SHILOAH

(Shi·loʹah) [sender].

It appears that the name “Shiloah” designated a conduit or canal at Jerusalem. One ancient canal ran from the mouth of the cave of the Gihon spring down the Kidron valley and around the end of the SE hill to a pool at the junction of the Hinnom and Tyropean valleys. The canal’s gradient of less than two-tenths of an inch for each yard (about four or five millimeters for each meter) produced a slow gentle flow, a feature that would fit the “waters of the Shiloah that are going gently.” The reference to these “waters of the Shiloah” at Isaiah 8:6 is figurative and represents the source of real salvation and security.