ERES or 2ERES (e'rez) eh'rez), oc curs in numerous places of Scripture, but authors are nut agreed on the exact meaning of the Rim.
(1) Pino or Cedar. Celsius (Ilicrobot.
sq.), for instance, conceives that it is a general name for the pine tribe, to the exclusion of the cedar of Lebanon, which he considers to be indi cated by the word Itilitosit. The majority of au thors, however, are of opinion that the cedar of Lebanon (l'inus Cedars or Cedrus Libarn of bot anists) is alone If we proceed to compare the ‹everal passages of Scripture in which the word Eres occurs, we shall equally find that one plant is not strictly ap plicable to them all.
.(2) Early Notices of Cedar. The earliest no tice of the cedar is in Lev. xiv :4, 6, where we are told that Moses commanded the leper that was to be cleansed to make an offering of two spar rows, cedar wood, wool dyed in scarlet, and hyssop; and in verses 49, 51, 52, the houses in which the lepers dwell are directed to be purified with the same materials. Again, in Num. xix:6, Moses and Aaron are commanded to sacrifice a red heifer. 'And the priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet.' The cedar was not a native of Egypt, nor could it have been procured in the desert without great difficulty; but the juniper is most plentiful there, and takes deep root in the crevices of the rocks of Mount Sinai. That some, at least, of the cedars of the ancients Celsius was of opinion that the eres indicated the Pinus sylvestris or Scotch pine, which yields the red and yellow deals of Norway, and which is likewise found on Mount Lebanon. This opin ion seems to be confirmed by Ezekiel (xxvii:5), They have made all thy ship boards of fir trees of Senir, they have taken cedar from Lebanon to make masts for thee,' for it is not probable that any other tree than the common pine would be taken for masts when this was procurable.
Though Celsius appears to us to be quite right in concluding that cres, in some of the passages of Scripture, refers to the pine tree, yet it seems equally clear that there are other passages to which this tree will not answer.
(3) Cedar of Lebanon. It certainly appears improbable that a tree so remarkable for the mag nificence of its appearance as the cedar of Leba were a species of juniper is evident from the pas sages we have quoted; the wood of most of them is more or less aromatic.
At a later period we have notices of the various uses to which the wood of the cres was applied, as 2 Sam. v :t vii :2-7;t Kings v:6, 8, to; vi :9.
to, 15, 16, 18, 20; V11:2, 3, 7, 11, 12; ix ; X ;27 ; I Chron. xvii:6; 2 Chron. 11:8; ix:27; xxv:t8. In all these passages the word cres is employed, for which the Arabic translation, according to Celsius, gives sunobar as the synonym. There is nothing distinctive stated respecting the char acter of the wood from which we might draw any certain conclusion further than that, from the selection made and the constant mention of the material used, it may be fairly inferred that it must have been considered as well fitted, or, rather, of a superior quality, for the purpose of huilding the temple and palace. From this, how ever, proceeds the difficulty in admitting that what we call the cedar of Lebanon was the only tree intended by the name Eres. For modern experience has ascertained that its wood is not of a superior quality.
non should not have been noticed in the Sacred Scriptures, and this would be the case if we ap plied cres exclusively to the pine, and berosli to the cypress. If we consider some of the remain
ing passages of Scripture, we cannot fail to per ceive that they forcibly apply to the cedar of Lebanon and to the cedar of Lebanon only. Thus, in Ps. xcii:t2, it is said: 'The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree. and spread abroad like a cedar of Lebanon.' It has been well remarked 'that the flourishing head of the palm and the spreading abroad of the cedar are equally char acteristic.' But the prophet Ezekiel (ch. xxxi) is justly adduced as giving the most magnificent and, at the same time, the most graphic description of this celebrated tree (verse 3) : 'Behold, the As syrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches and with a shadowy shroud, and of an high stat ure, and his top was among the thick boughs ;' (verse 5) 'Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters;'. (verse 6) 'All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young.' Few trees divide so many fair branches from the main stem, or spread over so large a com pass of ground. 'His boughs are multiplied,' as Ezekiel says, 'and his branches become long,' which David calls spreading abroad. His very boughs are equal to the stem of a fir or a chest nut. The second characteristic is what Ezekiel, with great beauty and aptness, calls his shadowy shroud. No tree in the forest is more remarkable than the cedar for its close-woven, leafy canopy. Ezekiel's cedar is marked as a tree of full and perfect growth, from the circumstance of its top being among the thick boughs.' The other prin cipal passages in which the cedar is mentioned arc t Kings iv:33; 2 Kings xix :23 ; Job x1:17; Ps. xxix :5; lxxx :to; xcii :12; civ :t6; cxlviii :9; Cant. i:t7; v:t5; viii:9; Is. ii:13; ix:to; xiv:8; xxxvii:24 ; xliv:14; Jer. xxii:7, tq, 233 Ezck. xvii :3, 22, 23 ; Amos ii Zeph. ii ;t4 ; Zech.
2.
The cedar of Lebanon is well known to be a widely-spreading tree, generally from 5o to 80 feet high, and when standing singly often cov ering a space with its branches, the diameter of which is much greater than its height. The hori zontal branches, when the tree is exposed on all sides, are very large in proportion to the trunk, being disposed in distinct layers or stages, and the distance to which they extend diminishes as they approach the top, where they form a pyra midal head, broad in proportion to its height. The branchlcts are disposed in a flat, fan-like manner on the branches. The leaves, produced in tufts. are straight. about one inch long, slen der, nearly cylindrical, tapering to a point, and arc on short footstalks. The male catkins are single, solitary, of a reddish hue. about two inches long, terminal and turning upwards. The fe male catkins are short, erect, roundish and rather oval; they change after fecundation into oval oblong cones. which, when they approach ma turity. become from two and one-half inches to five inches long. Every part of the cone abounds with resin, which sometimes exudes from be tween the scales.
ERI vif u, 1 Heti. ay-ree', ‘vatch:ng), son of Gad, and head of a family (Gen. xlvi;t6; Num. xxvi.t6), 11. C. 1856.