The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 93

Halepmsi.s, not, as was formerly thought, Lebo.non. Others identify it with the juni- the Scotch fir (Pinus sylvestris), is intended. per (Juniperus excelsa) or with the Pinus The Cednt,S Libani appears to be indiffer- Ilalepe~u, but most writers (among whom ently adapted to any such purpose, fol' are Keil and Bahr) believe the evergreen which, however, the Pinus Halepensis is cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) to be in- eminently fitted. But in the text, as tended. Very probably the no.me Berosh throughout eh. v.-viii., the reference, it comprehended two or three different species, can hardly be doubted, is to the Cedru.s o.s the cypress, the juniper, and the so.vine. Libani. It is true the wood of this species The first - named grows even near the is neither beautiful nor remarkably durable. summits of the mountain. Biihr says it is Dr. Lindley calls it the " worthless, though inferior to cedar (but see above). According magni.tic.ent cedar," but the former adjective, to Winer, it is well fitted for building pur- however true it may be of English-grown poses, o.s " it is not eaten by worms, and is cedar, cannot justly be applied to the tree almost imperishable and very light." It is of the Lebanon mountain. The writer haa certainly of e. harder and closer grain, and some wood in his possession, brought by more darable than the Cedru.s Libani. him from the Lebanon, e.nd though it has It shows the brevity of our account that neither fragrance nor veining, it is unmis- Solomon has not mentioned his desire for takably a hard and resinous wood. And it "fir" u.s well as" cedar." Thie is disclosed should Le remembered that it was only in Hiro.m's reply, e.nd in the parallel passage employed by Solomon in the interior of the of the chronicler. It is also to be noticed temple, and was there, for the most part, that in the text the request for materiala overlaid with gold, and that the climate of is more prominently brought to view, while Palestine is much less destructive than oar in Chronicles the petition is for workmen. own. There seems to be no sufficient Ver. 9.-l!rly servants shall bring them reo.10n, therefore, for rejecting the tradi- [No word in the Hebrew; "Timber of Cedar," tional and till recently universal belief &c., must be supplied or understood from that the Cedru.s Libani was the timber the preceding verse] down [It is generally chosen for the temple use. Mr. Houghton, e. steep descent from the cedar grove, and in Smith's Diet. Bib., voL iii. App. A. p. xl., indeed all the Lebo.non district, to the who speaks of it " a.a being mr' l(o,c,ji,, the coast] from Lebanon unto the sea [Thie firmest and grandest of the conifers," says must have been e. great undertaking. The at the so.me time that " it has no particular cedars are ten hours distant from Tripoli, quality to recommend it for building pur- and the road must always have been e. bad poses ; it we.s probably therefore not very one. (" What a road it is for mortals. In extensively used in the construction of the some spots it seems to have been intended temple." But no other tree can be sug- for mountain goats only . . . . . It winds gested which better suits the conditions of up sublime glens, and zigzags up rocky the sacred narrative. The deodara, which acclivities, and passes over stone-strewn has found favour with some writers, it is terraces," &c. (Porter, Handbook, p. 683.) .now positively stated, does not grow near To the writer it appeared to be the mos\ the Lebanon. It may be added that, under rugged and dangerous road in Palestine. the no.me of Eres, the yew was probably It is possible that the timber was collected included. The timber used in the palaces and floated at Gebal (Biblus. See note on of Nineveh, which was long believed to be ver. 18). Beyrout, the present port of the cedar, is now proved to be yew (Diet. Bib., Lebo.non, is 27 hours distant via Tripoli. art. "Cedar"). However, it is certain that But cede.re would then, no doubt, be found T~~ is a nomen general,e which incl~de~, at nearer the sea. And the ancients (o.s the any rate, the pine, the cedar, and the Jtm1per, stones of Baalbek, &c., prove) were not in confirmation of which it may be men- altogether deficient in mechanical appli- tioned that o.t the present de.y, "the no.me ances. The transport of cedars to the arz is applied by the Arabs to all three " Mediterranean would be an easy undertak- (Royle, in Kitto's Cyclop., art. "Eres ''). ing compared with the carriage of them to The Grove of Cedars now numbers a.bout Nineveh, and we know from the inscrip- 450 trees, great and small. Of these about tions that they were imported by the a dozen are of prodigious size and consid- Assyrian kings] and I will convey them by eralile antiquity, possibly carrying us back sea. 1n floats [Ileb. "I will make (or put) (o.s the natives think) to the time of them rafts in the sea." This was the Solomon. Their precise age, however, can primitive, as it was the obvious, way, of con- only be a matter of conjecture. veying timber, o.mong Greeks and Romans, The identification of the " fir " is even as well as among Ee.stem races. Tho reader more precarious than that of the cedar. will probably have seen such rafts on the Celsius would see in this the true cedar of Rhine or other river] unto the place whlc!I 0B, V, 1-18.] THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 87