(ETH) – The books of Amos and Zechariah mention a great earthquake that shook Israel “in the days of Uzziah king of Judah.” and according to a new report from CBN News, some 2,800 years later, Israeli researchers believe they have finally identified the remnants of the earthquake’s destruction in Jerusalem – Judah’s ancient capital.
Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority recently unearthed a layer of destruction in the City of David. They found shattered vessels, including lamps, cooking utensils, bowls, and storage containers that were damaged when the walls of an ancient building collapsed.
They believe these items, which date back to the 8th century BC, may have been smashed in the earthquake because there was no evidence of fires or another deliberate event that could explain why the structure collapsed and smashed the vessels. “We asked ourselves what could have caused that dramatic layer of destruction we uncovered,” said the excavation’s directors, Dr. Joe Uziel and Ortal Chalaf.
“Examining the excavation findings, we tried to check if there is a reference to it in the biblical text. Interestingly, the earthquake that appears in the Bible in the books of Amos and Zechariah, occurred at the time when the building we excavated in the City of David collapsed.
The combination of the finds in the field together with the biblical description led us to the conclusion that the earthquake that struck the Land of Israel during the reign of Uzziah king of Judah, also hit the capital of the kingdom – Jerusalem. ” According to the Book of Revelation chapter eleven another great earthquake will come in the future that will claim the lives of seven thousand people in Jerusalem.
“In the same hour, there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake, seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven”. – Revelation 11:13
