John Kitto Evening Bible Devotions: June 30

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John Kitto Evening Bible Devotions: June 30


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The Earthquake

Zec_14:5

That must have been a dreadful earthquake which took place in the reign of king Uzziah; for it is clear that it made a deep impression upon the public mind. Amos dates from his prophetic call “two years before the earthquake;” Note: Amo_1:1. and, so long as 250 years after, Zechariah reminds the people how their fathers “fled before the earthquake in the days of king Uzziah.” One might greatly desire further information respecting an event so memorable; but it is not even mentioned in the Scriptural accounts of Uzziah’s reign. Josephus, and other Jewish writers, however, speak of it from the traditions of their nation; and the statements furnished may be correct in the material facts, although they undoubtedly err in connecting it with Uzziah’s sacrilege in attempting to burn incense upon the golden altar, as related in 2Ch_26:16; for it can be chronologically shown, that the earthquake must have been many years anterior to the sacrilege. Note: The vision of Amos “two years before the earthquake” was also in the reign of Jeroboam II, king of Israel. This king died in the fifteenth year of Uzziah, and consequently the earthquake could not have been later than the seventeenth of the same reign. But Uzziah reigned in all fifty-two years, and that his attempt to burn incense occurred in the latter end of his reign is manifest from the fact, that being then smitten with the leprosy, the regency was assumed by his son; and as this prince was but twenty-five years old at the demise of his father, he was so far from being in a condition to act as regent at the latest date assignable to the earthquake of Amos, that he could not have been born till ten years later. Josephus, however, connects these events. He says, that at the moment of the king’s offering, an earthquake shook the ground, and a rent was made in the temple through which the rays of the sun shone on the king’s face, and made manifest the leprosy with which he had been smitten. At the same time, at a place called Eroge, fronting the city on the west, the mountain was rent, and one half fell and rolled itself four furlong’s, stopping at the foot of the hill bounding the city on the east, so that the road and the king’s gardens were spoiled by the obstruction. This was what is called a landslip—an event often connected with earthquakes, and seems to have been familiar to the sacred writers, as there are several allusions to it in the poetical books.

There is no other earthquake historically mentioned in Scripture, except that which took place at our Lord’s crucifixion. But the frequency of the allusions to these phenomena in the imagery of the Psalmist and other sacred writers, shows that earthquakes were but too well known to the Jewish people. In fact, Palestine is to this day much subject to earthquakes, though less so than some other parts of Syria—as at Aleppo, where few years pass without an earthquake being felt, but in general so slightly, that they cause but little alarm unless from the concurrence of other circumstances. When the shocks occur in the day-time they are often not perceived by persons walking in the streets and crowded bazaars; but in the quiet of the night they are often dreadful, and make an awful impression upon persons suddenly aroused from sleep.

Some years ago we made a large collection from histories and travels of facts relating to earthquakes in Syria. We found that most of them operated chiefly in the northern and lower parts of Syria, and Palestine was rarely mentioned as suffering much from their effects, and when visited by this calamity it was generally noticed that the highest parts of the land suffered least; and it is more than once observed that Jerusalem was but little affected by earthquakes from which other towns suffered severely. We shall not enter into details concerning them, being anxious to reserve our fullest attention for the last earthquake in Palestine; as respecting this we possess very ample and distinct information.

The earthquake occurred on the first day of the year 1837. We owe the best accounts of the circumstances and phenomena to an American missionary, the Rev. W.M. Thomson, and to a Jewish missionary, Mr. S. Calman, who were at Beirut at the time, and who immediately journeyed forth to the scene of the calamity in the hope of affording relief to the survivors. The particulars we proceed to give are gathered chiefly from Mr. Thomson’s account of this journey, as it appeared in the American Missionary Herald for November, 1837.

The shock occurred about half-past four p.m., and was neither preceded nor followed by any remarkable phenomenon. A pale smoky haze obscured the sun, and gave a touch of sadness to the scene; and a lifeless and almost oppressive calm settled down upon the face of nature. But these appearances are not uncommon in that country. At Beirut itself little damage was done; but for several days succeeding the shock, flying reports from various quarters gave frightful accounts of towns and villages overthrown, and of lives lost; but so slowly does authentic information travel in that country, that eight days had elapsed before any reports that could be relied on were received. Letters then arrived, stating that Safet was utterly destroyed, not a house remaining of any description; and that Tiberias and many other places had shared the same deplorable fate. Some of the letters stated that not a hundred of the inhabitants of Safet had escaped; while others, more correctly, declared that out of a population of 10,000, at least 6000 had perished.

A collection was then made for the relief of the sufferers, and Messrs. Thomson and Calman set forth on their benevolent mission. Ruin met them all the way. Sidon had suffered, and Tyre still more: but we must pass over the minor incidents, to reach the prime seat of the visitation. We may note, however, that at Ramash the people were at prayer in the church when the shock took place, and the building fell, and all of them, to the number of 130, perished. The only exception was the priest, who was then standing in the recess of the altar. At this place the travellers were shown a rent in the mountain a little to the east of the village. it was about a foot wide, and fifty feet long, and was said to have been wider when first discovered after the shock.

At length they reached Safet; and as they ascended the steep mountain upon whose top the city stands, they saw several rents and cracks in the earth and the rocks, giving painful indication of what might be expected above. The rest must be told in the language of the eye-witness himself, though with some compression—

“Up to this moment I refused to credit the account, but one frightful glance convinced me that it was not in the power of language to overstate such a ruin. Suffice it to say, that this great town, which seemed to me like a bee-hive four years ago, and was still more so only eighteen days ago, is now no more. Safet was, but is not. The Jewish portion, containing a population of five or six thousand, was built around and upon a very steep hill; so steep, indeed, is the hill, and so compactly built is the town, that the roof of the lower house formed the street of the one above, thus rising like a stairway over one another. And thus, when, the tremendous shock dashed every house to the ground in a moment, the first fell upon the second, the second upon the third, that on the next, and so on to the end. And this is the true cause of the almost unprecedented destruction of life. Some of the lower houses are covered up to a great depth with the ruins of many others, which were above them. From this cause, also, it occurred that a vast number who were not instantaneously killed, perished before they could be dug out; and some were taken out five, six, and one, I was told, seven days after the shock, still alive. One solitary man, who had been a husband and father, told me that he found his wife, with one child under her arm, and the babe with the breast till in its mouth. He supposed the babe had not been killed by the falling ruins, but had died of hunger, endeavoring to draw nourishment from the breast of its lifeless mother. Parents frequently told me that they heard the voices of their little ones crying, ‘Papa! papa!’ ‘Mamma! mamma!’ fainter and fainter, till hushed in death, while they were either struggling in despair to free themselves, or laboring to remove the fallen timber and rocks from their children. O God of mercy! what a scene of horror must have been that long black night, which closed upon them half-an-hour after the overthrow!—without a light or the possibility of getting one—four fifths of the whole population under the ruins, dead or dying, with frightful groans—and the earth still trembling and shaking, as if terrified with the desolation she had wrought!

“What a dismal spectacle! As far as the eye can reach, nothing is seen but one vast chaos of stone and earth, timber and boards, tables, chairs, beds, and clothing, mingled in horrible confusion; men everywhere at work, worn out and woe-begone, uncovering their houses in search of the mangled and putrefied bodies of departed friends, while here and there I noticed companies of two or three each, clambering over the ruins, bearing a dreadful load of corruption to the narrow house appointed for all living. I covered my face, and passed on through the half-living, wretched remnants of Safet. Some were weeping in despair, and some laughing in callousness more distressing. Here an old man sat solitary, on the wreck of his once crowded house; there a child was at play, too young to realize that it had neither father nor mother, brother nor relation in the wide world. They flocked around us—husbands that had lost their wives, wives their husbands, parents without children, children without parents, and not a few left the solitary remnants of large connections. The people were scattered abroad, above and below the ruins, in tents of old boards, old carpets, mats, canvas, brick, and earth, and not a few dwelling in the open air; while some poor wretches, wounded and bruised, were left amongst the prostrate buildings, every moment exposed to death, from the loose rocks around and above them.”

The narrator goes on to give a most painful account of the miseries he witnessed in proceeding to visit the wounded. In one instance, “clambering over a pile of ruins, and entering a low vault by a hole, I found eight of the wounded crowded together, under a vast pile of crumbling rocks; some with legs broken in two or three places; others so horribly lacerated and swollen as scarcely to retain the shape of mortals; while all, left without washing, changing bandages, or dressing the wounds, were in such a deplorable state, as rendered it impossible for us to remain with them long enough to do them any good.” They therefore proceeded to construct a wooden “shanty,” as a kind of hospital, and had the wounded removed to it—administering to their ailments and wants so far as their skill and means allowed; and on the 19th they record, that “the earth continued to tremble and to shake,” and that there had been many slight, and some violent shocks, since their arrival.

At Tiberias the destruction of life was great, but much less, proportionally, than at Safet—probably owing to the fact, that the former stands upon a plain, and the latter upon a high mountain. Not more than 700 perished, out of a population of 2,500; while at Safet, 4,000, out of 5,000 Jews and Christians, were killed, and not far short of 1,000 Moslems.

The volcanic character of the region which was the center of this great disaster is well known—the very houses being to a great extent built with volcanic stone. This alone suffices to show the liability of this quarter to earthquakes, and attests their former occurrence; and if the earthquake from which people fled in the days of king Uzziah was as disastrous as that of 1837—and it was probably more so, as the land was then more full of towns and people—there was ample cause for its being so well remembered.