Up the Waterspout: How David’s General Joab Got Inside Jerusalem

If we want to understand how King David captured Jerusalem, at least as the capture is depicted in 2 Samuel 5, we must first understand the meaning of the Hebrew word tsinnor. Geology can tell us what may have happened, as Dan Gill convincingly demonstrates in “How They Met: Geology Solves Long-Standing Mystery of Hezekiah’s Tunnelers.” But only the study of the use of words in context can tell us what the tsinnor was. Unfortunately, tsinnor has long been a crux. In the sidebar “Meanings Assigned to the Word Tsinnor,” we have listed some of the meanings that various Bible translators and scholars over two millennia have assigned to the word. These range all the way from water-shaft to grappling hook to penis.