Proverbial Fertility."Lebanon" also in the Bible includes the Anti-Lebanon (comp. Josh. xiii. 5, "all Lebanon toward the sunrising," and Cant. vii. 5 [A. V. 4], "the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus"; in both verses the Anti-Lebanon being meant). At the time of Joshua, the Lebanon was inhabited by the Hivites and Giblites, and though it formed a part of the land assigned to the Israelites it was never conquered by them (Josh. xiii. 5; Judges iii. 1-3). In the time of Solomon, the Lebanon district seems to have been in the possession of Hiram, King of Tyre (I Kings v. 6; II Chron. ii. 8). Nevertheless, Solomon appears to have erected buildings in the Lebanon (I Kings ix. 19; II Chron. viii. 6). Owing to its extraordinary fertility, the Lebanon is the mountain range most frequently mentioned in the Bible. Moses, when looking over the promised land, mentioned the Lebanon in particular (Deut. iii. 25). It was famous for its fruit (Ps. lxxii. 16), its wine (Hosea xiv. 8), and especially for its cedars, which furnished wood for the Temple (I Kings v. 6; Ezra iii. 7; Ps. xxix. 5, civ. 16; passim). The range had also an abundance of fir-trees and algum-trees (II Chron. ii. 8), and the thistle of the Lebanon is once referred to (ib. xxv. 18). The "smell of Lebanon" is spoken of in Hosea xiv. 7 and Cant. iv. 11, and by the Talmudists. "At the arrival of the Messiah, the young people of Israel will exhale an odor like that of Lebanon" (Ber. 43b). Lebanon is referred to as "Eden" by Ezekiel (xxxi. 16), and Isaiah speaks of the "glory of Lebanon" (Isa. lx. 13). It is for this reason that "Lebanon" is taken by the Prophets to designate Jerusalem (Isa. x. 34; Zech. xi. 1), while the Rabbis understood it to refer to the Temple of Jerusalem, supposing that it was so called because it cleanses Israel of sin (lit. "it whitened their sins"; Yoma 39a).