Lions and Leopards

Come to Lebanon, my bride, the Lover says in the Song. Take the journey from the “dens of lions” and the “mountains of leopards” (Song of Songs 4:8). It’s a wild place with wild animals.

But it’s also the temple/palace complex. The temple was paneled with cedar of Lebanon, Solomon built a house of the forest of Lebanon, and his throne hall was paneled with cedar (1 Kings 7:7). And in these cedar houses were cherubim with lion faces; in the throne room was an ivory throne with two lions on each of the six steps leading to the “mountain peak” throne at the top (1 Kings 10:18-20).

Come to the cedar forest, come to the mountain; come to the place of lions and leopards – that is, come to the menagerie that is the temple, the cedar house with its ferocious guardians.