October 6

Cedars of Lebanon

1 Kings 6:10; 2 Chronicles 2:8-9

Timber, of various kinds, was what Solomon chiefly required of king Hiram. That it was needful to procure timber from so distant a quarter, and that through the intervention of foreigners, shows that, although trees of various kinds, and especially such as bear fruit, may have been abundant in Palestine, such as afforded wood suited for building purposes were not much more common in the country than they are at present. As it is eventually said that Solomon made the cedar-wood of Lebanon as abundant in Palestine “as the sycamores that are in the vale,” Note: 1 Kings 10:27. this shows that the sycamore was the native timber tree in common use. But the wood is coarse, and would not be much valued where anything better could be procured. Hence it was a sort of luxury to use cedar-wood, which, although not the most desirable of timbers, is at least considerably better than sycamore; and, being brought with cost and trouble from a distance, would be the more valued on account of its comparatively high price. Thus, again, in Isaiah 9:10—“The sycamore-trees are cut down, and we will change them into cedars;” which does not mean that cedar-trees were to be planted in lieu of sycamores, seeing that the cedar-tree does not flourish in Palestine, but that the Israelites would soon be able to repair their losses, and rebuild in greater perfection. These cedar-trees formed Solomon’s chief requirement from Hiram.

The tree called the “cedar of Lebanon” is very well known in this country, where many specimens of it exist, having been originally propagated in the 17th century from seeds obtained from Lebanon. It is a wide-spreading tree, generally from 50 to 80 feet high, and where standing singly, often covering, with its branches, a space the diameter of which is much greater than its height. The horizontal branches, when the tree is exposed on all sides, are very large in proportion to the trunk, being often equal in bulk to the stern of the fir or the chestnut—a circumstance alluded to by the prophet Ezekiel, in his magnificent description of this noble tree.—Ezekiel 31:3-6. These branches are disposed in horizontal layers or stages, the distance to which they extend diminishing as they approach the top, where they form a pyramidal head broad in proportion to the height. The branchlets are disposed in a fanlike manner upon the branches, and the evergreen leaves lying thickly upon them in tufts, the whole, in each stage of the tree’s ascent, sometimes presents an almost unbroken field of dark green.

The Cedar Tree

The cedar grove, which is regarded as the remnant of the forest which supplied the cedar-wood to Solomon, or rather, perhaps, as the principal existing site of these trees, lies far up among the higher mountains, at a spot which it takes above a day to reach from the coast at Tripoli. The grove is here found, not, as some have conceived, upon any of the summits of Lebanon, but at the foot of a lofty mountain, in what may be regarded as the arena of a vast amphitheatre, shut in on all sides by high mountains, which form part of the upper ridge of Lebanon. Here the trees stand upon five or six gentle elevations, occupying a spot of ground about three fourths of a mile in circumference. They appear to be of several generations. Of the oldest there are few perhaps not more than seven or eight; but besides these, there are forty or fifty good-sized, well-looking trees, and a great number of smaller ones, with some small pines among them. The largest trunks are distinguishable by having the small branches at the top only, and by four, five, or seven trunks springing from one base. The trunks are quite dead, and exhibit externally a grayish tint. The branches of others are larger, and the foliage more abundant—but there are none whose leaves come so close to the ground as in the fine specimens in Kew Gardens. These large and noble trees are known to be not above two centuries old; and as this shows the tree not to be of such slow growth as is commonly supposed, we find a satisfactory reason for the varying accounts of travellers as to the number of the largest specimens in Lebanon, during the last three hundred years over which accounts extend. The trees have meanwhile been growing, and their relative proportions have been undergoing constant change. It is usually stated that the number of the largest trees has rapidly declined. We are reminded that the number which Belon found in 1550 was twenty-eight, and that we afterwards successively hear of sixteen, then of twelve, now of seven. But it is probable the difference is more apparent than real, travellers not being agreed what they should regard as the largest trees—some counting more, and some less, and the number reckoned as largest being fewer in proportion as the notions of travellers became more definite, and as their means of comparison increased. How little is to be relied upon in such estimates, where measurements are not given, is shown by the fact that Maundrell reckons only sixteen large trees, while Le Bruyn, who travelled some years later, counted thirty-six, and he admits that it was as difficult to count them by the eye, as to count the stones at Stonehenge. The trees which were of secondary age three centuries ago, must by this time have so increased in bulk as to be among those which Belon would now reckon among the largest, could he count them over again. There is no apparent cause of decrease, and in a place where the axe of the hewer never comes, there would naturally be a succession of large trees—as, without doubt, has actually been the case. The dimensions of the trees whose trunks are dead, and which must have attained the utmost size, afford the best standard for the fall growth of the cedar of Lebanon, and the circumference of the largest and most remarkable is thirty-nine or forty feet a little above the ground. Now, we have found the means of calculating that the cedar increases in bulk at the rate of about 1 ¼ inch in one year, consequently this tree must have been 384 years in actual growing. Note: This calculation is founded on the fact, that the cedar in the garden of the Manor-house at Enfield, known to have been planted in 1670, measured sixteen feet one inch in circumference in 1821, being 193 inches in 151 years, which is rather more than 1 ¼ inch in a year. Then we must allow the time it took in gradually decaying after it had ceased to increase in bulk, and the time it has stood in its present decayed condition—taking which into account, it cannot be too little, nor probably too much, to allow that from 500 to 600 years may have passed since it first sprang from the ground. This is a great length of time—more, perhaps, than it is quite safe to allow to a soft-wooded tree, seeing that gives it an existence at least equal to that of the hard-wooded oak. In fact, the estimate may probably be in excess, from its being founded upon the growth of the tree in England, where, as an exotic, the growth is probably slower—or, in other words, the annual deposit of woody matter thinner, than in the region where the cedar is indigenous. It is certainly the largest possible estimate—and therefore the more strongly shows the error of those who fancy that the older of these trees may be such as grow on this spot in the time of Solomon—nearly three thousand years ago. Indeed, although it is also fondly imagined that this is the very grove from which the king obtained his cedars, there can be no question that the supply was drawn from parts of the mountain more accessible to the coast, and from which all traces of the cedar have long since disappeared. The trees here doubtless owe their preservation and the venerable age they have been suffered to attain, to the fact, that if they were cut down, no means could be found of transporting them to the sea. For the same reason, this grove must have been left unmolested from the most ancient times, although we cannot cherish the notion that any of the old patriarchal trees now found here, grew up under the same light that shone upon the throne of Solomon. The spot might, however, very well have furnished, even in that age, those grander specimens of the tree from which the sacred writers drew the conceptions which they have imparted to us of its magnificence.

It may be stated that some writers doubt whether the tree known as the cedar of Lebanon, be really the Eres of Scripture. The description in Ezekiel can, however, hardly apply to any other tree known in that region, and belonging to Lebanon; but it is possible that the name may have been extended to other trees of the same genus (Pinus,) some of them with wood better suited for beams and planks than the cedar. In appearance, it is scarcely distinguishable from white deal, and it is scarcely of harder consistence; but it has a much finer scent than any kind of deal, and may possibly be more durable. It has been supposed by some, that the wood may in Lebanon be of a firmer texture than that afforded by the specimens in this country—but we have before us a small piece of the wood from Lebanon, which fully answers to this description. Same describe the wood as certainly of not greater value than deal—if indeed so valuable. Yet it is stated that a skilful carver of Warwick has in his rooms some specimens of furniture made from cedar of Lebanon, ornamented with carved work in flowers, leaves, etc., in the best taste, and in sharpness and color so similar to box-wood, that any casual observer would suppose it to be such.

Travellers err in supposing that there are no other cedars in Lebanon than those which are found at this place. Many other single specimens and clumps of cedars are to be met with among the mountains, but nowhere else have so many together, or such large and venerable specimens, been discovered. The tree is not even peculiar to Lebanon—it is found growing wild in the mountains of Amanus and Taurus; and it grows very freely in this country—specimens being now rather numerous, at least within twenty-five miles around London. It has considerable general resemblance to a yew, and is sometimes taken for it by the uninitiated. We are aware of one growing in the churchyard of a village in which we formerly resided, which the peasantry resolutely affirmed to be yew; but it was a real cedar of Lebanon. This specimen is above forty feet high, and about seven feet in girth; and as a servant of our own used to boast that it was planted by the hand of her father, it must have been of comparatively recent growth.