6 Facts About Uzziah’s Earthquake

1. Two Prophets Reference a Major Earthquake

The prophet Amos begins his prophecy with: “The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen from Tekoa, who prophesied concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.”1

Centuries later, the prophet Zechariah prophesied, “And you shall flee as you fled because of the earthquake, in the days of Uzziah the king of Judah.”2

Clearly, the two prophets are referencing the same earthquake, which must have been a significant event of major proportions.

2. King Uzziah Is Blamed for It

"King Uzziah stricken by leprosy" painting by Rembrandt. (1635)

Rabbinic sources,3 (as well as the historian Josephus4) specify that the earthquake occurred at the same time that King Uzziah became a leper.

A direct descendant of King David, Uzziah was the king of Judah who ruled in Jerusalem. He “did what was right in the eyes of the L-rd,”5 strengthened the country’s defenses, fortified the borders, and defeated Judah’s enemies. He also bolstered Judah’s agricultural abilities, hewing water cisterns in the desert.6 He was involved in cattle breeding and winemaking, “for he loved the soil.”7

Uzziah, however, had a fundamental flaw that led to his downfall: The stronger his kingdom became, the haughtier he grew.

In those days, religious worship revolved around the Holy Temple, where only the priests were permitted to perform certain important tasks, such as burning incense on the Altar. Uzziah decided that he wanted to burn the incense himself.

The priests objected, explaining that not even the king could perform the service that was designated for priests only, but Uzziah did not listen. He entered the inner part of the Temple, holding a censer with incense. Immediately, he was stricken with leprosy and had to be removed from the Temple.8

Rabbinic sources tell us that at the same time that King Uzziah was stricken with leprosy, the Temple was split apart by a powerful earthquake.9

Josephus wrote that when Uzziah attempted to burn incense:

… a great earthquake shook the ground and a rent was made in the Temple, and the bright rays of the sun shone through it, and fell upon the king's face, insomuch that the leprosy seized upon him immediately. And before the city, at a place called Eroge, half the mountain broke off from the rest on the west, and rolled itself four furlongs, and stood still at the east mountain, till the roads, as well as the king's gardens, were spoiled by the obstruction.10

3. Evidence of the Earthquake Was Found in Jerusalem

During excavations of the City of David, archeologists Dr. Joe Uziel and Ortal Chalaf discovered collapsed buildings dating to Uzziah’s reign. Unlike other destruction sites, this one lacked any evidence of battle or fire. Instead, there were scattered fragments of utensils and pottery vessels.

Uziel and Chalaf describe their findings:11

[O]n the earliest floor of the southernmost room … a row of smashed vessels was uncovered along its northern wall, above which fallen stones had been found. It appears that these stones were the upper part of the walls of the room, which had collapsed, destroying the vessels which had been set along the wall.

Archeologists hypothesize that the destruction was caused by an earthquake.12

(Parenthetically, the complete skeleton of a piglet was discovered at the same site. Writer Christopher Eames suggests13 that this is evidence of the pig consumption condemned by Isaiah,14 another prophet who prophesied about an earthquake.15)

4. Evidence Was Found Throughout Israel

Archeologists have found evidence throughout the country of an earthquake that took place around the time of King Uzziah.

For example, Israeli archeologist Yigael Yadin describes his team’s findings at Tel Hazor in northern Israel. They found “that many of the walls … were tilted, as if shaken by a terrible earth tremor, and … the floors of many houses were covered by fragments of the ceilings that had fallen suddenly.”16

At Tel Gezer, in the 1990 excavation, archeologists found fallen ashlar blocks. Professor Randall Younker writes that this destruction was likely caused by an earthquake because “several sections of the Outer Wall had been clearly displaced from their foundations by as much as 10 to 40 cm,” and “these wall sections were all severely tilted outward toward the north.”17

He adds:

That this tilting was not due to slow subsidence over a long period of time was evident from the fact that intact sections of upper courses of the inner face of the wall had fallen backward into the city. Only a very rapid outward tilting of the wall, such as that caused by an earthquake, could cause these upper stones to roll off backward, away from the tilt.18

5. It Was Huge!

American field research geologist Dr. Steve Austin summarizes the conclusions from the finds:19

The epicenter was clearly north of present-day Israel, as indicated by the southward decrease in degree of damage at archaeological sites in Israel and Jordan. The epicenter was likely in Lebanon on the plate boundary called the Dead Sea Transform fault. A large area of the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah was shaken to inflict “general damage” to well-built structures …

Using the pattern and the intensity of damage through the region of the earthquake, the earthquake’s magnitude can be estimated … [to be] at least magnitude 7.8, but more likely was 8.2 … The Dead Sea Transform fault likely ruptured along more than 400 kilometers as the ground shook violently for over 90 seconds! The urban panic created by this earthquake would have been legendary.

6. We Rebuilt

It is not known how many casualties the earthquake claimed, however, archeologists found that the cities that suffered significant destruction due to the earthquake were later rebuilt and inhabited.