Winter Houses & Summer Houses

A Persian man and boy study together at a Korsi , a low table under which a small brazier
is placed and blankets are draped are draped across to preserve heat. This may have been
the type of hearth that that King Jehoiakim sat near (with or without the blanket) when he cut
up the roll and tossed the pieces into the fire. Jeremiah 36.22.   Photo courtesy of Wikiwand.

Amos 3: 15. "And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the LORD." 
 
According to the eastern travelers (1600-1900), Palestine and the surrounding area experience two main seasons, summer (April to October) and winter October to mid-March).  Both seasons are prone to extreme temperatures. 
 
From Jacob, the Patriarch:  "Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes. (Genesis 31:40; King James Version.)
 
From Jean Doubdan: Outside Jerusalem - "We spent a great part of the night nearby (some) ruins of this city, not without great inconvenience of cold, which was as violent and rough as the heat of the day was burning."  ("The Voyage of the Terre-Sainte", p 614.  Published, Paris 1657.  Translated from French.)
 
From Sir John Chardin:  In Casbin (Persia), "The Air is very hot in the Summer…by reason of the high Mountain that lies to the North.  But on the other side, the nights are so cold, that if a man expose himself ever so little to the air, after he is undressed, he is sure to fall sick."  ("Travels of Sir John Chardin into Persia and the East Indies", Vol 1., p. 380.  Published, London 1686.)
 
In the ancient world, these extremes in weather made it nearly impossible for folks to go about their daily routines.  To cope with the incapacitating temperatures, they moved back and forth between winter and summer houses (aka parlors or porches); which might include a sojourn to a different geographical area entirely or a simple move to another room of their house.  Relocating for the sake of comfort was not based on class, wealth, occupation, status, or any other such distinction, but was rather a necessity of life.
 
From Rabbi David Kimhi (also Kimchi or Qimḥi) (1160–1235): "Kings and great personages had houses in the city in the winter season…and others in the country in the summertime.  Or, they had, in one and the same house, a summer and a winter parlour." ( From John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible", Commentary on Amos 3:15. Written 1748-63.  Published, London)
 
From Bishop Richard Pococke: " We crossed the Euphrates at Romkala into Mesopotamia...and came to a summer village of country people, whose huts were made of loose stones covered with reeds and boughs; their winter village being on the side of a hill at some distance, consisting of very low houses." ("A Description of the East and Some Other Countries", Vol 2, Part 1, p.157.  Published, London 1745.)
 
From Jan Aegidius van Egmond van de Nijenburg  and John Heyman: "Catpha, as we have already said, lies at the foot of Mount Carmel, on the shore of the Mediterranean, and directly opposite to St. John d'Acri, the sea having formed a bay betwixt them. The houses are small, and flat-roofed, where during the summer, the inhabitants sleep in arbours made of the boughs of trees." (Travels through Part of Europe, Asia Minor, Several Lands of the Archipelago, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Mount Sinai, etc.",  Vol. 2, p.4. (Translated from Low Dutch) . Published, London 1759 
 
From Dr. Thomas Shaw: "The hills and valleys round about Algiers are all over beautified with gardens and country seats whither the inhabitants of better fashion retire during the heats of the summer season.  They are little white houses, shaded with a variety of fruit trees and evergreens, which beside shade and retirement, afford a gay and delightful prospect toward the sea."  ("Travels or Observations…Barbary and Levant", Vol. 2, p. 34.  Published, London, 1757.
 
From Bayard Taylor: Taurus Mountains  - "Still further, we came to orchards of walnut and plum trees, and vineyards There were no houses, but the inhabitants, who were mostly Turcomans, live in villages during the winter, and in summer pitch their tents on the mountains where they pasture their flocks." ("Land of the Saracen", p. 245.  Revised version.  Published, New York, 1864.)
 
From Sir Robert K. Porter:  "On the more northerly and western mountainous tracks, towards the Lake Van (Anatolia, Turkey), and also to the east of that body of water, dwell the Rewandoozi tribe…(who) amount to upwards of a hundred thousand families.  In the winter, they live amongst their embattled rocks ; but in the milder months, roam about, pitching their tents from valley to valley."  ("Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient Babylonia ", Vol 2, p. 470.  Published, London, 1821.)
 
From Horatio B. Hackett:  "At the present time, the people of the east bury (their dead), for the most part, in graves dug in the earth ; so that the rock tombs are seldom used for their original purpose.  Their size, since they are as large often as a commodious room, and their situation near the traveled paths, cause them to be resorted to as places of shelter for the night.  During the winter season, the wandering Arabs sometimes take up their permanent abode in them."  ("Illustrations of Scripture as suggested by a Tour of the Holy Land";  Section: Gardara Identified*, p. 101; Eighth edition.  Published, Boston 1857.)  

From Sir Gastson Maspero:  "The character of the ancient Armenians was that…during the greater part of the year, obliged to seek pasturage in valley, forest, or mountain height according to the season, while in winter they remained frost-bound in semi-subterranean dwellings similar to those in which their descendants immure themselves at the present."  ("History of the Ancient Peoples of the East",  Vol. 3, p. 56.  Published, London 1900.
 
From Abraham Parsons: "On visiting Bussora (Arabia), "The mosques and houses are all built of burnt brick, like those at Bagdad, but are not so handsome; yet many houses belonging to the principal men, as well as those of the merchants, are large and convenient, being only one story high above the ground floor, which consists of a hall facing the gate, on each side of which are magazines and warehouses for the reception of merchandize. This hall, in the winter, serves for little more than a passage, but in the summer, it is the most frequented part of the house, where the family dine and sup, as they have not the advantage of subterranean apartments,
like the inhabitants of Bagdad." ("Travels in Asia and Africa", p. 156-157.  Published, London 1808.)
 
SUMMER
 
From John W. Parker:  "The Hebrews at a very ancient date, like the Orientals, had both summer and winter rooms (in one building),  and also spacious summer residences (palaces).  The front of these buildings (both houses and palaces) faced the north to secure the breezes… lower stories were frequently underground…and supplied with a current of fresh air by means of ventilators, which consisted of large perforations made through the upper part of the northern wall that diminished in size as they approached the inside of the wall. "  (Paraphrase) (The Bible Cyclopedia or Illustrations of the Civil and Natural History of the Sacred Writings Description of Houses, Vol.1 ,  p. 609.  Published, London, 1841.)
 
From Saint Jerome (347-420):  "Wings of the house have doors and windows with fins that are sized to dispel cold weather."**  (Explanation for Jeremiah 36:22.)(Translated from the Latin:

 From Dr. Richard Pococke:  "(At Tiberius) provisions were sent from the sheikh's kitchen (and) we supped on the top of the house for coolness…and lodged there likewise in a sort of closet, about eight feet square, of wicker work, plastered round towards the bottom, but without any doors; each person having his cell." (A Description of the East and Some Other Countries",  Vol 2, Part 1,  p.69.  Published, London 1745.)

Illustrations from "The Land of the Pharaohs, Egypt and Sinai," p. 29.
By Rev. Samuel Manning. Published by the Religious Tract Society; England, 1875.

 WINTER
 
From Dr. Thomas Shaw D.D.:  (Algiers) In the winter rooms and houses, the windows faced the south in order to render them warmer.  These dwellings are now heated in two different ways, both of which are mentioned in Scripture.  Sometimes the fuel is heaped into a pot that is placed in a hollow space left for that purpose in the center of the paved floor, and sometimes the fire is placed directly in the hollow space or hearth in the middle of the floor.  ("Travels or Observations…Barbary and Levant", Vol 2, p. 34.  Published, London, 1757.)
 
From Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin: On visiting Ispahan (Isfahan) Iran.  "They Persians make in the parlours, or winter porches, and in the rooms adjoining, small Chimneys, the mantle-trees of which arc three foot high and about two foot broad, in the shape of a semi-circle, and which reaches down low enough to keep in the smoke; they burn the wood upright in them… those holes are covered over in summer with boards, under the carpets, and are not seen; in winter they uncover them and set over them a wooden table a foot high and a foot wider than the hole on which it stands, and they spread on the table one or two stitched coverlets, which hang down half a yard round the table…then they draw near the table close to the hole and lay the end of the coverlet in their laps as high as their waist."  ("Travels in Persia",  p.261-262, English Edition.  Published, London 1686.  (Original publication:  "Journal du Voyage...de Chardin in Perse et aux Indes Orientales".  French edition. )
 
 From Sir Robert K. Porter:  Encounter with a caravansary that accommodated both summer and winter travelers.  "The extent of this building is an exact square of one hundred yards on every side and flanked by four towers, of a diameter so dis-proportioned to the length of the intervening walls, as not to exceed nine feet.  Within these walls are the buildings which form the accommodations of the caravan.  On entering the great gate…is a piazza…or court.  These piazzas are subdivided (on three sides) into lofty arched apartments, open in front, and all neatly paved.  At ten feet within each of these, (there) is another chamber fifteen feet deep and containing, at its farther end, a fire-place; besides several little compartments cut out of the thickness of the wall, called topshehs (cupboards).  This interior chamber is seldom resorted to before winter; the outer one, open to the court, being considered the summer apartment."  ("Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient Babylonia," p.199.  Published, London 1821.)
 
Winter or summer residences are referred to in two other places in the Bible:  In Judges 3:20,24, King Eglon was sitting alone in his summer parlor when murdered by Ehud; and,in Jeremiah 36:22, King Jehoiakim in his winter-house near the hearth when Jehudi read him the three leafs of the scroll.
 
The action taking place in Amos 15:3 are God's continuous words in his instructions to the prophets that they should announce to the ten tribes of Israel their impending complete and utter destruction for their wickedness; especially for their idolatry.

*Gadara in the Bible- Matt. 8:28, Mark Mark 5:1, and Luke 8:26-39.
**"Domum pinnatam, eo quod ostiola habeat per fenestras, et quasi pinnas, ad magnitudinem frigoris depellendam." (Original text.)

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