CEDAR TREE. 



73 



" And Solomon had threescore and ten thousand that bare bur- 

 dens, and fourscore thousand hewers in the mountains*." 



So he built the house and finished it, and covered the house 

 with beams and boards of cedar. 



And then he built chambers against all the house, five cubits 

 high ; and they rested on the house with timber of cedar t." 



" And the cedar of the house v/ithin was carved with knops and 

 open flowers : all was cedar, there was no stone seen. 



" And he built the inner court with three rows of hewed stone, 

 and a row of cedar beams %." 



" Solomon built also the house of the Forest of Lebanon, .... 

 upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars. 

 And the porch of judgment was covered with cedar from one 

 side of the floor to the other §."' 



" What we find mentioned in the Scriptures, of the 

 lofty cedar,"' says Miller, " can be no ways applicable 

 to the stature of this tree, since, from the experience we 

 have of those now growing in England, as also from 

 the testimony of several travellers who have visited those 

 few remaining trees on Mount Libanus, they are not in- 

 clined to grow very lofty, but, on the contrary, extend 

 their branches very far : to which the allusion made by 

 the Psalmist agrees very well, when he is describing the 

 flourishing state of a people, and says, they shall spread 

 their branches like the cedar-tree.'' 



Martyn, referring to this passage, says, the allusion 

 of the Psalmist, of spreading abroad hke a Cedar in Le- 

 banon, shows that he was well acquainted with this tree, 

 which is remarkable for the wide spread of its branches, 



* 1 Kings, chap. v. verses 13 — 15. 

 t Chap. vi. verses 9 and 10. 



% Verses 18 and 36. 



§ Chap. vii. verses 2 and 7, 



