Israel's GREATEST Disasters

The ninth day of Ab (also known as Tisha B'Av), the fifth month on the Hebrew calendar, is an annual mournful fasting day observed by Jews in commemoration of several tragic historical events. It is a national, rather than a Biblical, fast day.

At least nine of the greatest disasters in Israel's history are believed to have started or occurred on the 9th of Ab. Some of the dates are given in scripture, while others are understood from Jewish history and tradition.

1. Moses broke the tablets of the Law upon seeing the people worshipping the Golden Calf (see Exodus 32).

2. The twelve spies returned from searching out the land of Canaan, with their report which caused almost all the people to lose faith in God and rebel against Him, leading to their being cursed to wander in the wilderness for forty years (see Numbers 14).

3. The First Temple, Solomon's Temple, was destroyed in 586-587 B.C. on the ninth of Ab. The Babylonians fought their way into the Temple on Ab 7, and ate and caroused there until Ab 9, and at evening, set the Temple on fire. It burned all night and through the next day, Ab 10 (See Jeremiah 52, verses 12 and 13).

4. The destruction of the Second (Herod's) Temple by the Romans began on the 9th of Ab and was completed on Ab 10 in 70 A.D. (Hebrew Civil Year 3831). Over 1,250,000 people were trapped inside the besieged city of Jerusalem by Roman legions. The Daily Sacrifice ceased on Tammuz 17, and 21 days later the Romans reached the edge of the Temple compound. Titus did not want to destroy the Temple, and begged the Jews to surrender, but they refused. In spite of his firm orders, Roman soldiers threw flaming torches into the Temple, setting it on fire.

5. In 71 A.D. on the anniversary of Ab 9, the Roman army plowed Jerusalem with salt, in preparation for making Jerusalem a Roman colony.

6. The army of Simon Bar Kochba, who had rebelled against Rome in 132 A.D., was destroyed by Roman legions in 135 A.D. on Ab 9. The last great army of an independent Israel was slaughtered without mercy. Roman historian Dio Cassius says that some 580,000 Jewish soldiers fell by the sword, not counting those killed by fire and famine. Roman horses waded in blood up to their girths in the valley battleground.

7. King Edward I of England expelled all Jews from England on July 18, 1290 A.D., the 9th of Ab. It wasn't until almost 400 years later that Oliver Cromwell allowed Jews the right of settlement in 1657.

8. King Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain expelled all Jews from Spain (about 800,000 Jews) on August 2, 1492, which was the 9th of Ab on the Hebrew Calendar.

9. In 1914, on Ab 9, World War I was declared, as Russia mobilized for war and launched bitter persecutions against Jews in Russia, which led many Jews to emigrate to the Holy Land to escape.

Jews, in Israel today, observe the 9th of Ab by fasting. They stand mourning and weeping in prayer at the Wailing Wall, the only portion of the Temple still standing. Jews read from the book of Lamentations in a dirge-like chant. The question is, are these fasts of the Jews, or the times when we fast, dedicated to the Eternal, and a call to repentance, or are they instead days without food by a rebellious people who want their own ways? This the question asked in Zechariah 7:4-14.

For all of these disastrous events to have occurred on the same date on the Hebrew calendar is more than coincidence. We should watch world events, and pray always that we may be accounted worthy to stand before the Son of Man (Luke 21:36).