5. Allah (risX: Sept. ») Ttpj.in'Boc, Aq. and Symm. r'l SpvQ ; Vulg. quercus) occurs onl}' in Josh, xxiv, 26, and is correctly rendered " oak" by the A. V.
6. Allon ("lij^X; Sept. »'/ ftdXnvoQ, Sh'Spov /SnXn'roi', opT'c ; Vulg. quercus) is uniformly rendered "oak" by the A. v., and has always been so understood by commenta- tors. It occurs in Gen. xxxv, 8 ; Josh, xix, 32 ; Isa. ii, 13 ; vi, 13 ; xliv, 14 ; Hos. iv, 13 ; Amos ii, 9 ; Zech. xi, 2.
There is much difficulty in determining the exact meanings of the several varieties of the term mentioned above ; the old versions are so inconsistent that they add but little by way of elucidation. Celsius {IJiemh. i, 34) has endeavored to show that ej/l, eylim, eyldn, eldh, anil <d- Idh all stand for the terebinth-tree {Pistucia tereUnthus), while ulldn alone denotes an oak. Eoyle (in Kitto's Cyc. art. Alah) agrees with Celsius in identifying the eldh (ilbx) with the terebinth, and the allon ("(li'N) with the oak. Hlller {Ilierophyt. i, 348) restricts the various forms of this word to different species of oak, and says no mention is made of the terebinth in the Hebrew Scriptures. Rosenm idler {Bih. Not. p. 237) gives the terebinth to eyl and eldh, and the oak to alldh, allvn, and eylon ("|1?"N). It should be stated that cdlon occurs in Hos. iv, 13, as distinguished from the other form, eldh ; consequently it is necessar3' to suppose that two different trees are signilied by the terms. Others believe that the difference is specific, and not generic— that two species of oaks are denoted by the Hebrew terms, cdlun standing for an evergreen oak, as the Quer- cus pseudo-coccifera, and eldh for one of the deciduous kinds. Tlie Plstacia vera could never be mistaken for an oak. If, therefore, specific allusion was ever made to this tree, it probably would have been under another name than any one of the numerous forms which are used to designate the different species of the genus Quercus ; perhaps under a Hebrew form allied to the Arabic butm, " the terebinth." See Terebinth.
That various species of oak may well have deserved the appellation of mighty trees is clear, from the fact that noble oaks are to this day occasionally seen in Pal- estine and Lebanon. On this subject we have been fa-
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"Abraham's Oak," near Hebron
(From a photograph taken by the editor in 18T4.)
vored with some valuable remarks from Dr. Hooker, who says, " The forests have been so Completely cleared off all Palestine that we must not look for existing evi- dence of what the trees were in Biblical times and ante- cedently. In Syria proper there are only three common oaks. All form large trees in many countries, but very rarely now in Palestine ; though that they do so occa- sionally is proof enough that they once did." Abra- ham's oak, near Hebron, is a familiar example of a noble tree of one species, the prickly evergreen oak (^(luercus pseiido-cocdfera [see Tristram, A^o^ //a's/. t)/ the Bible, p. 369]). Dr. Robinson {Bib. Res. ii, 81) has given a minute account of it ; and " his description," says Dr. Hooker, "is good, and his measurements tally with
Evergreen Oak of Palestine (Quercus pscndo-roccifera).
mine." If we examine the claims of the terebinth to rep- resent the eldh, as Celsius and others assert, we shall see that in point of size it cannot com- pete with some of the oaks of Palestine ; and that therefore, if eldh ever denotes the tere- binth, which we by no means assert it does not, the term ety- mologically is applicable to it only in a second degree : for the Pistacia terebiiithus, although it also occasionally grows to a great size, "spreading its boughs," as Kobinson {Bib. Res. ii, 222) observes, " far and wide like a noble oak," yet does not form so conspicuously a good tree as either the Quer- cus pseudo-coccifera or Q. ler/i- lops. Dt. Thomson (The Land and the Bool; i, 375) remarks on this point : " There are more mighty oaks here in this im- mediate vicinity (Mejdel es- Shems) than there are tere- binths in all Syria and Pales- tine together. I have travelled from end to end of these coun- tries, and across them in all di- rections, and speak with abso- lute certaintj-." At ii, 414, the We have oaks in Lebanon twice
same writer remarks, the size of this (Abraham's oak), and everj^ way more striking and majestic." Dr. Hooker has no doubt that Thomson is correct in saying there are far finer oaks in Lebanon ; " though," he observes, " I did not see any larger, and only one or two at all near it. Cyril Graham told me there were forests of noble oaks in Lebanon north of the cedar vaUej'." It is evident from these ob- servations that two oaks {Quercus pseudo-coccifera and Q. n'ffilops) are v.cll worthy of the name of mighty trees ; though it is equally true that over a greater part of the country the oaks of Palestine are at present merely bushes. The oaks of Bashan probably belong to the
Great prickly-cnpped or Valonia Oak {Qiicrcufs cegilops).
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species known as Qiiercus (rgilnps, the Valonia oak, ■which is said to be common in Gik-ad and Bashan. It rises on a stout gnarled trunk, I'rom one to two yards in circumference, to the height of twenty to tliirty feet; a ratlier round-headed, densely leaved tree, giving an open park-like appearance to the landscape. The wood is said to be excellent, and the tree is, like all other tim- ber in Syria, indiscriminately cut for house-fitting and fuel. Its acorns form the vakinia of commerce, of which 1.30,000 cwt. are yearly imported into England for the use of tanners. Another species of oak, besides those named above, is the Quei-cus infectoria, which is com- mon in Galilee and Samaria. It is rather a small tree in Palestine, aiid seldom grows above thirty feet high, though in ancient times it might have been a noble