Description
The water shaft was an underground channel dug to convey water from a spring into a city.
Translation
Jerusalem was walled to protect it from enemies, but there were few natural water sources within the city itself. Not far outside the wall, and below the level of the city, was a natural spring, called Gihon. If the city came under siege, the outside spring would be inaccessible to those inside the city. To overcome this problem, a tunnel was cut out of the rock connecting the lower spring to a point inside the city and on a slope that allowed water to flow into the area within the city walls. At the same time, access to the spring at its source was blocked so that an enemy could not get at it. The place where the water reached the city was considerably below ground level, and a vertical shaft, rather like a well, was cut out so that water could be drawn up with buckets. Thus there were two cut shafts, a near-horizontal one leading under the city from the spring, and a vertical one down to the horizontal one and through which water was drawn up.
The exact meaning of the Hebrew word tsinor in 2SA 5:8 is uncertain and debated. Modern translations generally have “water shaft,” “water tunnel,” or something similar. Translators may use a descriptive phrase such as “tunnel cut in the rock to bring water into the city.”