Solving the Mystery of Biblical Jerusalem’s Water Supply

In 2012, archaeologists excavating Second Temple-era ruins in the City of David—the oldest part of Jerusalem—found a large underground cistern sealed with the distinctive yellow-brown plaster common in the time of the First Temple. On the basis of its size, they concluded that it was built to serve as a public reservoir. Nadav Shragai explains how the discovery helped answer the question of how ancient Jerusalemites got their water:

For five decades, archaeologists . . . searched in vain for evidence to confirm the . . . testimony woven into a biblical speech of Rab-Shakeh, commander of the Assyrian king Sennacherib’s army. Rab-Shakeh tried to convince Hezekiah, then the king of Judah, and the beleaguered inhabitants of Jerusalem, to surrender: “Come out to me; and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig-tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his own cistern” (Isaiah 36:16).

For many years, archaeologists searched in vain for the cisterns mentioned by Rab-Shakeh. Many reservoirs were discovered from the Second Temple period, but none from First Temple days. The prevailing assumption, therefore, was that during First Temple times Jerusalem was sustained only by the waters of the Gihon Spring [in the nearby Kidron Valley].

Today, seven years later, Eli Shukron, [the archaeologist who supervised the cistern’s discovery], believes that if he and his colleagues continue searching, they will find other, similar cisterns from that period. The biblical descriptions from the book of Kings of the construction of the Temple by Solomon tell of a “Copper Sea”—a huge water tank made of copper placed in the Temple courtyard—and the ten basins that together had the capacity, in today’s terms, of approximately 120,000 liters (32,000 gallons).

Israel has no plans to dig on the Temple Mount, but it should be noted that the area was mapped and inventoried in the 19th century by Charles Warren, who found 49 cisterns and 42 aqueducts that conveyed water.

Read more at Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

More about: Ancient Israel, Archaeology, Hebrew Bible, Hezekiah, Jerusalem

 

Why South Africa Has Led the Legal War against Israel

South Africa filed suit with the International Court of Justice in December accusing Israel of genocide. More recently, it requested that the court order the Jewish state to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip—something which, of course, Israel has been doing since the war began. Indeed, the country’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC) has had a long history of support for the Palestinian cause, but Orde Kittrie suggests that the current government, which is plagued by massive corruption, has more sinister motives for its fixation on accusing Israel of imagined crimes:

ANC-led South Africa has . . . repeatedly supported Hamas. In 2015 and 2018, the ANC and Hamas signed memoranda of understanding pledging cooperation against Israel. The Daily Maverick, a South African newspaper that previously won an international award for exposing ANC corruption, has reported claims that Iran “essentially paid the ANC to litigate against Israel in the ICJ.”

The ANC-led government says it is motivated by humanitarian principle. That’s contradicted by its support for Russia, and by [President Cyril] Ramaphosa’s warmly welcoming a visit in January by Mohamed Dagalo, the leader of the Sudanese-Arab Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia. Ramaphosa’s smiling, hand-holding welcome of Dagalo occurred two months after the RSF’s systematic massacre of hundreds of non-Arab Sudanese refugees in Darfur.

While the ANC has looted its own country and aided America’s enemies, the U.S. is insulating the party from the consequences of its corruption and mismanagement.

In Kittrie’s view, it is “time for Congress and the Biden administration to start helping South Africa’s people hold Ramaphosa accountable.”

Read more at The Hill

More about: International Law, Iran, South Africa