2 Chronicles 32:3

to stop the waters Cp. 2 Kings 20:20 ("[Hezekiah] made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city") and Isaiah 22:9; Isaiah 22:11.

At the present day there is an underground tunnel cut through the rock leading from St Mary's Well down to the Lower Pool of Siloam. It is rudely constructed and owing to its windings is 586 yards long, though the distance in a straight line is only 368 yards. As therefore the Lower Pool was probably within the ancient walls, while St Mary's Well was outside, this tunnel may be Hezekiah's conduit. If the well were stopped, the besiegers would lose the water, which would collect in the Pool for the use of the besieged. An inscription in ancient Hebrew characters ("The Siloam Inscription") discovered in situdescribes briefly the digging of the tunnel, but does not enable us to fix the date of it for certain. See for the original text Lidzbarski, Nordsemitische Epigraphik, Tafel xxi. 1, and for an English translation, Sayce, Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments, p. 87.