to open wide (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
doors
דְּלָתֶ֑יךָde.la.Tei.kha
H1817
something swinging · noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
Lebanon
לְבָנ֖וֹןle.va.Non
H3844
Lebanon · proper noun, a place name
fire
אֵ֖שׁ'esh
H784
fire (literally or figuratively) · noun, common both genders singular absolute
devour
וְתֹאכַ֥לve.to.Khal
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person feminine singular
cedars
בַּאֲרָזֶֽיךָba.'a.ra.Zei.kha
H730
a cedar tree (from the tenacity of its roots) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 22:6-7 For thus saith the LORD unto the king’s house of Judah; Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make thee a wild…
Jeremiah 22:23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in…
Luke 21:23-24 But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath u…
Deuteronomy 32:22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the…
Habakkuk 2:8 Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee; because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the…
Habakkuk 2:17 For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men’s blood, and for the violence…
Haggai 1:8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD.
Zechariah 10:10 I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Leb…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Zechariah 11:1-3
In dark and figurative expressions, as is usual in the scripture predictions of things at a great distance, that destruction of Jerusalem and of the Jewish church and nation is here foretold which our Lord Jesus, when the time was at hand, prophesied of very plainly and expressly. We have here, 1. Preparation made for that destruction (Zac 11:1): "Open thy doors, O Lebanon! Thou wouldst not open them to let thy king in - he came to his own and his own received him not; now thou must open them to let thy ruin in. Let the gates of the forest, and all the avenues to it, be thrown open, and let the fire come in and devour its glory." Some by Lebanon here understand the temple, which was built of…
Open thy doors, O Lebanon - I will give Mr. Joseph Mede's note upon this verse: -
"That which moveth me more than the rest, is in chap. 11, which contains a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, and a description of the wickedness of the inhabitants, for which God would give them to the sword, and have no more pity upon them. It is expounded of the destruction by Titus; but methinks such a prophecy was nothing seasonable for Zachary's time, (when the city yet for a great part lay in her ruins, and the temple had not yet recovered hers), nor agreeable to the scope. Zachary's commission, who, together with his colleague Haggai, was sent to encourage the people, lately returned from captiv…
Open thy doors, O Lebanon,.... By which may be meant, either the temple of Jerusalem, which was built of the cedars of Lebanon;
"the gates of which are said (w) to open of themselves forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, when Jochanan ben Zaccai, who lived at the same time, rebuked them, saying, O temple, temple, wherefore dost thou frighten thyself? I know thine end is to be destroyed; for so prophesied Zechariah, the son of Iddo, concerning thee, "open thy doors, O Lebanon".''
So Lebanon, in Zechariah 10:10, is interpreted of the sanctuary, both by the Targum and by Jarchi; or else it may be understood of Jerusalem, and of the whole land of Judea, because it was situated by it…
The Church Fathers
(Chapter 11, Verse 1) Open your gates, Lebanon, and let the fire devour your cedars. Howl, fir tree, for the cedar has fallen; the majestic trees are ruined. Wail, you oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been cut down. LXX: Open your gates, Lebanon, and let the fire devour your cedars. Let the pine tree wail, for the cedar has fallen; the nobles have been crushed. Wail, you oaks of Bashan, for the dense forest has been laid waste. Clearly, Lebanon, to which the prophetic discourse is directed, saying: Open, Lebanon, your gates, the temple of the Jews is understood, which was restored, rebuilt by Zerubbabel, again sung to be destroyed by Vespasian and Titus. And because he had metaphorically called Lebanon a temple, and he maintains the same translation in the rest, so that through cedars and firs and oaks of Bashan and a wooded grove, he signifies the leaders, priests, and people of the Jews. But Lebanon opens its gates so that the Roman army can enter, and its cedars are consumed by fire, so that everything is either devastated by the conflagration or its leaders and princes are consumed by enemy attack. The firs wail, because the cedar has fallen, and the priests and leaders mourn their people in return. And what he previously said obscurely, he now presents more clearly, because the magnificent ones have been laid waste. I desire to know which are the cedars of Lebanon that have been burned, which firs wail, and which pines have fallen; for, he says, the magnificent ones have been laid waste. Howl, O oak tree of Bazan, that is, of confusion and ignominy, for the well-fortified forest, which is called Besor in Hebrew and is translated by the LXX as wooded and cut down; for the temple, which had grown in impregnable strength and was built by various kings and princes, and later by Herod, was destroyed by the Romans' attack. Some people, not understanding this place, attribute the strength of the Lebanon, the cedars, the pines, and the oak of Bazan, along with the wooded and fortified forest, to opposing powers, about which it is said in Ezekiel under the name of Assyria and Pharaoh: Behold, Assyria is a cypress tree in Lebanon, with fair branches and a dense shade, and tall in stature, and its top was among the clouds: it was nourished by water, and the abyss made it tall, and so on, which are said about both Assyria and Pharaoh, they are thought to…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Cedar — (Heb. e’rez, Gr. kedros, Lat. cedrus), a tree very frequently mentioned in Scripture. It was stately (Ezek. 31:3-5), long-branched (Ps. 80:10; 92:12; Ezek. 31:6-9), odoriferous (Cant. 4:11; Hos.…
Lebanon · Illustrative: Of the temple — Illustrative: Of the temple
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Zechariah 11:1-3
1. Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.
1. Aperi, Libane, protas tuas, et vorabit ignis cedros tuas:
2. Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down.
2. Ulula abies, quia cecidit cedrus, quia fortes (vel, praestantes) vastati sunt; ululate quercus Bashan, quia descendit (hoc est, excisa est, vel, prostrate) sylva munita.
3. There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.
3. Vox ululatus pastorum, quia vastata est praestantia eorum (vel, forti…
The Devastation of the Holy Land. - Zac 11:1. "Open thy gates, O Lebanon, and let fire devour thy cedars! Zac 11:2. Howl, cypress; for the cedar is fallen, for the glory is laid waste! Howl, ye oaks of Bashan; for the inaccessible forest is laid low! Zac 11:3. A loud howling of the shepherds; for their glory is laid waste! A loud roaring of the young lions; for the splendour of Jordan is laid waste!" That these verses do not form the commencement of a new prophecy, having no connection with the previous one, but that they are simply a new turn given to that prophecy, is evident not only from the omission of any heading or of any indication whatever which could point to the commencement of a…
This taunt song against Lebanon and Bashan concludes the preceding message of deliverance and restoration for Israel (10:1-12); it could also introduce the following message about good and evil shepherds (11:4-17).
11:1 Lebanon, boasting snow-covered mountains and fruitful valleys, was a symbol of strength and fertility.
Rashi on Zechariah 11:1
Open your doors, O Lebanon Jonathan renders: O peoples, open your gates.