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Fresh Rain of Biblical Proportions Filling Up Shrinking Sea of Galilee

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April showers bring May flowers, but in Israel, they're filling up the Sea of Galilee.

After years of drought, Israel is experiencing an unexpected amount of rain.

The rain is especially abundant in the Galilee, where the biblical lake rose by 12 inches over the last four days, according to Israel Water Authority. 

On Monday, the Galilee was 3.6 meters away from being full.

The long drought forced Israel to turn to other sources of drinking water and discouraged fisherman from fishing there.

"The lake is the main thing that characterizes our life here from every point of view in my opinion, although today, unfortunately, we cannot make our living from fishing," Uzi Welish told CBN News.

Israel also used technological innovation to pump water back into the Galilee.

"Israel planned and started building water carriers that will bring water from the desalination plants to the Sea of Galilee in order to keep the level of the water high enough in order not to lose the Sea of Galilee as a drinking water point," Israeli Water Authority spokesman Uri Schor Schor explained.

Thanks to the rain, the Galilee is slowly filling up on its own.

Dr. Barry Lynn, a meteorologist and senior researcher at the Hebrew University's Institute of Earth Sciences believes Israel's unusual abundance of rain this year has biblical parallels.

"Joseph predicted seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine," he told The Jerusalem Post. "But in our case we've had about seven years of drought now followed by unexpected rain."

"Winter lasted longer than normal this year," he added.

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About The Author

Emily
Jones

Emily Jones is a multi-media journalist for CBN News in Jerusalem. Before she moved to the Middle East in 2019, she spent years regularly traveling to the region to study the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, meet with government officials, and raise awareness about Christian persecution. During her college years, Emily served as president of Regent University's Christians United for Israel chapter and spoke alongside world leaders at numerous conferences and events. She is an active member of the Philos Project, an organization that seeks to promote positive Christian engagement with the Middle