This week we are reading Zechariah 11, arguably the most enigmatic gloomy section of the whole book. The chapter’s prelude (11:1-3) is a dark poem with the vivid portrayal of personified trees wailing over their own destruction. Shepherds and lions join in with the trees’ lament, mourning their own loss of pasture and thicket. Lebanon’s cedars and cypress burn while Bashan’s oaks tumble in a cascade of destruction.
The poem cries, “the glorious trees are ruined!” (11:2) in reference to the fall of the most prized trees in the Ancient Near East, Lebanon’s cedars. David acquired cedar logs from Lebanon to build his palace (2 Sam. 5:11). Cedar paneling from Lebanon adorned Solomon’s Temple (1 Kings 6:6). Even in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the mythic king risked his life to go to Lebanon’s cedar forest and bring back the precious wood to his kingdom.
To Zechariah’s listening audience, the destruction of the cedar trees, forever associated with strength and glory, demonstrated Yahweh’s superiority. If Yahweh is mightier than the stately cedar tree, he is greater than all things. When the Psalmist praised God’s strength, he compared his voice to the cedar: “The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon” (Ps. 29:5).
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