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CaterpillarAid to Bible Understanding
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vegetation. However, many birds largely subsist on this larval stage of butterflies or moths.
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CaudaAid to Bible Understanding
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CAUDA
(Cauʹda).
An island off the SW coast of Crete passed by the apostle Paul and Luke on the voyage to Rome in the fall of 58 C.E. Having lifted anchor at Fair Havens, their ship hugged the S coast of Crete until, likely after rounding Cape Matala, they were caught and driven by a tempestuous wind that could have forced the boat into the quicksands off the shores of North Africa. However, they came into the shelter of “a certain small island called Cauda” and the island’s position evidently broke the force of the wind, providing them smoother waters, likely along its SW shore. This gave the crew sufficient time to hoist in the skiff, undergird the boat and lower its gear.—Acts 27:13-17
The Cauda of Luke’s narrative is today called Caudos or Gozzo, an island seven miles (11 kilometers) long by three miles (5 kilometers) broad, lying about forty miles (64 kilometers) W-SW of Fair Havens.
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CaveAid to Bible Understanding
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CAVE
An underground hollow or cavern with an opening to the surface. Caves abound in the limestone of Palestine; Mount Carmel and the vicinity of Jerusalem, for example, were undermined with many caves. Accordingly, they are frequently mentioned in Scripture, sometimes in a figurative sense. Some of them were so large as to hold hundreds of persons, and were used for permanent dwellings, as at Petra, or as temporary shelters, burial sites, cisterns, stables and storehouses. Many valuable artifacts have been recovered from these natural shelters.
Caves provided refuge in times of danger. The first mention of such a place concerns Lot and his two daughters living in a cave after leaving Zoar because of fear. (Gen. 19:30) At Makkedah five confederate Amorite kings hid from Joshua in a cave that afterward became their common tomb. (Josh. 10:16-27) Fleeing the Philistines in the days of King Saul, some Israelites hid in caves. (1 Sam. 13:6; 14:11) To escape the wrath of Saul, David took refuge in a cave near Adullam and was there joined by “about four hundred men.” (1 Sam. 22:1, 2) Again pursued by Saul, David concealed himself in a cave in the wilderness of En-gedi, and it was here that David cut off the skirt of Saul’s coat when he “came in to ease nature.” (1 Sam. 24:1-15) It may have been David’s experiences on these two occasions that prompted him to compose Psalms 57 and 142, as their superscriptions show. After David was made king, it seems that the cave of Adullam served as military headquarters during a campaign against the Philistines. (2 Sam. 23:13; 1 Chron. 11:15) When wicked Jezebel attempted to kill off all Jehovah’s prophets, Obadiah fed a hundred of them who were hiding “in a cave.” (1 Ki. 18:4, 13) Elijah also fled from the anger of Jezebel to a cave at Horeb, and it was there that he received divine instructions to return and anoint Hazael and Jehu. (1 Ki. 19:1-17) So from these examples Paul had ample support for writing that men of faith “wandered about in . . . dens and caves of the earth.” (Heb. 11:38) Many years later the catacombs of Rome served as underground refuges and meeting places for persecuted Christians.
The dead were often buried in caves. The very rocky soil in much of Palestine made digging graves difficult. The Bible’s second mention of a cave is concerning the one of Machpelah at Hebron that Abraham bought and used as a burial site, and where Sarah, Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Leah were all buried. (Gen. 23:7-20; 25:9, 10; 49:29-32; 50:13) The memorial tomb of Jesus’ friend Lazarus “was, in fact, a cave.”—John 11:38.
Caves often served as excellent storehouses, especially in times of danger. Thus, to protect their crops from Midianite raiders during the days of Gideon, “the sons of Israel made for themselves the underground store places that were in the mountains, and the caves and the places difficult to approach.” (Judg. 6:2) Similarly, the Dead Sea Scrolls were evidently hidden for safekeeping in caves near the Wadi Qumran NW of the Dead Sea, where they remained undisturbed for many centuries until their discovery began in 1947.
In a figurative sense caves are also referred to. Jesus accused the money changers of making the temple “a cave of robbers.” (Matt. 21:13; Jer. 7:11) The prophecies of both Isaiah and Revelation tell that some will try to escape God’s judgment, “the dreadfulness of Jehovah,” by hiding themselves in “the caves,” but according to Ezekiel the “caves” they make their strongholds will furnish no protection from God.—Isa. 2:19-21; Rev. 6:15-17; Ezek. 33:27.
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CedarAid to Bible Understanding
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CEDAR
[Heb., ʼeʹrez].
The cedar trees, and particularly those of Lebanon, were renowned in Bible times and are especially prominent in the account of the temple construction by Solomon.
The cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) is a majestic tree of massive proportions, with deep, strong roots, and thus the Hebrew name, derived from a root word meaning “to be firm,” is very appropriate. Large forests of these cedars once blanketed the mountains of Lebanon, but today only a few small groves remain due to indiscriminate use and failure to replenish the trees by proper conservation and reseeding. The ravages of war doubtless contributed to this depletion as well. (Isa. 14:5-8) However, the remaining trees still present an impressive sight.—Compare Song of Solomon 5:15.
The cedars sometimes reach a height of 120 feet (37 meters) and the trunk may have a circumference of up to 40 feet (12 meters). The long, spreading branches, stretching out horizontally from the trunk, may give a total circumference of as much as 200 to 300 feet (60 to 91 meters). The trees are somewhat pyramid-shaped when young but tend to flatten out on top as they mature. The foliage grows in distinct horizontal tiers or layers (rather than interlacing), the boughs bearing round flowerlike sprays of bright, green needles about half an inch (1.27 centimeters) in length, and tan-colored cones that exude a fragrant resin. The bark is reddish brown in color and quite rough. The trunk becomes gnarled with age.
The wood of the cedar has a warm red tone, is free from knots and was valued highly for building purposes because of its beauty, fragrance, durability and resistance to attack by insects. (Song of Sol. 1:17; 4:11) The Phoenician shipbuilders used it for their masts. (Ezek. 27:5) King Hiram of Tyre supplied men and materials for David when David built a “house of cedars” in Jerusalem. (2 Sam. 5:11; 2 Chron. 2:3) Solomon later used cedarwood in the temple, for the beams (1 Ki. 6:9), for overlaying the altar of incense (1 Ki. 6:20), and for paneling the interior of the temple in its entirety so that “there was no stone to be seen.” (1 Ki. 6:15-18) The “House of the Forest of Lebanon,” constructed later, was probably so named because of its forty-five pillars of cedarwood. (1 Ki. 7:2, 3) Cedar was also used in the Porch of the Throne and in the temple courtyard.—1 Ki. 7:7-12.
Such extensive use of cedarwood required the labor of thousands of workers in cutting the trees, transporting them to Tyre or Sidon on the Mediterranean seacoast, forming them into rafts and floating them down the coast, probably to Joppa. They were then hauled overland to Jerusalem. This was worked out by a contract between Solomon and Hiram. (1 Ki. 5:6-18; 2 Chron. 2:3-10) Thereafter the flow of lumber continued so that it could be said that Solomon made ‘cedarwood like the sycamore tree for quantity’ during his reign.—1 Ki. 10:27; compare Isaiah 9:9, 10.
Following the captivity, cedar timbers from Lebanon were again obtained for reconstruction work on the temple.—Ezra 3:7.
Elsewhere in the Scriptures the majestic cedar is
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