378 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH
Most interpreters, indeed, both Jewish and Christian regard the language as figurative. Thus, the " cedars " ar taken to mean the highest and noblest in the land, while the " cypresses," or " firs," represent the common people, who are commanded to " howl," because since the " cedars " have fallen there is no hope of their being spared. Certainly in Ezek. xvii. 3 the family of David is repre- sented by a lofty cedar, and in Isa. xiv. 8 and Jer. xxii. 6-7 the cedars of Lebanon stand as " the emblem of the glory of the Jewish State." But even though " the scientific expositor " may regard the allegorical interpretation of this particular passage as " fanciful," l and we ourselves would by no means wholly commit ourselves to it, it is none the less of interest that a very ancient Jewish interpretation identifies Lebanon here with the Temple " which was built with cedars from Lebanon, towering aloft upon a strong summit the spiritual glory and eminence of Jerusalem, as the Lebanon was of the whole country." Thus Kimchi, after explaining these verses as a prophecy of the destruction of the kings of the Gentile nations, in accordance with the interpretation of the Targum of Jonathan, who paraphrases, " A voice of the howling of the shepherds because their glory is spoiled" (ver. 3), as: "The voice of the crying of the kings because their provinces are desolated," he says : " This interpretation is according to the Targum, but our Rabbis of blessed memory have interpreted the chapter of the desolation of the Second Temple, and Lebanon is the Holy Temple." 2
1 Dr. Wright.
2 The remarkable tradition which Kimchi here quotes, is found in the Talm. Bab., Treatise Yoma (fol. 39, col. 2), and is as follows: "Our rabbis have handed down the tradition, that forty years before the destruction of the Temple, the lot (for the goat that was to be sacrificed on the Day of Atonement) did not come out on the right side, neither did the scarlet tongue (that used to be fastened between the horns of the scapegoat) turn white (as, according to tradi tion, it used to do, to signify that the sins of the people were forgiven), neither did the western lamp burn ; the doors of the sanctuary also opened of their own accord, until R. Johanan, the son of Zacchai, reproved them. He said : O sanctuary, sanctuary! why dost thou trouble thyself? R. Isaac, the son of Tavlai, says : Why is the Temple called Lebanon (white mountain) ? Answer :
