Scorching air moves across the Transjordan plateau. The east wind lifts sand from the bedrock and strips vegetation down to the roots. Men dig deep into the earth to extract copper and silver from the veins of the rock. They pile their refined metals high, treating silver as common as dirt. A heavy storm brews on the horizon, threatening to collapse their mud-brick storehouses and scatter their hoarded wealth across the valley floor.
Archaeological excavations at Faynan reveal massive industrial mining operations active around 900 b.c. Laborers moved thousands of tons of crushed rock to smelt copper and silver. They built stone retaining walls measuring 12 feet thick to hold back the flash floods that rush through the narrow gorges. The raw ore required constant airflow for the furnaces. Smelters relied on the brutal summer winds sweeping out of the Arabian desert to fan their fires to smelting temperatures.
Black mounds of toxic slag still dominate the landscape of the ancient smelting camps. These crushed rock piles stand 20 feet tall and stretch for miles along the dry riverbed. The miners believed their enormous industrial wealth secured their survival against the hostile environment. They trusted the heavy silver ingots to protect them from the elements. Their confidence fractured when the sirocco wind tore through the canyon and reduced their defensive walls to rubble. The violent weather carried a clear warning for the wicked.
He heaps up silver like dirt and piles up clothing like clay, but the east wind carries him away and a tempest steals him in the night.
The gale leaves nothing but scoured bedrock in its wake. The Almighty executes justice with this same sudden violence, removing the oppressor in the dark while he sleeps. Survivors return to the mining camp to find three feet of mud and rock covering the silver. They stand over the ruined furnaces and realize the earth reclaims everything a man builds.