The Siloam (Hezekiah’s Tunnel) Inscription

Sources: Center for Online Judaic Studies + Wikipedia

URLs:

https://cojs.org/hezekiah-s_-or_siloam-_tunnel_inscription-_701_bce/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siloam_inscription

Artifact Summary

Artifact: Siloam Inscription (KAI 189)
Date: c. 700 B.C.E.
Discovered: 1880 by Jacob Eliahu (a student of Conrad Schick)
Current location: Istanbul Archaeology Museums, Turkey
Material: Limestone, cut into the rock wall of the tunnel
Language: Biblical Hebrew in Paleo-Hebrew script
Biblical connection: 2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chronicles 32:1–4, 30

Key Points

The inscription records the moment when two digging crews, working from opposite ends, met deep underground while constructing the Siloam Tunnel.
The tunnel channels water from the Gihon Spring to the Pool of Siloam inside Jerusalem’s defenses.
It is the only known ancient Israelite/Judahite inscription commemorating a public construction project.
Translation highlights:

> “[The day of] the breach. This is the record of how the tunnel was breached. While [the excavators were wielding] their pickaxes, each man toward his co-worker… the excavators struck, each man to meet his co-worker, pick-axe against pick-[a]xe. Then the water flowed from the spring to the pool, a distance of one thousand and two hundred cubits.”

The tunnel itself was discovered in 1838 by Edward Robinson; the inscription was removed in 1890 and cracked in the process.

What It Corroborates

The historicity of King Hezekiah’s waterworks project in preparation for Sennacherib’s Assyrian siege (2 Kings 20:20; 2 Chronicles 32).
Advanced Iron Age engineering and literacy in 8th-century Judah.
The geography of Jerusalem described in the Bible (Gihon Spring, City of David, Pool of Siloam).

Note

Some scholars debate whether the tunnel was begun by Hezekiah or by an earlier Judaean king, but the inscription’s script and engineering context strongly support an 8th-century B.C.E. date consistent with Hezekiah’s reign.