[1] All accounts combined in asserting that the waters of the
two pools of Siloam, as well as that of the many fountains
of the "Mosque of Omar," proceed from a spring or reservoir
of water beneath the Temple vaults. There was no period of
its history when such a provision would not have been
important to the Temple for the ablutions of the Jewish, no
less than of the Mussulman, worship; or to the city, which
else was dry even to a proverb. It was the treasure of
Jerusalem, its support through all its numerous sieges, the
_"fons perennis aquæ"_ of Tacitus, the source of Milton's
"Brook that flowed
Hard by the oracle of God."
But, more than this, it was the image which entered into
the very heart of the prophetical idea of Jerusalem (Ps.
xlvi. 4, lxxxvii. 7; Isa. xii. 3). It is the source of all
the freshness and verdure of the vale of Hinnom. In
Ezekiel's vision the thought is expanded into a vast
cataract flowing out through the Temple rock eastward and
westward into the ravines of Hinnom and Kedron, till they
swell into a mighty river, fertilising the desert of the
Dead Sea. And with still greater distinctness the thought
appears again, and for the last time, in the discourse,
when in the courts of the Temple, "in the last day, that
great day of the feast" [of Tabernacles], "Jesus stood and
cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto
Me. . . . out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water."--_Stanley._
The expression in Isaiah, "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, reclaimed from sterility into a fair
oasis of olive groves, fig-trees, pomegranates, &c., by the
tiny rill that flows out of Siloam. A winter-torrent, like
the Kedron, or a swelling river like the Euphrates, carries
havoc with it by sweeping off soil, trees, and terraces;
but this Siloam-fed rill flows softly, fertilising and
beautifying the region through which it passes.--_Bonar._
[2] The Euphrates, _i.e.,_ the good and abounding river. The
Euphrates is the largest, the longest, and by far the most
important of the rivers of Western Asia. It rises from two
chief sources in the Armenian mountains . . . they meet at
_Kebben-Maten,_ nearly in the long. 39° E. from Greenwich,
having run respectively 400 and 270 miles. Here the stream
formed by their combined waters is 120 yards wide, rapid
and very deep. . . . The entire course is calculated at
1760 miles, nearly 650 more than that of the Tigris, and
only 200 short of that of the Indus; and of this distance
more than two-thirds (1200 miles) is navigable for boats,
and even, as the expedition of Colonel Chesney proved, for
small steamers. The width of the river is greatest at the
distance of 700 or 800 miles from its mouth, that is to
say, from its junction with the _Khabour_ to the village of
Werai. It there averages 400 yards. . . . The annual
inundation of the Euphrates is caused by the melting of the
snows in the Armenian highlands. It occurs in the month of
May. . . . The Tigris scarcely ever overflows, but the
Euphrates inundates large tracts on both sides of its
course from Hît downwards.--_Rawlinson._
Considered in a commercial respect, as well as with regard
to its uses in agriculture, the Euphrates manifestly stood
in the same relation to Babylon and the surrounding region
that the Nile did to Egypt; it was the source, to a large
extent, of its prosperity, and the most important element
of its greatness. It is in this relation that the
_symbolical_ use of the Euphrates in Scripture proceeds,
and by keeping it in view the several passages will be
found to admit to an easy explanation. Contributing so
materially to the resources and wealth of Babylon, the
river was naturally taken for an emblem or representative
of the city itself, and of the empire of which it was the
capital. In this respect a striking application is made of
it by the prophet Isaiah (chap. viii. 5-8), where the
little kingdom of Judah, with its circumscribed territory
and its few earthly resources, on the one hand is seen
imaged in the tiny brooklet of Shiloah; while, on the
other, the rising power of Babylon is spoken of under the
emblem of "the waters of the river, strong and many, even
the King of Assyria and all his glory." And he goes on to
expose the folly of Israel's [Judah's] trusting in this
foreign power on account of its material greatness, by
declaring that in consequence of this mistaken trust, and
in chastisement of it, the mighty stream would, as it were,
desert its proper channel, and turn its waters in a
sweeping and desolating flood over the Holy
Land.--_Fairbairn._