Zechariah 11:1

Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.

Open thy doors, O Lebanon - i:e., the temple, so called, as being constructed of cedars of Lebanon, or as being lofty and conspicuous, like that mountain (cf. ; ). Forty years before the destruction of the temple, the tract called 'Massecheth Joma' states, its doors of their own accord opened, and Rabbi Johanan, in alarm, said, I know that thy desolation is impending, according to Zechariah's prophecy. Calvin supposes Lebanon to refer to Judea, described by its north boundary: "Lebanon," the route by which the Romans, according to Josephus, gradually advanced toward Jerusalem. Moore, from Hengstenberg, refers the passage to the civil war which caused the calling in of the Romans, who, like a storm sweeping through the land from Lebanon, deprived Judea of its independence. Thus the passage forms a fit introduction to the prediction as to Messiah, born when Judea became a Roman province. But the weight of authority is for the former view.