Hezekiah fortified his city, and brought water into the midst of it: See 2 Kgs 20.20. When King Hezekiah fortified Jerusalem, it was in anticipation of a siege by the Assyrian army. Good News Translation spells this out a bit more fully by rendering the first line as “Hezekiah prepared his city to resist a siege.” We could also say “King Hezekiah made his city strong so that enemies could not capture it.” Some translators may think it helpful to name Jerusalem at this point, so another possible model is “Hezekiah strengthened the defenses of Jerusalem.” He brought water by digging a tunnel from a pool outside the city to a point inside, but beneath the city. Good News Translation “provided it with a water supply” is adequate; the next line describes the project more exactly.

He tunneled the sheer rock with iron and built pools for water: Good News Translation translates the third line of the verse well with “He had a tunnel built through solid rock with iron tools.” Notice particularly “iron tools” for iron. “Cisterns” (Good News Translation) are tanks or artificial pools built to store large amounts of water. New Jerusalem Bible translates “storage-tanks.”

Another way to restructure this verse is to place the second line after the third one as follows:

• King Hezekiah strengthened Jerusalem so that enemies could not capture it. He also had workmen use iron tools to cut a tunnel through the solid rock, bringing water into the city. Then he had them dig cisterns to store the water.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Sirach. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.