Earthquake
PROF. H. B. TRISTRAM, LL. D., F. R. S.—Earthquakes have at many different epochs devastated the land of Israel.—Nat. Hist. of Bible, p, 16.
VOLNEY.—It seems that the coast of Syria is more subject to earthquakes than any part of the country.— Travels, Vol. I., p. 282.
Judgment of Philistia
VOLNEY.—In the plain between Ramla and Gaza (the very plain of the Philistines), we met with a number of villages badly built, of dried mud, and which, like the inhabitants, exhibit every mark of poverty and wretchedness. The houses, on a nearer view, are only so many huts, sometimes detached, at others ranged in the form of cells around a court-yard, enclosed by a mud wall. In winter, they and their cattle may be said to live together, the part of the dwelling allotted to themselves being only raised two feet above that in which they lodge their beasts. Except the environs of these villages, all the rest of the country is a desert, and abandoned to the Bedouin Arabs, who feed their flocks on it.... The ruins of white marble sometimes found at Gaza prove that it was formerly the abode of luxury and opulence. It has shared in the general destruction, and is now no more than a defenseless village. The sea-coast, by which it was formerly washed, is every day removing farther from the desert ruins of Ashkelon.... Amid the various successive ruins, those of Edzoud (Ashdod), so powerful under the Philistines, are now remarkable for their scorpions.—Travels, Vol. II., 335-340.
PROF. J. LESLIE PORTER, M. A.—The plain sweeps the northern base of the low, rounded hill on which once stood the royal city of Ashdod. The temples, palaces, and houses are all gone. The dust of centuries has covered them.... The modern village of Esdûd, a confused group of mud hovels, lies embowered on the eastern slope. It bears the ancient name; but we might truly change it to Ichabod, for the glory is departed.—Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 198.
REV. W. M. THOMSON, D. D.—No site in this country has so deeply impressed my mind with sadness as that of Gaza.... They have stretched out upon Askelon the line of confusion and the stones of emptiness!—The Land and the Book, Vol. II., p. 329.
Bones
DR. JOHN KITTO, F. S. A.—Bones, when reduced to ashes, contain eighty parts out of one hundred of phosphate of lime.—Pict. Bib., In loco.
Captives Led With Hooks
ASSYRIAN MONUMENTS.—Captives are depicted on many of the Assyrian monuments, led away by rings in their lips, or hooks thrust through their noses.—See Nineveh and its Palaces, p. 171, 172.
Rain Withheld
REV. W. M., THOMSON, D. D.—This is utterly ruinous to the hopes of the farmer. A little earlier or a little later would not be so fatal, but drouth three months before harvest is entirely destructive.—The Land and the Book, Vol. II., p. 66.
And I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.
IDEM.—There has been a smart shower here, while at Samakh the ground was baked hard, and the grain drooping sadly. The same was true on a former occasion when I came up the Jordan valley. The ground in the Ghor was like a parched desert. There had not been sufficient rain to bring up the grain, and the seed sown had rotted under the clod, while here at Tiberias the whole country was a paradise of herbs and flowers. And thus it was in former times.—Ibid.
Verse 8.—So two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water: but they were not satisfied.
IDEAL—This is a fact often repeated in this country. No longer ago than last autumn it had its exemplification complete in Belad Besharah, the ancient inheritance of Naphtali.—Ibid.
Destruction of Bethel
PROF. J. LESLIE PORTER, M. A.—Clambering to the top of a shattered tower which crowns the hill of Bethel, I looked long, and in sadness, over that dreary field of ruin, only inhabited by a few shepherds; and I saw how terribly time had fulfilled the city's prophetic doom: " Bethel shall come to naught."— Giant Cities,. p. 178.
Sitting in the Gate
REV. W. M. THOMSON, D. D.—I have seen both the governor and the kady, with their suites, sitting in the gate, decreeing and executing judgment, precisely as such things are spoken of in the Bible.... There is scarcely an allusion in the Bible to matters transacted in the gate, but what you may see enacted every day about the gate of Jaffa.—Land and Book, II., 287.
Serpent in the Wall
DR. ADAM CLARKE.—Snakes and venomous animals are fond of taking up their lodging in walls of houses, where they can either find or make holes; and it is often dangerous to sit near them, or lean against them. In the East Indies they keep the faithful mongoose, a species of ichneumon, in their houses, for the purpose of destroying the snakes that infest them.—Note, In loco.
Sycamore Fruit
PROF. H. B. TRISTRAM, LL. D., F. R. S.—We had been sitting under a sycamore tree, and looking up, we espied two little Arab girls hidden among the branches, gathering the wretched fruit which it bore in abundance. Poor, indeed, must those be, who live by such labor, and deep must have been the poverty of the prophet Amos, when he told the king that he was but “a herd-man, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit."—Land of Israel, p. 35.
The Sun Darkened
REY. WILLIAM LATHAM BEVAN, M. A.—The date of Amos coincides with a total eclipse, which occurred Feb. 9th, B. C. 784, and was visible at Jerusalem shortly after noon.—Smith's Dict. of Bible, 15. 654.
Caves and Thickets of Carmel
DR. JOHN KITTO.—Carmel is even now, and was still more in ancient times, covered with woods and copses-pines and oaks in the upper parts, and laurels and olives below. These, with the numerous caverns which the mountain contains, formed hiding-places so extensive and numerous, that the search of any person hidden there would be bewildering and all but hopeless. —Pict. Bib., In loco.