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Archaeological evidence shows Jerusalem affected by Biblical earthquake

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority have unearthed evidence that an earthquake described in the Biblical books of Amos and Zechariah affected Jerusalem when it hit the land of Israel during the reign of Uzziah King of Judah in the 8th century BC, Ynet News reports.

Excavations carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem’s City of David National Park uncovered a layer of broken artifacts including storage jars, lamps, and kitchen utensils which shattered when the walls of the building they were in collapsed, Ynet News said. As there was no sign of fire, it is believed the destruction occurred during an earthquake in Bible times.

As the Prophet Amos wrote 2,800 years ago: “Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who dwells in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?” (Amos 8:8).

In a statement about the archaeological findings, Drs Joe Uziel and Ortal Chalaf, directors of excavations at the Israel Antiquities Authority said: “We wondered what could have caused such a heavy layer of destruction and we looked for a reference in the biblical text. We then discovered that the earthquake that appears in the Bible in the books of Amos and Zechariah, occurred when the building we unearthed in the City of David collapsed.”

According to the IAA, the earthquake was probably one of the strongest and most deadly in all of Antiquity, Ynet News reports. “Yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah” (Zechariah 14:5).