The hills were covered with the shadow of it,.... Alluding to the land of Canaan, which was a mountainous and hilly country, at least some part of it; hence we read of the hill country of Judea, Luke 1:39 and to the nature of vines, which delight to grow on hills and mountains p: in a figurative sense this may denote the subjection of kings and kingdoms, comparable to hills, to the Israelites in the times of David and Solomon, 2 Samuel 8:1 and the exaltation of the church of Christ, in the latter day, over the hills and mountains, Isaiah 2:2. The Targum is,
"the mountains of Jerusalem were covered with the shadow of the house of the sanctuary, and of the houses of the schools:''
and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars; to these the righteous are compared, Psalms 92:13, the Targum is,
"the doctors, the mighty preachers, who are like to the strong cedars:''
the words may be rendered, "the boughs thereof cover the goodly cedars", or "cedars of God" q; that is, overrun and overtop the goodly cedars; alluding to vines running and growing upon high and goodly trees; and so may denote, as before, the power of Israel over the princes and potentates of the earth, comparable to cedars, the most excellent; as things most excellent have often the name of God added to them; see Psalms 104:16.
p "Bacchus amat colles----" Virgil Georgic. l. 2. v. 113. q ענפיה ארזי אל "rami ejus cedros Dei", Tigurine version; so Sept. "et ramia ejus cedri Dei", Musculus, Cocceius; "palmitibus ejus cedri altissimae operiebantur", Piscator, De Dieu; "ramis ejus opertae sunt cedri Dei", Michaelis.