FOREST (for'&t),(Heb. yalear, a thicket).
Tracts of woodland are mentioned by travelers in Palestine, but rarely what we should call a forest. The word translated by 'forest' is 11.!', ya'or, which does not necessarily mean more than 'woodland.' There are, however, abundant inti mations in Scripture that the country was in an cient times much more wooded than at present, and in parts densely so. The localities more par ticularly mentioned as woods or forests are: 1. The forest of cedars on Mount Lebanon (1 Kings vii :2 z Kings xix :23; Hos. xiv :5, 6) which must have been much more extensive for merly than at present.
2. The name of 'House of the Forest of Leb anon' is given in Scripture ( Kings vii :2; X:17, 21 ; Chron. ix :16, zo) to a palace which was built by Solomon in, or not far from, Jerusa lem, and which is supposed to have been so called on account of the quantity of cedar trees em ployed in its construction, or, perhaps, because the numerous pillars of cedar wood suggested the idea of a forest of cedar trees.
3. The forest of oaks, on the mountains of Bashan. The trees of this region have been al ready noticed under At.t.ox and BAsnArt.
4. The forest or wood of Ephraim, already noticed under EPHRAIM 4.
5. The wood of Bethel (2 Kings ii :23, 24). This was situated in the ravine which descends to the plain of Jericho.
6. The wood through which the Israelites passed while pursuing the Philistines (I Sam.
xiv :25).
7. The wood in thc wilderness of Zeph, wherl David hid himself 0 Sani. xxiii :t5 ff.).
S. The forest of Hareth, in the south of Ju dah, to which David withdrei.v to avoid the fury of Saul (t Sam. xxii :5). The precise situation i: unknown.
EiguratiVe. (1) Forest is uscd symbolically to denote a city, kingdom, polity, or the like (Ezek. xv :6). Devoted kingdoms are also rep resented under the image of a forest, which God threatens to burn or cut down. See Is. x :17, 18, 19, 34, where the briers and thorns denote the common people; 'the glory of the forest' are the nobles and those of highest rank and importance. See also Is. xxxii:19; xxxvii:24; Jer. xxi:14; xxii :7; xlvi :23 ; Zech. Xi :2. (2) The forest is the image of unfruitfulntss as contrasted with a cultivated field or vineyard (Is. xxix :17 ; xxxii: 15 ; Jer. xxvi :18; Hos. ii rtz). (3) The Assyrian army is called a forest, how numerous and how stately was their appearance! but how soon were they consumed by the wrath of God! (Is. x :18, t9, and xxxii:19). (4) Egypt and her numerous cities, of their large army, under Pharaoh-necho, is called a forest (Jer. xlvi :23). (5) Jerusalem is called the forest of the south field; it lay near the south of Canaan; the Chaldeans marched southward to it, and its houses and inhabitants were numerous.