The Roman assault in 63 b.c. ended a three-month siege and transformed the political landscape of Judea. Factional civil war between Hasmonean brothers Aristobulus II and Hyrcanus II had invited foreign intervention. Pompey commanded his legions to breach the fortifications. Fire and siege engines shattered the defensive structures. A grim silence followed the slaughter in the temple precincts. Amid this destruction, local scribes observed the immediate aftermath and recorded the stark division between surviving loyalists and those who allied with Rome.
The temple mount stood roughly 2,400 feet above sea level. Deep ravines bordered the eastern and southern edges of the city. To the east, the Kidron Valley dropped steeply away from the defensive perimeters. Sparse rainfall restricted agricultural growth to terraced hillsides and carefully irrigated valleys outside the city gates. The climate dictated survival. During the dry season, the ground cracked under the heat of the sun. Only deeply entrenched roots reached the hidden aquifers far below the surface.
Local farmers cultivated fig and olive trees along the valley floor. These trees anchored the soil with extensive root systems that spread deep into the earth. Their physical endurance offered a tangible mechanism for measuring survival in a conquered territory. Observers mapped the resilience of these deep-rooted groves against the fragile, shallow brush that withered quickly in the severe Judean winds. The contrast heavily influenced the surviving sectarians.
The Lord plants the righteous as trees of life, and no enemy will uproot them from the earth.
The authors of the psalms used this botanical reality to classify the population. They documented the Hasmonean elite and Hellenized sympathizers as chaff scattered by the Roman advance. The writers viewed themselves as the permanent fixtures of the landscape. They waited for Pompey to leave and watched the new occupiers rebuild the garrison walls. The political reality dictated that Rome now controlled the water and the land.