eeyl , from uwl "strong," as the Latin robur . The terebinth or turpentine tree. Eloth, Elim, etc., take their name hence; so for "teil tree" (Isaiah 6:13; Isaiah 1:29), and for "elms" (Hosea 4:13), eelah; allon is the "oaks"; also eelon is "the oak." The Quercus psedo-coccifera is the most abundant in Palestine, covering Carmel with dense brushwood eight to twelve feet high. Its roots are dug up as fuel in the valleys S. of Lebanon, where the living tree is no longer to be seen. Abram's oak near Hebron is of this species, still flourishing in the midst of a field, the stock 23 ft. in girth, and the branch spreading over a circle 90 ft. in diameter.
It is probably sprung from some far back offshoot of the original grove under which he pitched his tent (Genesis 13:18), "Abram dwelt at the oaks of Mamre in Hebron." The Quercus aegilops , or "prickly cupped Valonia oak", is found on the hills E. of Nazareth and Tabor. The Quercus infectoria or "dyeing oak" is seldom higher than 30 ft., growing on the eastern sides of Lebanon and the hills of Galilee; its gall-nuts, formed by the puncture of an insect, contain tannin and gallic acid used for dyeing and ink. Dr. Hooker conjectures the two aegilops to represent the "oaks of Bashan" (Isaiah 2:13). Deborah was buried under an oak (Genesis 35:8). So Saul (1 Samuel 31:13). Idolaters sacrificed under oaks (Isaiah 1:29). Under one Joshua set up a pillar at Shechem to commemorate the nation's covenant with God (Joshua 24:26). The "tree" in Nebuchadnezzar's dream (Daniel 4) is 'ilan , any "strong tree".