Now therefore command that cedar trees be cut for me out of Lebanon. My servants will be with your servants; and I will give you wages for your servants according to all that you say. For you know that there is nobody among us who knows how to cut timber like the Sidonians.”
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 6. Libanus. It belonged to Israel, since the victory of David, 2 Kennicott. 10:18. Solomon built some fortresses on the mountain. Calmet. 9:19. The cedar-trees grow chiefly towards Phenicia, above Biblos. They bear a great resemblance with fir-trees, and grow in a pyramidical form. The wood is hard and bitter, so that worms will not molest it. Hence it was much used in the temple of Ephesus, and in other large buildings; lacunaria ex eâ … propter æternitatem sunt facta. Vitruv. ii. 9.—Sidonians. It seems they were subject to the king of Tyre, or this was the common title of all the Phenicians. Calmet.