Matthew 8:24

Tempest] lit. 'shaking.' The word generally means 'earthquake.' 'To understand the causes of these sudden and violent tempests, we must remember that the lake lies low, six hundred feet lower than the Mediterranean Sea, that the vast and naked plateaus of Jaulan (the district E. of the lake) rise to a great height, spreading backward to the wilds of Hauran, and upwards to the snowy Hermon; that the watercourses have cut out profound ravines and wild gorges, converging to the head of the lake, and that these act like gigantic funnels to draw down the winds from the mountains' (Thompson).