NELC 150

Introduction to the Bible

Slide 8


Siloam tunnel inscription, describing how the excavation of the tunnel was completed. The inscription reads:

[...when] (the tunnel) was driven through. And this was the way in
which it was cut through:-- While [...] (were) still [...] axe(s),
each man toward his fellow, and while there were still three
cubits to be cut through, [there was heard] the voice of a man
calling to his fellow, for there was an overlap in the rock on the
right [and on the left]. And when the tunnel was driven through,
the quarrymen hewed (the rock), each man toward his fellow, axe
against axe; and the water flowed from the spring toward the
reservoir for 1,200 cubits, and the height of the rock above the
head(s) of the quarrymen was 100 cubits.

Translation by W.F. Albright in J. B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Princeton, 1969, p. 321.