Bible Dictionaries
Teil Tree

Easton's Bible Dictionary

(An old name for the lime-tree, the tilia), Isaiah 6:13 , the terebinth, or turpentine-tree, the Pistacia terebinthus of botanists. The Hebrew word here used (elah) is rendered oak (q.v.) in Genesis 35:4; Judges 6:11,19; Isaiah 1:29 , etc. In Isaiah 61:3 it is rendered in the plural "trees;" Hosea 4:13 , "elm" (RSV, "terebinth"). Hosea 4:13 , "elm" (RSV, "terebinth"). In 1 Samuel 17:2,19 it is taken as a proper name, "Elah" (RSV marg., "terebinth").

"The terebinth of Mamre, or its lineal successor, remained from the days of Abraham till the fourth century of the Christian era, and on its site Constantine erected a Christian church, the ruins of which still remain."

This tree "is seldom seen in clumps or groves, never in forests, but stands isolated and weird-like in some bare ravine or on a hill-side where nothing else towers above the low brushwood" (Tristram).