onenim (variously rendered in the Auth. Vers. "sooth- sayers," " regarders of times," etc.) means sorcerers, and is derived either from DJT", "time" (Exod. xxi, 10), from ■jl'?, " the eye," or else, which is more probable, from '5^*, "a cloud;" it means, therefore, those dealers in forbidden arts who observe times, or practice fascina- tion, or take auguries from the signs of the sky. See DivixATios. Wliatever was its original meaning, Me- onenim was afterwards used in a perfectly general sense (Deut. xviii, 10, 14; 2 Kings xxi, G; jMicah v, 12) for wizards. In this article, therefore (which we adopt sub- stantially from Kitto), we are only concerned with "the oak of the sorcerers," a celebrated tree near Shechem, mentioned in Judg. ix, 37, where Gaal, son of Ebed, the Shcchemite conspirator, standing " in the entering of the gate," saw the soldiers of Abimelech first on the hill-tops, and then in two companies, of which one ap- proacheil b\' the " oak of the sorcerers," which is evi- dently pointed out as a conspicuous land-mark. It woidd be the better suited for this pnr|)ose because oaks are rare in Palestine, except in the hills. For other trees used as land-marks, see Gen. xxxv, 8 ; 1 Sam. xxii, 6 ; x,3; xiv, 2, etc. Now it happens that in Scripture no less than four other celebrated trees in the immediate neighborliood of Shechem are prominently mentioned in conned ion with important events, and it is interest- ing to inquire whether all or any of these can be identi- fied with " the sorcerers oak." See Oak.
1. In Gen. xii, G we are told that Abraham "passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the oak of Moreh" (Sept. ti'iv Cpvf n)v vxprjXiit'), where the use of the singular points to one tree of note, although at Shechem there was a grove of oaks (Deut. xi, 30). It was, therefore, in all probability conspicuous for size and beauty, and the vision which Abraham there com- memorated by building an altar would add to it a sa- cred and venerable association. See Auuaham.
2. In Gen. xxxv, 4 we read that Jacob, on his way to Bethel, took from his family all tlie strange gods which were in their hand, and all their ear-rings which were in their ears, and hid them under the oak which was by Shechem (Cr'::-Dy "irx n^xri). The use of the ar- ticle in this verse is not, indeed, absolutely decisive, but would lead naturally to the supposition that this tree was the one already so famous in the religious history of the Israelitish family. That nbx is used (Sept. repi- iSiv^oc') and not "ibx, is a consideration of no impor- tance, for it seems certain that the two words are synon- j-mous (see Gesenius, T/iesaiir. p. 50,51), or at any rate are used interchangeably. See Tekkhinth.
3. In Josh, xxiv, 2G, Joshua, after addressing the as- sembled tribes at Shechem, "took a great stone and set it up there under an oak {the oak, n^xn) that was by the sanctuary of the Lord." The use of the definite ar- ticle again renders it probable that this is the same tree as that which had been connected with tlie memories of Abraliarn's vision, and Jacob's rejection of idolatrous possessions; and the probability is slrengthcned into certainty by the fact that Joshua's injunction in ver. 14 ("put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood") is almost identical with that which Jacob had addressed to his family on that very spot (Gen. xxxv, 2) some 300 years before. Kalisch, in- deed, objects that a "sanctuary of the Lord" would nev- er have been erected at the jilace of idols (^(ienesij), p. 58G) ; but, to say nothing of the fact that several of the Jewish high-jilaces seem to have been also connected with the worship of the Canaanitcs, a place where idols had been buried, and so rejected and scorned, would surely be most fitted for the sanctuary, especially if it had been hallowed by a previous jirotest made liy the great forefather of the race against the idolatry which there surrounded him ((Jen. xii, 7).
4. In Judg. ix, G, we read that " all the men of She- chem . . . made Abimelech king, by the oak (A-V.
MEONOTHAI
103
MEPHIBOSHETH
plain) of the pillar that was in Shechem" Ci'l^S'fi^ CD":33 "I'iiX asp. The word 2Sp, muistsab', is very obscure, and Jerome's version, "quercus qute stabat in Sichem," seems to show that it may once have followed "idX. The Sept. renders it irpbg tij (iaXuvqj (rtj tvptrrj) r;7c ardaeiDQ rijc tv SiKi'yuoic, where (jtcktis means " a miUtary station," a rendering approved by Gesenius {Thesa'ur. p. 90-1), who compares Isa. xxix, 3. Our A. V. refers it to the sacred stone set up by Joshua, and this seems a very probable rendering, from the constant use of the word riuiUtsebdh for similar erections (Gen.xxviii, 18; Exod. xxiv, 4; 2 Kings iii, 2; Micah v, 13, etc.). It seems further possible that during the confusions ^vhich prevailed in the country after Joshua's death, the stone which he had erected beneath it, and which he invested, even though only in metaphor, with quali- ties so like those which the Canaanites attributed to the stones they worshipped —during these confused times this famous block may have become sacred among the Canaanites, one of their •' matstsebahs" [see Idol], and thus the tree have acquired the name of " the oak of Mutstsab" from the fetish below it. The argument that this tree cannot be identical with Jacob's, because that is spoken of as neai- (D"), and this as in (3) She- chem, is quite unconvincing, both because the use of the prepositions by Hebrew writers is by no means mi- nutely accurate, in this way corresponding to their gen- eral dyeioypafia, and because Shechem may mean the district round the city, as well as the city itself. (For a decisive case in point, see Josh, v, 13, where the Vulgate rightly renders irT^T^a by " *ft agris iirhis Jericho.") We believe, therefore, that all these trees are one and the same, which thus becomes connected with four most memorable events in the lives of Abraham, Jacob, Josh- ua, and Abimelech.