Tehoroth. See Talmud.
Teil-tree is properly the linden-tree, or Tilia Eu- ropceus of botanists. It is mentioned in the A. V., in Isa. vi, 13, "as a teil-tree, and as an oak;" but as in the Hebrew the word is fl'X, elah, usually rendered " oak," by many supposed to be the terebinth, or " tur- pentine-tree," there is no reason for giving it a different signification in this from what it has in other passages. See Oak.
Teind, the name given in the law of Scotland to Tithes (q. v.),
Te'kel (Chald. Telcel/.h^'T}, weighed, n^i immediate- Iv explained in the context; Sept. ^€KeX ; Vulg. thecel), the second of the ominous words in the sentence of the Babylonian king (Dan. v, 25, 27). See Mene.
Tekeleth. See Blue.
Teko'a (Heb. id. ?ipri [once with h directive, n"ipri, 2 Sam. xiv, 2], a stockade ; Sept. 9f;!^(o6 and Ge^ovf , Josephus QtKuici and OtKioi ; Vulg. Thecue ; A.V.
TEKOA
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TEKOA
"Tekoah" in 2 Sam. xiv), a town in the tribe of Jiidah (2 Chroii. xi. G, as the associated places show ; and in- serted in its place in Josh. xv. Sit, CO in the Sept. [see Keil, («//'"•.]), on the rani^e ol' hills which rise near He- bron, and stretch eastward towards the Dead Sea. These hills bonnd the view of the spectator as he looks to the south from the snnimit of the Mount of Olives. .Je- rome (in Amos, I'loam.) says that Tekoa was six Ro- man miles from Ikthkliem, and that as he wrote (in Ja: vi. 1) he had that village daily before his eyes (•'Thekoam qnotidie oculiscernimus"). In his Ouomasti- cun (s. V. Kcthci, 'EK^tvKt) he represents Tekoa as nine miles only from Jerusalem: but elsewhere he agrees with Eusebius in making the distance twelve miles. In the latter case he reckons by the way of Bethlehem, the usual course in going from tlie one place to the other; but there may have been also another and shorter way, to which he has reference in the other computation. Some suggest (Hachiene, PiduMimi, ii, 60) that an error may have crept into Jerome's text, and that we should read Urtlve there instead of nine. In 2 Chron. xx, 20 (see also 1 .Mace, ix, o3) menlion is made of " the wil- derness of Tekoa," which must be understood of the ad- jacent region on the east of the town (see hifia), which in its physical character answers so entirely to that des- ignation. It is evident from the name (derived from SpP, " to strike," said of driving the stakes or pins into the ground for securing the tent), as well as from the manifest adaptation of the region to pastoral pursuits, that the people who lived here must have been occu- pied mainly as shepherds, and that Tekoa in its best davs could have been little more than a cluster of tents, to which the men returned at intervals from the neigh- boring pastures, and in which their families dwelt during their absence.
The Biblical interest of Tekoa arises, not so much from any events which are related as having occurred there as fnim its connection with various persons who are mentioned in Scripture. It is not enumerated in the Hebrew catalogue of towns in Judah (Josh, xv, 49), but is inserted in that passage by the Sept. The " wise woman" whom Joab employed to effect a reconciliation between David and Absalom was obtained from this place (2 Sam. xiv, 2). Here, also, Ira, the son of Ik- kesh, one of David's thirty " mighty men" (D'^"!35), was born, and was called on that account " the Tekoite" (2 Sam. xxiii, 20). It was one of the places which Reho- boam fortified, at the beginning of his reign, as a de- fence against invasion from the south (2 Chron. xi, G). Some of the people from Tekoa took part in building the walls of Jerusalem after the return from the Cap- tivity (Xeh. iii, .5, 27). In Jer. vi, 1, the prophet ex- claims, "Blow the trumpet in Tekoa and set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem" — the latter probably the " Frank ^loiuitain," the cone-shaped hill so conspicuous from Bethlehem. It is the sound of the trumpet as a warning of the approach of enemies, and a signal-fire kindled at night for tlie same purpose, which are de- .scribed here as so appropriately heard and seen, in the hour of danger, among the mountains of Judah. But Tekoa is chiefly memorable as the birthplace of the prophet Amos, who was here called by a special voice from heaven to leave his occupation as "a herdman" and " a puncturcr of wild figs," and was sent forth thence to testify against the sins of the kingdom of Israel (Amos vii, 14). Accustomed to such pursuits, he must have been familiar with the solitude of tlie desert, and with the dangers there incident to a shepherd's life. Some effect of his peculiar training amid such scenes may be traced, as critics think (De Wette, Einl. ins A lie Test. p. 3.>ti), in the contents and style of his prophecy. Jerome ((((/ .4 »if(.>! 1,2) says, "... etiam Amos prophe- tam (jui pastor de pastoril)us fuit ct pastor non in locis cultis et arboribus ac vineis consitis, aut certe inter sylvas et prata vircntia, sed in lata cremi vastitate, in qua versatur leonum feritas et interfectio pccorura, urtis