צִנּוֹר

From the study of Psalm 42:7

Range of meaning

A water-channel or conduit; by extension rushing water through a channel: a cascade, cataract or spout. It occurs only twice in the Hebrew Bible: here and 2 Samuel 5:8, where it seems to be a water shaft or gutter used in David's capture of Jerusalem. Post-biblical Hebrew uses it for a pipe or spout.

Against the English

BSB, NIV, ESV, NASB and WEB have 'waterfalls'. KJV has 'waterspouts', which in 1611 meant a spout or gush of water but today means a tornado over the sea. That changes the picture. YLT also has 'water-spouts'.

How it drifted

'Waterspout' narrowed in English to the weather phenomenon, so the KJV now suggests a storm at sea rather than torrents of falling water.

Used elsewhere in the period

LXX: καταρράκτης (kataraktēs), 'cataract, sluice', the word the Greek Genesis uses for the 'floodgates of heaven' opened in the Flood (Gen 7:11). Vulgate follows with 'cataractarum'. The ancient translators heard Flood imagery in the word.

From the study of 2 Samuel 5:8

Range of meaning

A rare word that appears only twice in the Bible. In Psalm 42:7 (Hebrew 42:8), 'deep calls to deep at the sound of your tsinnorot' means waterfalls, cataracts or channels of rushing water. In later (Mishnaic) Hebrew, tsinnor is an ordinary word for a pipe, spout, gutter or water channel. The core idea is a channel that water runs through.

Against the English

KJV 'gutter' (to a modern reader, a rain gutter on a roof). NIV, ESV and BSB 'water shaft' (to many readers, a vertical shaft to climb). NASB 'water tunnel'. WEB and YLT 'watercourse'. All but KJV take it as part of Jerusalem's water system. None can show exactly how it was used.

How it drifted

'Water shaft' became the standard rendering after 1867, when Charles Warren found a vertical shaft above the Gihon spring. Popular books then linked it to this verse. Later excavations by Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron found that the vertical shaft probably was not reachable or known in David's day: it was opened up when the tunnel floor was lowered centuries later. The Gihon spring was, however, guarded by massive Middle Bronze Age towers, so some water-system approach is still possible.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint reads en paraxiphidi, 'with the dagger', taking it as a weapon (or translating a different Hebrew text). The Vulgate reads 'touched the pipes of the roofs' (domatum fistulas). Josephus (Antiquities 7.63) says nothing of a channel. In his telling, Joab climbs up through the ravines. Modern proposals include a water conduit or shaft, a grappling hook or climbing tool (Yadin's suggestion), and the 'windpipe/throat' (strike at the throat). All remain uncertain.