Fuller's Field

A spot near Jerusalem, identified at every appearance by the same landmark — "the conduit of the upper pool" — and used as the meeting place between a king of Judah and a hostile envoy. The location is the staging ground for two confrontations a generation apart: Isaiah's word to Ahaz in the Syro-Ephraimite crisis, and the Assyrian summons to Hezekiah in the days of Sennacherib.

Isaiah's Meeting with Ahaz

In the threatened days of Ahaz, Yahweh sends Isaiah out to the same spot to deliver a sign. "Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, you, and Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, in the highway of the fuller's field" (Is 7:3). The location is given precisely — the king is inspecting the city's water at the upper pool, and the prophet meets him there with his son whose name is itself a sign.

The Assyrian Embassy to Hezekiah

The same landmark recurs in the parley of Sennacherib's officers with Hezekiah's. The narrative in Kings: "the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah with a great army to Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they had come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller's field" (2 Ki 18:17). Isaiah's parallel narrative names the same site at the same moment: "the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field" (Is 36:2). The fuller's field is thus the customary place where outside envoys stand at the city's water supply to address the king of Judah within.