Warren's Shaft and the Spring Towers

In the late 1990s, Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron were digging beside Jerusalem's Gihon Spring, preparing for a visitors' centre. Much to their surprise, they uncovered remains of two towers and part of a large pool.

Scripture: David said on that day, “Whoever strikes the Jebusites, let him go up to the watercourse and strike those lame and blind, who are hated by David’s soul.” Therefore they say, “The blind and the lame can’t come into the house.”

Our verse mentions a watercourse in David's capture of the Jebusite city. Today's find is a water system in that same city.

Bronze Age tunnels led down to the spring so people could collect water. That is called the Warren's Shaft system, though the vertical shaft itself played no role.

The tower around the spring cave has walls seven metres thick. A second tower, called the Pool Tower, stood near a large pool.

Architecture, the layering of soil and remains, and pottery led to the towers being attributed to Middle Bronze Age II, which one archive says is believed to be about 1800 BC.

In 2017, a study from the Weizmann Institute's archaeology unit radiocarbon-dated samples under the foundation stones, which reads carbon in organic material. The latest date fell in the late ninth century BCE, and it weighed both Bronze Age and Iron Age scenarios.

How does this relate to the verse? Only indirectly. The archive says it is possible Joab and his men entered by this water system, but the 2017 study weighed both Bronze Age and Iron Age dates.

The towers were found around the spring, which lies in the Kidron Valley, and the spring is under the control of the Ir David Foundation.

Spring, tunnels and towers point to efforts to protect and reach a city's water; what that says about David stays open. May the Lord Jesus Christ be with you today. Follow to keep exploring.