So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the middle of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?
So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the middle of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?
So there was gathered much people together, and they stopped all the fountains, and the brook that flowed through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?
So they got together a great number of people, and had all the water-springs and the stream flowing through the land stopped up, saying, Why let the kings of Assyria come and have much water?
So there were assembled many people, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?
So many people gathered together, and they stopped all the springs, and the brook that flowed through the midst of the land, saying, "Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?"
So there was gathered much people together, and they stopped all the fountains, and the brook that flowed through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?
Stopped all the fountains - This was prudently done, for without water how could an immense army subsist in an arid country? No doubt the Assyrian army suffered much through this, as a Christian army did eighteen hundred years after this. When the crusaders came, in a.d. 1099, to besiege Jerusalem, the people of the city stopped up the wells, so that the Christian army was reduced to the greatest necessities and distress.
The "brook" intended is probably not the Kidron, but the natural water-course of the Gihon, which ran down the Tyropoeon valley (compare the 1 Kings 1:3 note).