Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
, “holm tree”). ” This tree grows abundantly on the mountains of Hermon. Its wood is hard and fragrant, and very durable. Its foliage is dark and gloomy. It is an evergreen (Cupressus sempervirens).
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)
(Heb. tirzah). The Hebrew word is found only in (Isaiah 44:14) We are quite unable to assign any definite rendering to it. The true cypress is a native of the Taurus. The Hebrew word points to some tree with a hard grain, and this is all that can be positively said of it.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898) & Schaff's Bible Dictionary
CY'PRESS. Isa 44:14. The Hebrew word indicates a tree with hard-grained wood, but there are objections to the true cypress, and there is no certainty what it was. It may have been the Syrian juniper, which grows wild upon Lebanon, as the cypress never does in the Holy Land. The latter tree (Cupressus sempervirens) is a tall evergreen, the wood of which is heavy, aromatic, and remarkably durable. Its foliage is dark and gloomy, its form close and pyramidal, and it is usually planted in the cemeteries of the East.
Coffins were made of it in the East, and the mummy-cases of Egypt are found at this day of the cypress-wood. The timber has been known to suffer no decay by the lapse of 1100 years.