the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Lebanon
People's Dictionary of the Bible
or Lebanon (lĕb'a-non), exceeding white. A double mountain range to the north of Palestine, consisting of a western chain, Lebanon proper, and an eastern. "Lebanon toward the sun-rising," Joshua 13:5, called by classic writers Anti-Libanus, and enclosing a valley from five to eight miles broad—" the valley of Lebanon," Joshua 11:17; called by classic writers Cœlo-Syria. The western range, the Lebanon proper, begins on the north near the banks of the Eleutherus, which passes through the plain of Emesa, the "entrance of Hamath," Numbers 34:8, to the Mediterranean, and runs for a distance of 90 geographical miles, in the direction from northeast to southwest, parallel with the Mediterranean, to the banks of the Litany, the ancient Leontes, which, draining Cœlo-Syria and breaking through the Lebanon by a wild gorge, enters the Mediterranean a few miles north of Tyre. The average height of this range is from 6000 to 8000 feet. "The smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon." Song of Solomon 4:11. The eastern chain, the Anti-Lebanon, runs nearly parallel with the western. Its highest point is Mount Hermon. Its western descent toward CœloSyria is abrupt and steep; to the east it gradually sinks into the plains of the desert. Its general aspect is bleak and barren, the abode of wild beasts and birds of prey. From both ranges numerous rivers descend—the Eleutherus, Leontes, Jordan, Abana, and Pharpar (which see); and the cold-flowing waters of the springs and streams of Lebanon were and are still proverbial.
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Rice, Edwin Wilbur, DD. Entry for 'Lebanon'. People's Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/rpd/l/lebanon.html. 1893.
