5:8 to the gutter. This “gutter” was what we today might call a culvert. It had evidently been built by earlier inhabitants of Jerusalem. David’s men were able to crawl up this shaft, past the “blind and the lame” that the Jebusites had placed at the city’s gates, and attack the city by surprise. This “gutter” was actually discovered in connection with the same excavations that found the water conduit of Hezekiah (see note on II Kings 20:20).