. Tradition, both oral and as represented by Talmudical writers, ascribes to Solomon, the formation of the original aqueduct by which water was brought to Jerusalem.
Hezekiah stopped the "upper watercourse of Gihon," and brought it down straight to the W. of the city of David (2Ch 32:30). Robinson identifies Gihon with the pool Birket-es-Mamilla at the head of the valley of Hinnom S.W. of Jerusalem. He thinks the lately discovered subterranean conduit in the city to be a branch from Hezekiah’s watercourse. Williams places Gihon N. of Jerusalem, near the tombs of the kings, and thinks that the watercourse flowed S. to the temple, and thence into the pool of Siloam, the lower pool.
The proximity of "the upper pool" to "the fuller’s field" (2Ki 18:17) favors this; as "the fuller’s monument" was N.E. of the city (Josephus). The pools of Solomon beyond Bethlehem for irrigating his garden (Ecc 2:6) were probably connected with the supply of water for Jerusalem, which Talmudic tradition assigns to him. Pontius Pilate applied the sacred treasure of the corban to an aqueduct of 200 or 300 stadia, which is about the measure of the existing one. Probably he repaired Solomon’s original watercourse. The water is still conveyed from the fountains which supply the pools two miles S. of Bethlehem. It crosses the Hinnom valley on a nine-arched bridge above the pool Birket-es-Sultan, and at last is conducted to the Haram; repaired by Sultan Mahomet Ibn Kalaun of Egypt about A.D. 1300.
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1. Although no notice is given either by Scripture or by Josephus of any connection between the pools of Solomon beyond Bethlehem and a supply of water for Jerusalem, it seems unlikely that so large a work as the pools should be constructed merely for irrigating his gardens (Ecc 2:6); and tradition, both oral and as represented by Talmudical writers, ascribes to Solomon the formation of the original aqueduct by which water was brought to Jerusalem (Maundrell, Early Trav. p. 458; Hasselquist, Trav. 146; Lightfoot, Descr. Templ. c. 23, vol. 1:612; Robinson, 1:390). Pontius Pilate applied the sacred treasure of the Corban to the work of bringing water by an aqueduct from a distance, Josephus says of 300 or 400 stadia (War, 2:9, 4), but elsewhere 200 stadia, a distance which would fairly correspond with the length of the existing aqueduct with all its turns and windings (Ant. 18:3, 2; Williams, Holy City, 2:501). His application of the money in this manner gave rise to a serious disturbance. Whether his work was a new one, or a reparation of Solomon’s original aqueduct cannot be determined, but it seems more than probable that the ancient work would have been destroyed in some of the. various sieges since Solomon’s time. The aqueduct, though much injured, and not serviceable for water beyond Bethlehem, still exists; the water is conveyed from the fountains which supply the pools about two miles S. of Bethlehem. The watercourse then passes from the pools in a N.E. direction, and, winding round the hill of Bethlehem on the S. side, is carried sometimes above and sometimes below the surface of the ground, partly in earthen pipes and partly in a channel about one foot square of rough stones laid in cement, till it approaches Jerusalem. There it crosses the valley of Hinnom at the S.W. side of the city on a bridge of nine arches at a point above the pool called Birket es- Sultan, then returns S.E. and E. along the side of the valley and under the wall, and, continuing its course along the east side, is finally conducted to the Haram. It was repaired by Sultan Mohammed Ibn-Kalaun of Egypt about A.D. 1300 (Williams, Holy City, 2:498; Raumer, Pal. p. 280; Robinson, 1:514; 2:166; new ed. 3, 247). SEE POOL.
2. Among the works of Hezekiah he is said to have stopped the “upper watercourse of Gihon,” and brought it down straight to the W. side of the city of David (2Ch 32:30). The direction of this watercourse of course depends on the site of Gihon. Dr. Robinson identifies this with the large pool called Birket es-Mamilla at the head of the valley of Hinnom, on the S.W. side of Jerusalem, and considers the lately-discovered subterranean conduit within the city to be a branch from Hezekiah’s watercourse (Researches, new ed. 3, 243-4; 1:327; Gesenius, Thes. Heb. p. 616, 1395). Mr. Williams, on the other hand, places Gihon on the N. side, not far from the tombs of the kings, and supposes the watercourse to have brought water in a S. direction to the temple, whence it flowed ultimately into the Pool of Siloam, or Lower Pool. One argument which recommends this view is found in the account of the interview between the emissaries of Sennacherib and the officers of Hezekiah, which took place ‘“ by the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fuller’s field” (2Ki 18:17), whose site seems to be indicated by the “fuller’s monument” mentioned by Josephus as at the N.E. side of the city, and by the once well- known site called the Camp of the Assyrians (Josephus, War, 5:4, 2; 7, 3; 12, 2).; (See Maundrell, p. 456 sq., Bohn’s ed.; Richardson, Travels, 2:379; Bertheau, D. Bich. d. Konige, p. 409; Schultz, Jerusalem, p. 40.) SEE GIHON.
CONDUIT.—See Jerusalem.