CEDRUS LIBANI 
1 7 
words in Isaiah xxxvii. 24), to cut down the tall Cedar trees of Lebanon. Sennacherib obviously knew 
that Lebanon was not within the territory of Hezekiah; for, after threatening its destruction, he next goes 
on to say he would enter into Hezekiah s borders— i.e., his own territory. Still, knowing that Lebanon 
was the source from which a favourite magnificence of the kings of Judah was drawn, he sought to intimidate 
him by threatening to annihilate it. 
It is with reference to these invasions of the Assyrians that Isaiah prophesies (Isaiah ix. 10), “ The 
bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones ; the Sycamores are cut down, but we will 
change them into Cedars; and in Isaiah xiv. 7, 8, “The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break 
forth into singing. Yea, the Fir-trees rejoice at thee, and the Cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou [i.e., 
the King of Babylon] art laid down, no feller is come up against us.” This would indicate that the 
Assyrians had at some time or other actually carried Sennacherib’s threat into execution, and made havoc 
in the forests of Lebanon. Mr. Layard thinks that he has not only found a passage in the cuneiform 
inscriptions at Nineveh, in which the builder of the edifice narrates that he had brought Cedars to it from 
the forests of Lebanon, but also an actual portion of one of the beams itself. We shall have to consider 
the weight to be attached to Mr. Layard’s discovery by and by, when we come to speak of the growth 
and age of the tree. In the meantime we shall only say that we are sceptical both as to the timber found 
by him being Cedar from Lebanon, and, generally, as to the dependence to be placed on the attempts to 
decipher these cuneiform inscriptions ; and therefore we do not attach any weight to the confirmation 
offered by Mr. Layard; but those who are free from such doubts will of course accept it as additional 
evidence of the cause of the present scarcity in Lebanon of this once plentiful tree. 
The last historical reference to the Cedar in the Bible occurs in Ezra, where an account is given of 
the rebuilding of Jerusalem by Cyrus (Ezra iii. 7). 
The remainder of the allusions to the Cedar are poetical; and although they are not only of great 
beauty, but furnish much matter for interesting speculation and reference, scarcely come within the scope of 
a botanical work. 
It is very generally taken for granted that the Psalms are full of illustrations drawn from the Cedar; 
and yet, on looking for them, we find only a few brief allusions. A more important point, on which we 
desire to correct the general belief, is the notion which some persons have that the Cedar of the Lebanon is 
not the Cedar of the Bible, or that a large proportion of the references to it properly belong to some other 
tree. But we think there cannot be a better correction for anything that is excessive or erroneous in that 
idea, nor a better means of discriminating the references to the true Cedar of Lebanon from those to 
something else also bearing the name of El’Arz, than a complete survey of the whole references placed in 
one view, and as nearly as possible in chronological order. This we have endeavoured to give, and we do 
not think any one can rise from the consecutive perusal of these passages without feeling that Hiram’s 
gift of Cedars to David, and every quotation subsequent to the date thereof, all relate to the same tree; 
and that that tree was our Cedar. Those mentioned previously in Leviticus and Numbers equally plainly 
refer to something else. 
The Cedar is mentioned nowhere in the New Testament. 
Passing from the Scriptural allusions, it may not be uninteresting to run over the notices which we have 
met with of the size and the numbers of the Cedars on Lebanon, given at different periods by various 
authors. These carry us back for at least three hundred years, and give a tolerably connected view of their 
history and state during that time. 
The most antient author who has spoken of the Cedars of Lebanon, appears to have been the Father 
Nicole le Huen, a French priest, who made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1487. In his “ Grand Voyage 
de Jerusalem,” he speaks of Mount Lebanon as being remarkable for “the very high Cedars and other 
verdant trees in great multitude and marvellous procerity; ” and breaks out into admiration of the amenity 
and beauty of the mountains of Lebanon, and of their products, which he enumerates, concluding—“ Item 
est 
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