The spiritual blindness which has since darkened the mental vision of Israel, appears to the Christian to be here distinctly foretold.
Notes To Chapter XI.
Ver. 1. פתח לבנון דלתיך—Open thy doors, O Lebanon, &c.
That Jewish writers have understood “the forest,” as metaphorically representing Jerusalem with her stately buildings, and “Lebanon,” as the temple itself, appears from the following note of Mr. Lowth, on this passage.
“By Lebanon, most interpreters understand the temple, whose stately buildings resemble the tall cedars of that forest. Thus the word is commonly understood,” Hab. ii. 17.
There is a remarkable story mentioned in the Jewish writers to this purpose. Some time before the destruction of the temple, the doors of it opened of their own accord; a circumstance mentioned by Josephus, Bell. Jud. 1. 7. c. 12. Then R. Johanan, a disciple of R. Hillel, directing his speech to the temple said, I know thy destruction is at hand, according to the prophecy of Zechariah, Open thy doors, O Lebanon, &c.
The passage in Josephus in my edition is, lib. 6, cap. 5, [pg 119] and a very remarkable one it is, containing many other portents preceding the destruction of the temple, besides the spontaneous opening of these massive doors, which were so ponderous as to require twenty men to open and shut them.
Ver. 2. כי ירד יער הבצור—For the forest of the vintage is come down.