xxi, 7) ; and that Asherah is coupled with Baal in pre- cisely the same way as Ashtoreth is (comp. Judg. ii, 13 ; X, 6; 1 Kings xviii, 19; 2 Kings xxiii, 4; and partic- ularly Judg. iii, 7, and ii, 13, where the plural form of both words is explained as of itself denoting images of this goddess ; see also 2 Chron. xxxiii, 19; xxxiv, 3, 4). Besides, Seiden objects that the signification grove i
and buried them under a tree (eshel) at Jabesh, and fasted seven days. In the parallel passage of 1 Chron. x, 12, the word nkJi is employed, which perhaps signi- fies a terebinth tree, butis translated "oak" in the A.V. Celsius (flicrobot. i, 535) maintains that eshel has al- ways a general, and not a specific signification, and that it is properly translated tree. This, as stated by
even incongruous in 2 Kings xvii, 10, where we read ' IJosenmuller, has been satisfactorily refuted by Ml
of "setting up groves under every green tree." ^lore over, the Sept. has rendered Asherah by Astnrte in 2 Chron. XV, 16 (and the Vulg. has done the same in Judg. iii, 7), and, conversely, has rendered ^s^^aroi'/i by groves in 1 Sam. vii, 3. See Ashtoketh ; High-place. On the strength of these arguments most modern
chaelis in his Supplem. p. 134. In Eoyle's Illustrated Ilimal. Bot. p. 214, it is stated, "The Arabic name asul or atul is applied to furas (an arboreous species of tam- arisk) in India, as to T.orientalis in Arabia and Egypt." So in the Ulfaz Udwieh, translated by Mr. Gladwin, we have at No. 36 ussel, the tamarisk bush, with 'Jkaou as
GROVE
1022
GROVE
Hic Hindee, and guz as the Persian synonym. The tamarisk and its products were higlily valued bj'^ the Arabs for their medicinal properties, and are described in several places under different names in Avicenna. If we refer to travellers in Eastern countries, we shall tind that most of them mention the athul. Thus Pros- per xMpinus (Z>e Plantis A'lgyplh c. ix, De Tamarlsco atle vocatiC) f;ives a figure which sufficiently shows that it must grow to the size of a large tree, and says that he had heard of its attaining, in another place, to the size of a large oak; that its wood was eniploj^ed for making a variety of vessels, and its charcoal used throughout Egypt and Arabia; and that different parts of it were eniployed in medicines. So Forskal, who calls the species Tamariscus orientalis, gives atl as its
,^^1(^(^
Tamarix Orientalis.
Arabic name, and identifies it with efkeL So Belon (^Observ. ii, 28). In Arabia Burckhardt found the tree called asul in the neighborhood of Medina, and ob- serves that the Arabs cultivated it on account of the hardness of its wood. If we endeavor to trace a spe- cies of tamarisk in Syria, we shall find some difficult}' from the want of precision in the information supplied by travellers on subjects of Natural History. But a French naturalist, M. Bove, who travelled from Cairo to Mount Sinai, and from thence into Syria, has given ample proofs of the existence of species of tamarisk in these regions. A minute description of the tree under its Arabic name is given by I. E. Faber, in F^lb. and Beishii Opusc. med. ex mon. Ar. p. 137. It is vorj' remarkable that the onlj' tree which is found growing among the ruins of Bal>ylon is a tamarisk. "The one in ques- tion is in appearance like the weeping-willow, but the trunk is hollow through age, and partly shattered. The Arabs venerate it as sacred, in consequence of the calif Ali having reposed under its shade after the bat- tle of Ilillah" (Hosenmuller, Bibl. Geog. ii, p. 26, from Ker Porter; comp. Ainsworth's Researches, p. 125). From the characteristics of the tamarisk-tree of the East, it certainly appears as likely as any to have been planted in Beersheba by Abraham, because it is one of tlie few trees which will flourish and grow to a great size even in the arid desert. Besides the advantage of affording shade in a hot countrj', it is also esteemed on account of the excellence of its wood, which is con- verted into charcoal. It is no less valuable on account of the galls with which its branches are often loaded, and which are nearly as astringent as oak-galls. — Kit- to, s. v. See Tamarisk.
' 3. It is now generally recognised Tsec Gescn. Thes. 50 b ; Stanley, S. and P. § 7G,-3 ; p. 14-2 note, 220 note) that the word Eton. "'^X, which is uniformly rendered by the A. V. "plain," signifies a grcve or plantation.
Such were the Elon of Mamre (Gen. xiii, 18 ; xiv, 13 ; xviii, 1) ; of Moreh (Gen. xii, C ; Deut. xi, 30 ; of Zaa- naim (Josh, xix, 33); of the pillar (Judg. ix, 6); of Meonenim (Judg. ix, 37) ; and of Tabor (1 Sam. x, 3). In all these cases the Sept. has tpf t' ov jiaXavoi; ; the Vulgate — which the A. V. probably followed — Vallis or Convallis ; in the last three, however, Quercus. See Elon.