Zechariah 11:1

1 Open your doors, [O] Lebanon, so that fire will devour 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.''

---

FOOTNOTES:

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

Zechariah 11:1 In-Context

1 Open your doors, [O] Lebanon, so that fire will devour your cedars!

2 Wail, O juniper, for [the] cedar has fallen, for [the] magnificent [trees] are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the impenetrable forest has come down!

3 [Listen to] the wailing of the shepherds, for their splendor is ruined! [Listen to] the roar of [the] young lions, for the thickets of the Jordan are ruined!

4 Thus says Yahweh my God: "Shepherd the flock [doomed] to slaughter.

5 The ones buying them kill them and go unpunished, and the ones selling them say, 'Blessed [be] Yahweh, for I have become rich.' Their own shepherds have no compassion for them.