Jeremiah 36:22

Now the king sat in the winter-house— See Amos 3:15. This description of Jehoiakim's sitting in his winter-house in the 9th month, which corresponds to the latter end of November and part of December, with a fire burning upon the hearth before him, answers to Russell's account, who says, that the most delicate in those countries make no fires till the end of November. How long they continue the use of them, he does not say; but we know from other authors, that in Judaea they are continued far into the spring. Bishop Pococke set out from Jerusalem on the 17th of March in the evening, and was conducted by his Arab guide to his tent, which was two or three miles off; and there treated with bread and coffee; he, the Arab's wife, and some other people, he tells us, sitting by a fire: in another place he says, that in the night of the eighth of May, the sheik of Sephonry, a place in Galilee, made them a fire in a little ruinous building, and sent them boiled eggs, milk, and coffee: so that the fire which they had was not designed for the preparing of their food, but for warming them. No wonder then that the people who went to Gethsemane, to apprehend our Lord, thought a fire of coals a considerable refreshment at the time of the passover, (John 18:18.) which must have been earlier in the year than the 8th of May, though it might be considerably later than the 17th of March. See Observations, p. 19.