Albert Barnes Commentary Matthew 24:7

"For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines and earthquakes in divers places." — Matthew 24:7 (ASV)

Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. At Caesarea, the Jews and Syrians contended about the right to the city, and twenty thousand of the Jews were killed. At this blow, the whole Jewish nation was exasperated and carried war and desolation through the Syrian cities and villages. Sedition and civil war spread throughout Judea; Italy was also thrown into civil war by the contests between Otho and Vitellius for the crown.

And there shall be famines. A famine was foretold by Agabus (Acts 11:28), which Tacitus, Suetonius, and Eusebius mention as having occurred. Josephus says it was so severe in Jerusalem that many people perished for want of food (Josephus, Antiquities 20.2). Four times in the reign of Claudius (AD 41–54), famine prevailed in Rome, Palestine, and Greece.

Pestilences. These are raging, epidemic diseases; the plague, sweeping off multitudes of people at once. Pestilence commonly accompanies famine and is often produced by it. A pestilence is recorded as raging in Babylonia in AD 40 (Josephus, Antiquities 18.9.8) and in Italy in AD 66 (Tacitus, Annals 16.13). Both of these took place before the destruction of Jerusalem.

Earthquakes. In prophetic language, earthquakes sometimes mean political commotions. Literally, they are tremors or shakings of the earth, often shaking cities and towns to ruin. The earth opens, and houses and people sink indiscriminately to destruction. Many of these are mentioned as preceding the destruction of Jerusalem. Tacitus mentions one in the reign of Claudius at Rome and says that in the reign of Nero, the cities of Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Colossae were overthrown, and the celebrated Pompeii was overwhelmed and almost destroyed by an earthquake (Tacitus, Annals 15.22).

Others are mentioned as occurring at Smyrna, Miletus, Chios, and Samos. Luke adds, And fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven (Luke 21:11). Josephus, who had probably never heard of this prophecy and who certainly would have done nothing intentionally to show its fulfillment, records the prodigies and signs which he says preceded the destruction of the city.

A star, he says, resembling a sword, stood over the city, and a comet continued for a whole year. At the Feast of Unleavened Bread, during the night, a bright light shone around the altar and the temple, so that it seemed to be bright daylight for half an hour.

The eastern gate of the temple, made of solid brass, fastened with strong bolts and bars, and which twenty men had shut with difficulty, opened in the night of its own accord. A few days after that feast, he says, "before sunset, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armour were seen running about among the clouds and surrounding cities." A great noise, as of the sound of a multitude, was heard in the temple, saying, "LET US REMOVE HENCE."

Four years before the war began, Jesus the son of Artanus, a commoner and farmer, came to the Feast of Tabernacles, when the city was in peace and prosperity. He began to cry aloud: "A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house, a voice against the bridegroom and the brides, and a voice against this whole people!" He was flogged, and at every stroke of the whip, he cried, "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!" This cry, Josephus says, was continued every day for more than seven years, until he was killed in the siege of the city, exclaiming, "Woe, woe to myself also!" (Josephus, The Jewish War, Book 6, Chapter 5, Section 3).