BEROSII (ern) occurs in several passages of Scripture, as in 2 Sam. vi. 5; r Kings v. 8; vi. r5, 34 ; ix. II ; 2 Kings ix. 23 ; 2 Chron. ii. 8 ; iii. 5 ; Ps. civ. 17; Is. xiv. 8; xxxvii. 24; xli. 19; lv. 13 ; lx. 13; Ezek. xxvii. 5 ; xxxi. 8 ; Hos. xiv. 8 ; Nah. ii. 3; Zech. xi. 2), and BEROTH (11113), which is said to be only the Aramaean pronunciation of the same word, in Cant. i. 17. In most of these pas sages Ens and Berosh, translated cedar and fir in the A. V., are mentioned together, ass Kings v. 8, And Hiram sent to Solomon saying, I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar, and con cerning timber of fir ;' Is. xiv. 8, Yea, the fir-trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon.' But Rosenmiiller says, `In most of the passages where the Hebrew word occurs, it is by the oldest Greek and the Syriac translators rendered cypress.' Cel sius, on the contrary, is of opinion that Berosh indicates the cedar of Lebanon, and that Eres, which is usually considered to have the same mean ing, is the common pine (pinus sylvestris), appa rently because he conceives Berosh to be changed from sherbin, the Arabic name of tine. Others have thought that Berosh is the box, ash, juniper, etc.
The word berosh or be;vth is slightly varied in the Syriac and Chaldee versions, being written berutho in the former, and Louth its the latter. All these are closely allied to bruta, a name of the Savine plant, which is the ppd6u,13pdOw, and papa Oovs of the Greeks, and which the Arabs have con verted into bumsee and &grata: By them it is applied to a species of juniper, which they call abhul and arus or orus. It appears to us that many of these terms must be considered generic, rather than specific in the modern sense, when so much care is bestowed on the accurate discrimination of one species from another. Thus arus, applied by the Arabs to a juniper, indicates a pine-tree in Scrip ture, whether we follow the common acceptation and consider it the cedar, or adopt the opinion of Celsius, that the pious sylvestris is indicated. So bunofee may have been applied by the Arabs, etc., not only to the Savine and other species of juniper, but also to plants, such as the cypress, which re semble these. In many of those cases, therefore, where we are unable to discover any absolute iden tity or similarity of name, we must be guided by the nature of the trees, the uses to which they were applied, and the situations in which they are said to have been found. Thus, as we find Eres and Berosh so constantly associated in Scripture, the former may indicate the cedar with the wild pine tree, while the latter may comprehend the juniper and cypress tribe.
Of yunifierus, the dpretieos of the Greeks and abhul of the Arabs, there are several species in Syria. Of these J. Oxycedrus and J. Phcenicea are the only species which could have been the Berosh of Scripture. Some are of opinion that the wood of J. Oxycedrus, rather than that of the so-called cedar of Lebanon, is the cedar-wood so famed in ancient times for its durability, and which was therefore employed in making statues. It is to the wood of
certain species of juniper that the name of cedar. wood is now specially applied.
Cupressus, the of the Greeks and the suroo of the Arabs, called also by them shujrut al-hyal, or tree of life, is the Cupressus sempervirens, or the evergreen cypress of botanists. This tree is well known as being tapering in form, in conse quence of its branches growing upright and close to the stem, and also that in its general appearance it resembles the Lombardy poplar, so that the one is often mistaken for the other when seen in Oriental drawings. In southern latitudes it usually grows to a height of so or 6o feet. Its branchlets are closely covered with very small imbricated leaves, which remain on the tree for 5 or 6 years. This cypress may be seen on the coast of Palestine, as well as in the interior, as the Mohammedans plant it in their cemeteries. That it is found on the tains of Syria is attested by Cyril of Alexandria (In p. 848) and Jerome (In Hos. xiv. 6). The cypress being so common, we should expect it to be frequently mentioned in Scripture ; but this does not appear to be the case, if we judge by the A. V., as it occurs there only once, in Is. xliv. 14, ' He heweth him down cedars and taketh the cypress and the oak,' for the purpose of making idols. The word here translated ' cypress' is tirza, which there does not appear to be any other authority for identifying with the cypress. But the cypress is expressly mentioned in the Apocrypha (Ecclus. xxiv. 13), where it is described as growing upon the mountains of Hermon ; and it has been observed by Dr. Kitto, that if this be understood of the great Hermon, it is illustrated by Pococke, who tells us that it is the only tree which grows towards the summit of Lebanon. In Ecclus. 1. to the high-priest is compared to a cypress towering to the clouds,' on account of his tall and noble figure. ' The wood of the cypress is hard, fragrant, and of a remarkably fine close grain, very durable, and of a beautiful reddish hue, which Pliny says it never loses' (Plin. xvi. 4o). This wood was used for a variety of purposes, as for wine-presses, poles, rafters, and joists. Horace says (Ars. P. 332), whatever was worthy of being handed down to re mote posterity was preserved in cypress or cedar wood ; and Virgil refers to it in these lines (Georg. ii. 442)— dant utile lignum Navigiis pinos, domibus cedrumque cupressosque.' In all the passages of Scripture, therefore, the cypress will be found to answer completely to the descriptions and uses of the Berosh; for it is well adapted for building, is not subject to destruction, and was therefore very likely to be employed in the erection of the Temple, for the decks of ships, and even for musical instruments and lances. [J. E. Faber conjectures that the Hebrew name Berosh included three different trees which resemble each other, viz., the evergreen cypress, the thyMe, and the ravine (see Rosenmiiller, Bot. of the Bible, Trans., p. 26o)].—J. F. R.