| I Kings 5:6
| Give orders, therefore, that thy servants cut me down cedar-trees, out of Libanus, and let my servants be with thy servants: and I will give thee the hire of thy servants whatsoever thou wilt ask: for thou knowest how there is not among my people a man that has skill to hew wood like to the Sidonians.
| Libanus. It belonged to Israel, since the victory of David, 2 Kings 10:18. Solomon built some fortresses on the mountain, 3 Kings 9:19. The cedar-trees grow chiefly towards Phenicia, above Biblos. They bear a great resemblance with fir-trees, and grow in a pyramidical form. The wood is hard and bitter, so that worms will not molest it. Hence it was much used in the temple of Ephesus, and in other large buildings; lacunaria ex ea....propter aeternitatem sunt facta. (Vitruvius 2:9.) --- Sidonians. It seems they were subject to the king of Tyre, or this was the common title of all the Phenicians. (Calmet)
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