Maquah

Jer 17:13 O Yahuah, the expectation/maquah H4723 of Yisrael, all who forsake You shall be put to shame. those who turn away on earth shall be written down, because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, even Yahuah.

Maquah H4723 means a gathering/collection of water. It comes from the root word H6960 ‘quah’ which means to ‘to wait or eagerly for’

Mem in paleography is a picture of waters and the picture is of a ‘spiritual cleansing’ in the waters. The first time the words ‘quah’ and ‘maquah’ are used is in Gen 1:9,10

Yahuah first divided the waters from the waters and then gathered the waters below the expanse in one place

Gen 1:7 And Elohim made the expanse and separated between the waters which were below the expanse and between the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.

Gen 1:9 Then Elohim said, Let the waters below the heavens be gathered/quah H6960 into one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so.

Gen1:10 And Elohim called the dry land earth, and the gathering/maquah H4723 of the waters He called seas; and Elohim saw that it was good.

The Torah came with instructions stating any dead swarming/creeping things which fall into earthen vessel, clothing, skins or sack shall be unclean, including anyone touching the dead carcass but the spring or a cistern collecting/maquah water shall be clean.

Lev 11:36 But a spring or a cistern collecting/maquah H4723 water shall be clean, though the one who touches their carcass shall be unclean.

The Yahudites call this ritual cleansing in fresh spring water as ‘miqveh’. The Pool of Siloam בריכת השילוח‎, Breikhat Hashiloah was a rock-cut pool on the southern slope of the City of Daud, the original site of Yerushalayim, located outside the walls of the Old City to the southeast. The pool was fed by the waters of the Gihon Spring, carried there by two aqueducts.

The Pool of Siloam was first built during the reign of Hezekiah (715–687/6 BCE), to provide a water supply inside the City to protect it from a siege. The pool was fed by the newly constructed Siloam tunnel. Prior to this, the Gihon Spring had emptied in a large open basin at its source, before being conveyed to the City by an aqueduct. This basin is sometimes known as the Upper Pool (2 Kings 18:17, Isaiah 7:3).

2Ki 18:17 Then the king of Assyria sent the commander and the chief of the eunuchs and the chief of the cupbearer from Laksh to King ChizeqiYahu with a large army to Yerushalam. So, they went up and came to Yerushalam. And when they went up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is on the highway of the fuller’s field.

Isa7:3 Then Yahuah said to YeshaYahu, go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the fuller’s field,

This aqueduct was very vulnerable to attackers, so, under threat from the Assyrian king Sennacherib, Hezekiah sealed up the old outlet of the Gihon Spring and the Upper Pool, and built the underground Siloam tunnel in place of the aqueduct (2 Chronicles 32:2-4).

2Chr 32:2 And ChizeqiYahu saw that Sanacherib had come and his face was set to battle on Yerushalam,

2Chr 32:3 and he took counsel with his leaders and his warriors to stop the water of the springs which were outside the city, and they helped him.

2Chr 32:4 And many people assembled and stopped up all the springs and the stream which flowed through the midst of the land, saying, why should the kings of Ashshur come and find abundant water?

 During this period the Pool of Siloam was therefore sometimes known as the Lower Pool (Isaiah 22:9).

Isa 22:9 And you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many; and you collected the waters of the lower pool.

 It seems likely that during the Governorship of Nehemiah (from 445 BCE), the pool was also known as the King's Pool (Nehemiah 2:14)

Neh2:14 Then I passed on to the gate of the fountain and to the king’s pool, but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass.

According to the basarah of Yahuchanan, Yahusha sent "a man blind from birth" in order to complete his healing. As a freshwater reservoir, the pool would have been a major gathering place for Yahudites making religious pilgrimages to the city. Some scholars, influenced by Yahusha commanding the blind man to wash in the pool, suggest that it was probably used as a mikvah (ritual bath).

Joh 5:1 After this there was a festival of the Yehuḏim, and יהושע went up to Yerushalayim.

Joh 5:2 And in Yerushalayim at the Sheep Gate there is a pool, which is called in Heḇrew, Bĕyth Chasda (house of mercy), having five porches.

Joh 5:3 In these were lying a great number of those who were sick, blind, crippled, paralysed, waiting for the stirring of the water.

Joh 5:4 For a messenger was going down at a certain time into the pool and was stirring the water. Whoever stepped in first, then, after the stirring of the water, became well of whatever disease he had.

There was a pool in Beyth Chasda H2617 (בית חסד/חסדא), meaning either house of mercy or house of grace. In Hebrew the word could also mean "shame, disgrace" (H2616 as used in Proverbs 25:10) . This dual meaning may have been thought appropriate, since the location was seen as a place of disgrace due to the presence of invalids, and as a place of grace due to the washing of the sacrificial sheeps pointing to Yahusha the Lamb. Like the pool of Shiloach this pool of Beyth Chasda also was constructed in the eighth century BC during the reign of King Hezekiah, and an upper pool in the area of Beyth Chasda is the one mentioned in the 2 Kings 18:17; Isaiah 36:2. These were a pair of pools (pool of Shiloach and Beyth Chasda), an upper and a lower division of one large pool except that the pool of Shiloach was fed by the Gihon Spring while the water supply at Beyth Chasda was provided by rain. This pool of Beyth Chasda system may have been constructed in order to collect water for the washing of the sacrificial sheep as Yahuchanan mentions Sheep and Nehemiah mentions the rebuilding of the Sheep Gate. The Gate in John 9 was added by the translators to make sense because Nehemiah records of the Sheep Gate being repaired/rebuilt. The association with the washing of the sacrificial sheep could also be the origin of the sheep pool references.

Neh 3:1 And Elyashiḇ the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests and built the Sheep Gate. They set it apart and set up its doors, even as far as the Tower of Ḥanan’ĕl they set it apart, as far as the Tower of Hanane’ĕl. 

Nehemiah doesn't record of this pool of Beyth Chasda but it surely would have been there as Yahuchanan/John records it

Joh 5:2 And in Yerushalayim at the Sheep Gate there is a pool, which is called in Heḇrew, Bĕyth Chasda, having five porches.

John 5:4 is a disputed verse as many translations like NIV, ESV, RSV etc. omit this verse because they state the oldest Greek manuscripts don't have this verse and also that the angel coming to stir the water was a superstition.  Most of these translations rely on the Wescot-Hort translation where many verses in the NT were removed. Also this verse is missing in the Old Syriac Curetonian Gospels in Aramaic dated to the 4th century AD. But the Khabouris codex which is the handwritten oldest copy of the Aramaic version dated 165 AD is the oldest manuscript of the NT includes this verse. 

The pen of the scribes deleted this verse and put it in the column because of the superstition of an angel coming and stirring the water. There is no OT reference mentioning of any such miraculous healing water. The stirring would have been a superstition as the water would have bubbled when the stream flowed into the pool which the sick lying there who were blind, crippled, paralyzed (John 5:3) held on to the belief that and angel came and stirred the water and that the first one entering would be healed. There is no evidence of anyone who was ever healed in that pool. But nevertheless the verses exists but needs to be looked closely as to why out of hundreds lying there only one would be healed in a certain season?

The man crippled for 38 years came there with hope of being healed and when Yahusha asked him whether he wants to be healed he only stated his facts based on his belief of what he must have heard of the water being stirred by an angel.

Joh 5:7 The sick man answered Him, “Master, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred, but while I am coming, other steps down before me.” 

This pool of Beyth Chasda was not like the Pool of Shiloach because the Pool of Shiloach was fed by the spring water of Gihon and Beyth Chasda was fed by the rain water harvested. None of these waters had any healing power and there is no record of anyone being healed by these waters, these pools stood pointing symbolically to the river of life flowing from the throne of Yahusha in New Yerushalayim. The power to heal was in Yahusha who asked the blind man to wash/rachats in the Pool of Shiloach and he came back seeing and the man 38 years paralyzed was healed without entering into the pool of Beyth Chasda. The superstition of Beyth Chasda was running water/living water/chay would have been because these waters as Pool of Shiloach were used to wash oneself and sheep who came to the temple to worship which fleshly people looked to the physical benefits while the waters stood for a spiritual cleansing, and hence Yahusha's healing had a deep spiritual meaning.

Joh 7:2 And the festival of the Yehuḏim was near, the Festival of Booths/Sukkot. 

John 7:37 Now on the last day, the great day of the Feast, Yahusha stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.”

John 7:38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’”

John 7:39 But this He spoke of the Ruach, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Ruach was not yet given, because Yahusha was not yet glorified. 

The Torah portions also speak of the cleansing in running water of those who were unclean

Lev 14: 4  then the priest shall command, and he shall take for him (LEPER) who is to be cleansed two live and clean birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop.
 5  “And the priest shall command, and he shall slay one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water.
 6  “Let him take the live bird and the cedar wood and the shaniy/scarlet H8144 talah/crimson H8438 and the hyssop, and dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was slain over the running water.
 7  “And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed from the leprosy, and shall pronounce him clean, and shall let the live bird loose in the open field.

Num 19:16  ‘Anyone in the open field who touches someone slain by a sword or who has died, or a bone of a man, or a grave, is unclean for seven days.

Num 19:17 ‘And for the unclean being they shall take some of the ashes of the heifer burnt for cleansing from sin and running water shall be put on them in a vessel.

The mikveh became a ritual cleansing for the unclean, the leper, those diseased which the book of Hebrews calls as divers washings

Heb 9:8  the Set-apart Spirit signifying this, that the way into the Most Set-apart Place was not yet made manifest while the first Tent has a standing,

Heb 9:9  which was a parable for the present time in which both gifts and slaughters are offered which are unable to perfect the one serving, as to his conscience,

Heb 9:10 only as to foods and drinks, and different washings, and fleshly regulations imposed until a time of setting matters straight.

Col 1:5 because of the expectation/quah that is laid up for you in the heavens, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the Good News,

Pro 13:14  The Torah of the wise is a fountain/maqor of life/chay, Turning one away from the snares of death.

We read in YarmeYahu 17:13 Yahuah is the expectation/maquah of Yisrael, the maqor chay (fountain of life). He is found in the Torah of life, his wisdom is concealed in the Torah of wisdom and is the maqor chay.

Jer 17:13  O יהוה, the expectation of Yisra’ĕl, all who forsake You are put to shame. “Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken יהוה, the fountain/maqor of living/chay waters.

Hence, Yahusha calling the thirsty to come to Him and drink shows he is the fountain of life i.e. the maqor chay and those who believe in him out of his innermost being will flow rivers of mayim Chayim (waters of life)

Joh 7:2 And the festival of the Yehuḏim was near, the Festival of Booths/Sukkot. 

John 7:37 Now on the last day, the great day of the Feast, Yahusha stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.”

John 7:38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’”

John 7:39 But this He spoke of the Ruach, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Ruach was not yet given, because Yahusha was not yet glorified. 

He is Yahuah manifested in the flesh, the fountain of life, the expectation/maquah of Yisrael. The various washings in running water, the spring water which cleansed the unclean finds its completion in him. He is our miqveh, he went into the waters and came out representing the expectation that we have in him as the Ruach ha Qodesh descended upon him in the form of a dove.

Psa 36:9 For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.

1Pe 1:3  Blessed be the Elohim and Father of our Master יהושע Messiah, who according to His great compassion has caused us to be born again to a living expectation/quah through the resurrection of יהושע Messiah from the dead,

1Jn 3:2  Beloved ones, now we are children of Elohim. And it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

1Jn 3:3  And everyone having this expectation/quah in Him cleanses himself, as He is clean.

In Gen 1:10 when Yahuah gathered the waters together and the dry ground to appear he gathered all his elect in being cleansed in himself separating them from the yabash H3004 erets/earth H776 ‘yabash’ means dry and is from the root word H3001 which means shame/confusion/disappointment