Matthew 24:2

2. See ye not all these things? Our Lord echoes back their own question still more emphatically. Not merely its stones and gifts, but see its absolute whole. Shall not be left here one stone upon another Every stone of that structure, built as the second temple, was completely thrown down. Titus at first tried to save it; but the decree of God was too strong for him. Later still Terentius Rufus ordered its site to be furrowed with the ploughshare. Our Lord’s prediction was thus fulfilled to the letter. Yet, as if to show that there was still some mercy for Israel for the fathers’ sake, there are still some of the deep substructions of Solomon’s original temple which no ploughshare could reach, and which the malediction of our Lord passed untouched. Thrown down Literally, separated from each other. Of the huge stones in the ruins of Baalbec Dr. Thomson says: “The corresponding surfaces of these enormous stones are squared so truly, and polished so smoothly, that the fit is most exact. I was at first entirely deceived, and measured two as one, making it more than a hundred and twenty feet long. The joint had to be searched for, and when found, I could not thrust the blade of my knife between the stones. What architect of our day could cut and bring together with greater success gigantic blocks of marble more than sixty feet long and twelve feet square.”