2 Chronicles 32:3 - Exposition

To stop the waters of the fountains … without the city . These fountains or springs were probably those represented by En Rogel, on the Ophel spur or very large mound, or fortified hill (mistranslated possibly from that circumstance "tower," in 2 Kings 5:24 ; Isaiah 32:14 ), on the southeast of the temple. The object of Hezekiah is obvious enough. The word ( סָתַּם ) for "stopping" occurs in all thirteen times—twice in piel in Genesis, once in niph. in Nehemiah, and ten times in kal in Kings, Chronicles, Daniel, Ezekiel, and Psalms. It is for all material purposes very uniformly rendered in all these places by the word "stop" eight times, and otherwise "shut" or "closed," or to carry a derived meaning, "hidden" or "secret." If the word "shut" or "shut off" were employed, it would fit every occasion. So we are not told here how he stopped the fountain or fountains, but that he shut the waters off from one direction and guided them into another, vie. by a conduit running westward from the springs and the Gihon ( i.e. the brook) flowing naturally down the Tyropoean valley to a pool prepared for it in the city. This pool was very probably none other than the pool of Siloam.