Zechariah 11:1

1 Let your doors be open, O Lebanon, so that fire may be burning among your cedars.

Zechariah 11:1 Meaning and Commentary

Zechariah 11:1

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 ^F23 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; it was the border of it on the north side. That the fire may devour thy cedars;
of which the temple was built, and the houses of Jerusalem, which were consumed by fire; unless the fortresses of the land are meant. So the Targum paraphrases it,

``and the fire shall consume your fortresses.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 39. 2.

Zechariah 11:1 In-Context

1 Let your doors be open, O Lebanon, so that fire may be burning among your cedars.

2 Give a cry of grief, O fir-tree, for the fall of the cedar, because the great ones have been made low: give cries of grief, O you oaks of Bashan, for the strong trees of the wood have come down.

3 The sound of the crying of the keepers of the flock! for their glory is made waste: the sound of the loud crying of the young lions! for the pride of Jordan is made waste.

4 This is what the Lord my God has said: Take care of the flock of death;

5 Whose owners put them to death and have no sense of sin; and those who get a price for them say, May the Lord be praised for I have much wealth: and the keepers of the flock have no pity for them.