Pool: A pond, or reservoir, for holding water (Heb. berekhah; modern Arabic,
birket), an artificial cistern or tank. Mention is made of1. the pool of Gibeon
(2 Samuel 2:13)
2. the pool of Hebron
(2 Samuel 4:12)
3. the upper pool at Jerusalem
(2 Kings 18:17; 20:20)
4. the pool of Samaria
(1 Kings 22:38)
5. the king's pool
(Nehemiah 2:14)
6. the pool of Siloah
(Nehemiah 3:15; Ecclesiastes 2:6)
7. the fishpools of Heshbon
(The Song of Solomon 7:4)
8. the "lower pool,"
(Isaiah 22:9)
9. the "old pool"
(Isaiah 22:11)
10. The "pool of Bethesda"
(John 5:2,4,7)
11. the "pool of Siloam"
(John 9:7,11)
Isaiah
(Isaiah 35:7) says, "The parched ground shall become a pool."
This is rendered in the Revised Version "glowing sand," etc. (marg.,
"the mirage," etc.). The Arabs call the mirage "serab," plainly the
same as the Hebrew word sarab, here rendered "parched ground." "The
mirage shall become a pool", i.e., the mock-lake of the burning desert
shall become a real lake, "the pledge of refreshment and joy." The
"pools" spoken of in
(Isaiah 14:23) are the marshes caused by the ruin
of the canals of the Euphrates in the neighbourhood of Babylon. The
cisterns or pools of the Holy City are for the most part excavations
beneath the surface. Such are the vast cisterns in the temple hill
that have recently been discovered by the engineers of the Palestine
Exploration Fund. These underground caverns are about thirty-five in
number, and are capable of storing about ten million gallons of water.
They are connected with one another by passages and tunnels.
