My Thoughts on Eglon's Cooling Chamber and Ancient Science

 

Science in itself is a very old subject. Think about it that Egyptians have used some form of trigonometry and geometry before Euclid and Hipparchus became known to be the pioneers. Reading through the story of Ehud the lefthanded. Judges 3:24-25 talks about Eglon's cooling chamber. Reading the Bible without a good study guide isn't going to help. That's why I say if you want to study the Bible - you need to study science, mathematics, and history to strengthen your claims that it's the Word of God. 

I read the commentaries "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible" and "John Gill's Exposition of the Bible".  I was reading through them and discovered that a summer chamber was used by Oriental grandees to repose from the heat during the heat of the day. It is also a place where there are many windows to let in the air to cool and refresh - a part of the palace where that was cool and sheltered from the heat. 

Here's what Arista's article "The History of Air Conditioning" says about ancient air conditioning back when there wasn't any electricity in the Middle East:

The History of Air Conditioning Fun Fact #2: The Egyptians invented water-cooled air conditioning 

How smart do you have to be to figure out how to build giant pyramids out of rock without power equipment? Those Egyptians had some real talent for problem-solving, and you can bet it was pretty hot in Africa’s Nile River valley. So what did they do to stay cool without the benefit of modern air conditioning? They hung up wet reeds in the windows to cool the breeze coming in. It was the first water-cooled air conditioning!

The History of Air Conditioning Fun Fact #5: 

Middle Eastern architects invented cooling towers Traditional Middle Eastern building design for larger spaces often included towers that were built over underground channels of cool air. The towers were designed to catch and circulate cool breezes, and to draw the cool air up from underground channels while pushing warm air out. Nowadays, we’ve refined the concept to use cool water, but “cooling towers” are still used in the cooling of large buildings.

I was thinking that since it's been some time since the Exodus - it's possible that Eglon's summer palace was connected to the cooling towers. Wherever Eglon's palace was probably had a lot of wind. The towers caught and circulated cool breezes and draw cool air up and pushing warm air out. Since Eglon was a grandee - he would be sitting there in his summer chamber. The Bible mentions that Eglon was a very fat man which makes him prone to feeling hotter than a fit person. I bet Eglon probably had hypertension which made Ehud's assassination of the said person even easier. I think Eglon was also very tired since it was probably a very hot day and he probably didn't fully recover from the sensation. Unfortunately from him, Eglon is now in Hell where he will have no relief.