Masada, Israel: Natural Fortress by Dead Sea, David, Saul, Herod, Jewish Zealots Take Their Lives

Masada was used by David, Herod the Great fortified it. Then see the sober reality of how 967 Jewish Zealots chose to commit suicide rather than surrender to the Romans in 73 AD. Includes Aerial Footage of Masada.
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1. Masada was one of 3 fortified fortresses King Herod built for pleasure purposes, and from which to protect his territories. He built Masada in about 24 BC.
2. Masada was fortified with elaborate water cisterns that were fed by diverting water from the nearby mountains. It even had swimming pools and many of the luxuries life afforded at that time.
3. In addition to ample water storage, Masada had 15 storehouses of food, enough for 10,000 people for 10 years.
4. In 66 BC, events began to unfold in Israel that caused the Jews to rebel against Roman rule. This revolt began in Caesarea Maritime.
5. In 66-70 AD, when the nation was in revolt, Jewish Zealots who had fled from Jerusalem and the surrounding areas took the fortress of Masada from Roman occupation. They were national Freedom Fighters who opposed Roman rule. In their conquest, they gained possession of all the stored food and water at Masada.
6. Between 66-70 AD, Rome conquered all the northern cities of Israel.
7. In 70 AD, the Romans, under the command of Titus, totally destroyed Jerusalem in a bloody battle that lasted well over 4 months. In this battle, Josephus (Jewish Historian) claims that 1.1 million Jews lost their lives, and another 97,000 were captured and enslaved. The temple was leveled in the siege at this time as well.
8. In 73 AD, there had amassed a total of 967 Jews, counting their families, at Masada. They were under the command of Eleazar Ben-Yair, a Jewish Zealot Freedom Fighter.
9. After conquering Jerusalem and most of Israel, the Romans headed south to conquer the southern strongholds around the Dead Sea region and Masada.
10. Masada was the last stronghold of the Israelites that existed, and the Romans amassed their troops there in the fall of 73 AD.

[@bahagharidon1940]

Everytime I hear the story of Masada, it breaks my heart!

[@franklicary3407]

Wicked leaders caused Israel to fall and its people to suffer. This video is a good history biblical lesson.

[@seagalangelo]

Awesome information... thank you for these great videos. May the LORD JESUS CHRIST bless you all.

[@bonchance9241]

thankyou very much . the aerial views make it easier to understand events. the way you teach ,is clear ,easy to understand. i'm sure God is working through you. GOD Bless you.

[@elizabethrodriguez7363]

I love the way you explains things. So easy to understand. God bless you and thank you so much for all your videos. I have learned alot and go back and watch them to refresh my memory.

[@HolyLandSite]

Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words. It's a blessing to know the Lord is using the videos in your life.

[@fredrickedwin3899]

Thank you for explaining everything in so much detail. It makes it so very easy to understand.

[@joannecarpenter8725]

Very sad what happened here in Masada. Blessings Pastor.

[@maritestumampo1127]

God bless always💝🙏

[@HolyLandSite]

Thanks for watching and commenting. God bless.

[@Bella-je7vm]

I absolutely love your videos. Thank you so much

[@HolyLandSite]

You are very welcome. Thanks for your kind and encouraging words.

[@Bella-je7vm]

You're welcome. Watching from Ireland. Seeing the places talked about in the Bible has led me to study the Word of God in a much deeper way so thank you again for the enormous time and effort you have put into making these videos. They are truly a great blessing.

[@yourperropapi]

God bless you all

[@pratapdas8756]

So painful, how was the mental state while killing his own most beloved one, Oh GOD.

[@josefinadomingo3126]

Thank you for more information Ive seen this Masada National park its amazing how a fotress is built on top of the high mountain

[@Lithuanian_Gemstones]

Great information!

[@pravinshingadia7337]

Very moving but brilliant video. Keep up the good work.

[@HolyLandSite]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@calvingrezeszak6990]

Amen. Thank you.

[@arunmunda6011]

Masada reminds rebellion and their punishment against God. It also breaks heart about death of God's own people who rejected their Messiah.

[@knowinggodknowinghisword3332]

Thank you pastor. Very nice video.

[@HolyLandSite]

So nice of you

[@jesuschristmyking8644]

A+...Outstanding job...I loved this one. Learned a lot. Thank you so much.

[@HolyLandSite]

You're welcome. Thanks for sharing!

[@cjanvier1536]

I love your videos and you teach well.

[@HolyLandSite]

I appreciate that! Thanks for watching and commenting.

[@mauriciomurillo9168]

Awesome

[@mauriciomurillo9168]

I love it.

[@neo-YoutubeStoleMyHandle]

I love you Jesus...

[@TheAngelin2000]

very good brother

[@HolyLandSite]

Thank you so much 😀

[@sefanaiasuguturaga9542]

I climbed masada

[@HolyLandSite]

Awesome. Thanks for sharing.

[@mauriciomurillo9168]

I love that action, because is better to dye with pride than to live without it.

[@tiberiusclaudiuscaesar5238]

Yeah, and it's even better to listen in English class so you might learn to spell common English words. To dye is to color something, usually clothes. It's not the same as to die. Now everybody will rightfully assume you're an uneducated simpleton - as if your myopic and infantile comments didn't make that clear already. Oh, and as for belief, you'd be amazed how many fanatics - and that includes terrorists - believe the very same thing. Living is hard. Creating live is great. Preventing deaths is grand. Killing is for thugs and self-righteous scum. You silly clown. Back to your games and find your "glory" there.

[@YoxxSHIxx]

I'd have to respectfully disagree, the ultimate death in all of history was done in obedience and humility.

[@2010securityful]

would like to see details on locations ,tour of all spots

[@agentneatnick3262]

The Essene Law: The Everlasting Agreement by Dr. Shmuel Asher. A must read. Found on Amazon. Fabulous! New translation with commentaries.

[@HolyLandSite]

Thanks for watching and commenting. God bless.

[@mayrakopjansen2814]

This is heartbreaking God bless them all

[@andrewaitken6923]

City of David The name "City of David" originates in the biblical narrative, where King David is described as the Israelite leader who conquers the fortified city of Jebus and renames it after himself. Later, the Jewish-Roman historian Josephus mentions again the term. - Masada (“fortress” in Hebrew) is a mountain complex in Israel in the Judean desert that overlooks the Dead Sea.

[@mauriciomurillo9168]

Just when you are a soldier, you will understand, what's pride is, then and only then you will understand it.

[@tiberiusclaudiuscaesar5238]

I wonder how many in World War One understood it too... once they understood how fooled they had been into a giant meat-grinder.

[@user-ow5mi9xn6m]

If this is a punishment for rejecting it, how is it that today we have a prosperous country?

[@rodriguezhernani3820]

Temporal Prosperity, not Long Lasting Prosperity...

[@richarddrozd1201]

God never forgets His covenant with Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.

[@intothevoid5027]

As always its a very nice video, at 5:30 zechariah 14.2 I think that prophecy is an end time prophecy, because it was only the romans who were after them. Please correct me if im wrong, thank you.

[@HolyLandSite]

Amen. Thanks for watching and commenting.

[@mauriciomurillo9168]

That's the sad part that they regretted our messiah.

[@tiberiusclaudiuscaesar5238]

The sad part is that you're clearly a parrot bereft of even a token of reason. Even sadder is how cretins like you are either ignored or condoned.

[@terriejohnston8801]

Thanks for sharing. In all due respect, my Brother in Yeshua...You state that you are against taking ur OWN life. Well... EASY 4 YOU to say. You weren't there. IF " I"were there to deal w these ruthless Romans (for yrs..) knowing what they were quite capable of doing to my children/wife, would of ended it ALL rite then @ there...by my own hand.

[@terriejohnston8801]

Also, its NOT like the Hebrews had all day to think about such extreme decisions.

[@HolyLandSite]

Thanks for your comment. However, it is God who gives us life and I believe it is God who takes it away. I don't believe we should end our life because of trials, persecution, or difficulty.

[@mauriciomurillo9168]

I'm a descendent of them. "Shalom"

[@MrRoyalbeers]

You litterally can't be. They all died remember.

[@janmeijer7431]

I believe these people in Massada were actually "The Essenes", essentially Christ's first group of Christain followers and not Jewish Jealots. Remember the Judahans were sacked by the Romans in AD70. The Massada massacre happened 3 years later. The Dead Sea Scrowls were desperately copied here during those important last years & stored in nearby hills of Qumran because obviously the Romans were hell bent on destroying any biblical literature that challenged their Sun worship. The term "Jew" first appeared in Europe in the 15th Century. What happened to the other ten tribes of "Israel" - they were scattered to the four corners of the World. Only the tribe of Levi & Judea remained in Palestine. In the 12th Century this remnant was over-run by the Turks & forced to convert to Islam & became the Palestinian farmers.

[@hesham2013]

How did u know all the conversations although they were all dead ?!!

[@jordansmithsook538]

We know, 2000yrs later, what occurred because some women and children survived and told people about what happened at Masada and Josephus, a Jewish historian alive in those days, wrote all witnesses accounts, Roman and Jewish, down and chronicled the story in books.

[@ericdubois5750]

Wasn't it 900+ killings and one suicide? They believed that God could forgive the killing but not the suicide.

[@HolyLandSite]

You raise a good point. Thanks for sharing.

[@ericdubois5750]

@@HolyLandSite I only recently discovered your videos. Very informative and interesting to watch God bless you and keep up your good works.

[@ivangodin1850]

Did not want to be enslaved by the Romans. But the saddest thing is that, if they rejected Christ, which seems to be the case, they ended up being enslaved by Satan for eternity

[@HolyLandSite]

Thanks for commenting.

[@NarrowWayDisciples]

suicide is self murder, they probably woke up in hell, who knows what God might have done with them if they have lived, even if tortured, raped and made slaves

[@AkosiLentengGala]

Masada is A giant petrified tree

[@LeatherneckJoe133]

Do you think that they went to hell for committing suicide? Thanxs for your sermon...

[@HolyLandSite]

Thanks for your question. I'm not certain whether or not they went to hell. Thankfully, God is the perfect righteous judge who will make that decision. I certainly would strongly caution anyone from taking their own life as that is only God's place to do. Suicide is certainly a sin that no one should do.

[@LeatherneckJoe133]

@@HolyLandSite 10-4...

[@lindastilley212]

Whether or not they went to hell is only determined by whether they accepted Jesus as the sacrifice for their sins.

[@LeatherneckJoe133]

@@lindastilley212 your right if they didn’t accept Jesus Christ they probably went south because they were in a apostate religion that Jesus condemned before he was crucified..

[@scotttilson2747]

Sadly the Jews that were on top of Masada if they rejected Jesus as the Messiah they tragically went to hell after they committed suicide. they normally thought they would go to heaven to be with Jehovah because they were loyal Jews don’t work that way anymore.

[@tiberiusclaudiuscaesar5238]

Your God sure is a model of reason and wisdom (sarcasm). Listen clown. NOBODY had barely heard of your "Jesus" by the time this siege took place and Jews back then as well as today still wait for their Messiah. So why the h*ll would they accept some fringe fraction of Judaism which believed this prophet called Jesus was the one they should just accept out of the frickin' blue? And seeing as 5,5 billion of the world's population reject Jesus there must be an insane amount of people in hell. Maybe your all-powerful God and all-wise lord didn't think this through very well. Yes, 5,5 billion are all wrong and all hellbound. What kind of a deity would send people to hell for committing suicide? How is that morally right? Who'd do such a psychotic thing? But I've got thank you. I am grateful to the likes of you openly displaying your archaic fanaticism and religious hate. You're totally bereft of reason and know nothing more than blind obedience to ancient superstition and how to hate anybody different from you. This is how you justify your primitive hatred. I'm therefore grateful because you lot will doom yourselves and your stupid superstition since people will be aghast by your religiously indoctrinated contempt for people and your insane belief that some people deserve an eternal suffering in hell (not even the nazis were that evil towards the Jews). Please keep on doing what you do. You have no idea how useful you are. Modern historians (even Istraeli ones) have concluded the siege was more a battle to defeat a fringe group of extremists. Basically they were the terrorists of the day who didn't stop at any measures to get their way. And you lot will go the same way as they did. To the scrap heap of history. No need to go to a fictional hell. Your indoctrinated mind and the people who have brainwashed you clearly has put you through a hell already.

[@l.andrea2553]

@@tiberiusclaudiuscaesar5238 What a needlessly rude response in an otherwise civil discussion.

[@dee9242]

@@tiberiusclaudiuscaesar5238 suicide is a sign of hopelessness unfortunately its a loss of hope even in the Creator. There is no situation that shld lead a child of God to kill themselves. The law even states Thou shalt not kill tht includes others and yourself. The majority of pple who commit suicide shall unfortunately be lost but those that got a chance to repent at their point of death will be saved. The Lord is faithful always even in the hardest of times. Only just believe. Christ came and He will surely come again but this time to take those that walked in the path of righteousness and believed in Him. Times are showing us tht the time of His Second coming is near. Amen.

[@thomasburrell8089]

Where is Masada in the Bible? Never heard of it.

[@HolyLandSite]

Masada is not mentioned in the Bible directly. However, it appears it was referred to as a stronghold.

[@oolformacha]

@@HolyLandSite The story of Masada is told in the ancient book, The Jewish War by Josephus. A Jewish General captured by the Romans who witnessed the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. Josephus also recorded the Crucifixion of Jesus in his book, Antiquities.

[@nickhansen144]

What did we learn from this? Prophecies about Jesus and from him are all true and come to pass.... please accept Jesus as your savior and read the Holy Bible, God's letter to you.

[@steve75112]

They still rejected the Messiah the people at masada. They werent Christians. In some ways not unlike the pharisees and saduccees zealous without true knowledge of God

[@oolformacha]

You think Christians haven't suffered and died because of satanic enemy? Navigate your way to heaven. Its not for you to judge others.

[@Troy-Moses]

A mass murder-suicide sounds remarkably similar to the Jonestown, Guyana incident with Jim Jones and the People's Temple... Why is Masada an heroic episode, but Jonestown not?

[@oolformacha]

Because their only other option was slavery.

[@jewingewing3040]

Hell on earth

[@jasonbond6550]

Masada provided the Jewish people with an identity long before the arrival of Christ. By reducing the history of Masada solely to it's fall you only define yourself. We didn't only lose up on that mountain, we also defeated all of you.

[@jasonbond6550]

Abraham yah that was the other mountain

[@testingspirits7446]

The Bible says, ‘When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies live at peace with him.’ Proverbs 16:7. The Canaanites did not commit suicide, they intermarried with the Israelites. Their ways pleased the Lord. The Israelites committed suicide. Their ways did not please the Lord. The Canaanites, Samaritans and their Hebrew mixed offspring inherited the land…the Palestinian people.

[@JS-cp1qk]

You say they committed suicide when in reality, only the last man killed himself, all the others were murdered!

[@nigeldalebisram]

Tribe of Judah oppressed the other tribes and Benjamin's tribes merge with them and part of Levi... So 10 lost Tribes are predominantly 13 What goes around comes around

[@glendasartor5465]

Thank you for the teaching, please change your background music its awful and depressing

[@HolyLandSite]

Thanks for commenting. Sorry about the music. We have lowered the volume in our newer videos. Thanks for your patience. Some people really like the music and others don't.

[@daniii024]

Christians saying Jews suffer because they rejected Jesus, Moslims say Jews are cursed because they rejected Muhammad. While Judaism or Jews dont have anything to do with those religions..

[@boricuazionistnation9460]

Zechariah is not what happened in the siege of Jerusalem because that was not all nation’s it was Rome alone not all nations Zechariah is for the last days

[@bawaahahmath1815]

You are a Roman!

[@HolyLandSite]

Thanks for commenting. I don't know quite what you mean by saying I am a Roman.

[@sawry1]

Suicide is murder, and no murderer shall enter The Kingdom of Heaven.

[@jasonstclair1329]

sawry1 - Moses is going to hell then ? 😏

[@steveellis7174]

Anyone who accepts the Lord Jesus as their savior will go to heaven whether they killed someone or not.

[@sawry1]

@@steveellis7174 8 "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers,and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” Thus saith The Lord, not me!

[@sawry1]

@@jasonstclair1329 15 "For outside are dogs and sorcerers, and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." It's not me that makes the rules, take it up with God!

[@steveellis7174]

@@sawry1 yes the unbelieving.

[@glenblignaut9977]

Pardon?? Christ wasn't there only God ...Jesus se poes it's BS

[@ME-zb3gq]

1948 lol

[@yourpapichulo8859]

I was there last week, pretty cool place and smoked a fat joint on the walls. Great to get high 😙