Lebanon

Lebanon is the mountain range that frames Israel from the north. Scripture treats it as a fixed landmark of the promised land's outer edge, a stand of timber from which kings build their houses and the temple is supplied, a watered country whose snow, streams, and scent become metaphors for fidelity and beauty, and — in the prophets — a height that gets brought low when proud kings or the proud city are arraigned for judgment. Scripture catalogues Lebanon's cedars and also describes Lebanon as a boundary, as a forest house, as a tower, as a fruitful field promised in restoration, and as a body laid open to the bramble's fire.

The northern boundary

The promise to Israel is consistently mapped to Lebanon as its northern marker. At Kadesh, Moses repeats the divine word: "turn⁺, and take your⁺ journey, and go⁺ to the hill-country of the Amorites, and to all its neighboring places, in the Arabah, in the hill-country, and in the lowland, and in the South, and by the seashore, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates" (Deut 1:7). Moses' own plea uses the same horizon: "Let me go over, I pray you, and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that good mountain, and Lebanon" (Deut 3:25). The promise is widened in Deuteronomy 11: "Every place on which the sole of your⁺ foot will tread will be yours⁺ from the wilderness. And Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the hinder sea, will be your⁺ border" (Deut 11:24). Joshua's commission begins with the same line: "From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, even to the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun, will be your⁺ border" (Joshua 1:4). The coalition that hears of the conquest is named in the same map: "all the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill-country, and in the lowland, and on all the shore of the great sea in front of Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite" (Joshua 9:1). Two summary verses fix the conquered territory's western reach to "Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon under mount Hermon" (Joshua 11:17), and again "from Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon even to mount Halak, that goes up to Seir" (Joshua 12:7). And the inhabitants whom Yahweh leaves to test Israel after the conquest include "the Hivites who dwelt in mount Lebanon, from mount Baal-hermon to the entrance of Hamath" (Judges 3:3).

The watered country

Lebanon is depicted as a country of snow, streams, and scent. Jeremiah's rhetorical question takes the snow as a thing that does not fail: "Will the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of Shaddai? [Or] will the cold waters that flow down from far away be dried up?" (Jer 18:14). The Song uses Lebanon's running water for a love-image: the bride is "a fountain of gardens, A well of living waters, And flowing streams from Lebanon" (Song 4:15). Hosea's restoration oracle piles up Lebanon's vegetation: "[My Speech] will be as the dew to Israel; he will blossom as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches will spread, and his grandeur will be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. Those who dwell under his shadow will return; they will revive the grain, and blossom as the vine: his scent will be as the wine of Lebanon" (Hosea 14:5-7). Even when judgment comes, what fails is described as Lebanon's bloom: "He rebukes the sea, and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers: Bashan languishes, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languishes" (Nahum 1:4). Isaiah uses Lebanon's beasts and timber as the measuring-rod that no offering can match: "And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt-offering" (Isaiah 40:16).

The cedars of Lebanon

The cedar of Lebanon is the standing image of strength and height. Yahweh himself is called the planter: "The trees of Yahweh are filled [with moisture], The cedars of Lebanon, which he has planted" (Ps 104:16). The voice of Yahweh in the storm psalm bends them: "[The Speech of] Yahweh breaks the cedars; Yes, [the Speech of] Yahweh breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon" (Ps 29:5). Isaiah's day-of-Yahweh oracle goes after the same height as a figure for human pride: judgment is "on all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and on all the oaks of Bashan" (Isaiah 2:13). When the king of Babylon falls, the trees of Lebanon are made to celebrate: "Yes, the fir-trees rejoice at you, [and] the cedars of Lebanon, [saying,] Since you are laid low, no hewer has come up against us" (Isaiah 14:8). Sennacherib's boast invades the same forest: "When I mount my chariot I will come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon; and I will cut down its tall cedars, and its choice fir-trees; and I will enter into its farthest lodging-place, its park forest" (2 Kings 19:23). Jotham's parable assigns the cedars to the same proud-and-burnable role: "if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon" (Judges 9:15). Ezekiel's lament for Tyre uses the cedar for a ship's mast: "They have made all your planks of fir-trees from Senir; they have taken a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast for you" (Ezekiel 27:5). And Sirach's praise of Simon the high priest uses the cedar of Lebanon as the simile for the priestly company: "Around him [was] the garland of his sons, Like young cedar trees in Lebanon; And like willows by the brook they surrounded him" (Sir 50:12).

The timber of David and Solomon

Lebanon supplies the wood of the kings of Israel. Sidonian and Tyrian crews bring the cedars to David in abundance: "and cedar-trees without number: for the Sidonians and those of Tyre brought cedar-trees in abundance to David" (1 Chron 22:4). Solomon's request to Hiram names Lebanon as the source: "Send me also cedar-trees, fir-trees, and algum-trees, out of Lebanon; for I know that your slaves know how to cut timber in Lebanon: and, look, my slaves will be with your slaves" (2 Chronicles 2:8). Cedar lines the inner sanctuary: "And there was cedar on the house inside, carved with knops and open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen" (1 Kings 6:18). David's own complaint to Nathan turns on the same wood: "See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside curtains" (2 Sam 7:2). And Jeremiah's woe against the proud builder names the same material as the mark of unjust luxury: "I will build me a wide house and spacious chambers, and cuts him out many windows; and it is ceiled with cedar, and painted with vermilion" (Jer 22:14). Tyre's traders deal in the same goods: "in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords and made of cedar, these were your merchandise" (Ezekiel 27:24).

The house of the forest of Lebanon

Solomon builds a hall whose name keeps the source-country attached to it: "For he built the house of the forest of Lebanon; its length was a hundred cubits, and its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits, on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on the pillars. And it was covered with cedar above over the forty and five beams, that were on the pillars; fifteen in a row. And there were beams in three rows, and window was opposite window in three ranks. And all the doors and jambs were made square with beams: and window was opposite window in three ranks" (1 Kings 7:2-5). The same king kept storage cities in the region named: "and all the store-cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion" (1 Kings 9:19). And the lover's praise in the Song sets a tower in the same direction: "Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon Which looks toward Damascus" (Song 7:4).

Lebanon in the prophets

The prophets use Lebanon two ways: as the stand-in for the proud height that gets brought low, and as the figure of the fruitful field promised in restoration. Isaiah's reversal oracle turns the equation upside down: "Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be esteemed as a forest?" (Isaiah 29:17). Jeremiah's word against the house of Judah's king takes Lebanon as the very figure for what the dynasty is, and what it is about to be reduced to: "For thus says Yahweh concerning the house of the king of Judah: You are Gilead to me, [and] the head of Lebanon; [yet] surely I will make you a wilderness, [and] cities which are not inhabited" (Jer 22:6). The same height the kings cut for cedar is the height the kings are made to be — and to lose.