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Bible Encyclopedias
Pool
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or is the rendering in the A. V. of the following Heb. and Greek words:
1. Usually בְּרֵכָה, berekâ h (Sept. κρήνη or κολυμβήθρα ), or בְּרָכָה, berekâ h (Psalms 84:6, (See BERACHAH) ), from בָּרִךְ, "to fall on the knees" (see Judges 7:5-6). This word is akin to the Arabic Birkeli, and its Spanish form Al-berca. In the Old Test. it stands for the larger reservoirs of rain or spring water; while bor, "cistern," is used for the smaller domestic tanks, of which every house had one or more. Some are supplied by springs, and some are merely receptacles for rain-water (Burckhardt, Syria, p. 314). It is thus applied to the large public reservoirs, corresponding to the tanks of India, belonging to the towns of Gibeon (2 Samuel 2:13), Hebron (2 Samuel 4:12), Samaria (1 Kings 22:38), and Jerusalem; "the upper pool," 2 Kings 18:17; Isaiah 7:3; Isaiah 34:2 (now the "Birket el-Mamilla"); "the lower pool," Isaiah 22:9; Isaiah 22:11 ("Birket es- Sultan"); "Hezekiah's pool," 2 Kings 20:20 ("Birket el-Hammhm"); "the king's pool," Nehemiah 2:14 ("the fountain of the Virgin"); "the pool of Siloah," Nehemiah 3:15 ("Birket Silwan"); and "the old pool," Isaiah 22:11. We read also (Ecclesiastes 2:6) of the "pools" or cisterns made by Solomon to irrigate his gardens. The importance of these reservoirs in a country possessing scarcely more than one perennial stream, and where wells are few and inconsiderable, can hardly be estimated by those accustomed to an unfailing abundance of the precious fluid. In Jeremiah 14:3 we have a powerful description of the disappointment caused by the failure of the water in the cisterns (גֵּבַים; A. V. "pits;" comp. Isaiah 42:15; Jeremiah 2:13). In modern Palestine they are often very filthy, although in constant use (Thomson, Land and Book, 1, 316). (See WATER).
2. Agâ m, אָגָם (Isaiah 14:23; Isaiah 35:7; Isaiah 41:18; Isaiah 42:15); elsewhere "pond" (q.v.).
3. Mikvê h, מַקַוַה (Exodus 7:19), a gathering together (i.e. of water), as rendered Genesis 1:10.
4. In the New Test. κολυμβήθρα , only in John 5:2; John 9:7.
The following are the principal reservoirs mentioned in the Bible:
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