Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may consume your cedars!
Parallel translations
- WEB Open your doors, Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars.
- KJV Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.
- NKJV Open your doors, O Lebanon, That fire may devour your cedars.
- NASB Open your doors, Lebanon, So that a fire may feed on your cedars.
- NLT Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire may devour your cedar forests.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A poetic call for Lebanon to open its doors so fire can devour its famed cedars—a picture of coming judgment on proud, lofty powers. It matters because no human grandeur can withstand God's judgment.
Overview
This shifts abruptly from restoration to a taunt-song of judgment, summoning Lebanon to let the fire consume its prized cedars. The mighty trees symbolize proud nations or leaders whose seeming strength will fall. Many interpreters connect this with the judgment that fell on the land and its leadership, ultimately around the destruction of Jerusalem, the very generation that rejected the Shepherd-Messiah (cf. Luke 19:41-44).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Jer 22:23O inhabitant of Lebanon, nestled in the cedars, how you will groan when pangs of anguish come upon you, agony like a woman in labor.”
- Jer 22:6–7For this is what the LORD says concerning the house of the king of Judah: “You are like Gilead to Me, like the summit of Lebanon; but I will surely turn you into a desert, like cities that are uninhabited.
- Luke 21:23–24How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers! For there will be great distress upon the land and wrath against this people.
- Hab 2:8Because you have plundered many nations, the remnant of the people will plunder you—because of your bloodshed against man and your violence against the land, the city, and all their dwellers.
- Deut 32:22For a fire has been kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains.
- Zech 10:10I will bring them back from Egypt and gather them from Assyria. I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon until no more room is found for them.
- Hab 2:17For your violence against Lebanon will overwhelm you, and the destruction of animals will terrify you, because of your bloodshed against men and your violence against the land, the city, and all their dwellers.
- Zech 14:1–2Behold, a day of the LORD is coming when your plunder will be divided in your presence.
- Matt 24:1–2As Jesus left the temple and was walking away, His disciples came up to Him to point out its buildings.
- Hag 1:8Go up into the hills, bring down lumber, and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified, says the LORD.
- Luke 19:41–44As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it
- Ezek 31:3Look at Assyria, a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches that shaded the forest. It towered on high; its top was among the clouds.
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Christ at the center
The Branch who is both priest and king, the shepherd struck and the flock scattered, the king coming humble on a donkey, the one they pierced, the fountain opened for sin — Zechariah is dense with Christ.
How Zechariah 11:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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