CEDAR OF LEBANON. 525 



banon :" others, again, refer to the magnitude of its dimen- 

 sions, and the wide spread of its boughs ; as in that passage 

 of the eightieth psalm, when speaking of the Israelites 

 under the figure of a flourishing vine, he adds : — " The 

 hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs 

 thereof were like the goodly Cedars;" and again the ninety- 

 second: — " The righteous shall flourish like a palm-tree, 

 and shall spread abroad like a Cedar in Libanus." But 

 the most striking and magnificent description is that of 

 the prophet Ezekiel, when he describes Assyria, or the 

 Assyrians, under the figure of a mighty Cedar of Lebanon ; 

 " Behold," &c. (from verse 3 to 9, ch. xxxi.) 



Cedar wood is also mentioned in the Pentateuch, and 

 we learn from the sixth and seventh chapters of the first 

 of Kings, that the chief timbers and wood-work of the 

 far-famed temple built by Solomon, as well as that used 

 in the finishing of his own house, called " the house of the 

 forest of Lebanon," were mostly of Cedar, brought from 

 that mountain by the permission of Hiram, King of Tyre, 

 to whom Solomon annually paid, during the progress of 

 the work, a contribution consisting of twenty thousand 

 measures of wheat, and twenty measures of pure oil, and 

 further, that no less a number than fourscore thousand 

 hewers were employed in the mountains. 



In regard to the Cedar and Cedar wood mentioned in 

 profane history, it is difficult, from what we have already 

 stated, to determine what has reference to the true Cedar, 

 and what belongs to other coniferous species ; all that we 

 know for certainty, is, that a wood called Cedar, distin- 

 guished for its incorruptible nature, was frequently used 

 for purposes most important in the eyes of the Pagan, 

 viz., in the building and decoration of their temples, and 

 for the statues or images of their heroes and gods. Thus 



