OAK (אֵלָה֒, H461, אַלּﯴנ֒, H473, אַ֫יִל֮, H381). Oak is mentioned twelve times as אֵלָה֒, H461, once as אַ֫יִל֮, H381, and eight times as אַלּﯴנ֒, H473.

The cedar was considered the most important evergreen tree, and the oak the most important deciduous tree.

The oak always has been the symbol of strength, and it was for this reason that the Druids in Great Britain held their services in oak groves. There were idolatrous worshipers in oak groves in Pal. in the time of Ezekiel, who says, “Their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars...under every thick oak” (Ezek 6:13, KJV). Thus, the heathen worshipers were like the Druids.

At least three of the prophets, Isaiah, Amos and Zechariah, took the trouble to compare cedars and oaks for their strength (Isa 2:13; Amos 2:9; Zech 11:2).

The first oak mentioned is in Genesis 35:4. The world would say that Jacob was “playing safe” when he hid the family’s “strange gods” under a special oak tree in Shechem.

An oak was chosen in Bethel, underneath which to bury Rebekah’s old nurse (Gen 35:8). Later, the Israelites buried King Saul under an oak at Jabesh (1 Chron 10:12).

Perhaps the most famous oak was the one in which Absalom’s hair got caught (2 Sam 18:9, 10 and 14).

There seems little doubt that the Heb. words אַלּﯴנ֒, H473, and אֵלָה֒, H461, should be tr. “oak.” This prob. refers to Quercus ilex, the evergreen oak, or Quercus aegilops, known as the prickly-cupped tree which is very common in the Levant. The Heb. word אֵילִ֖ים, which has been tr. “oak,” may easily be the terebinth tree, Pistacia terebinthus, which grows well in the Mediterranean regions. This word אֵילִ֖ים is tr. teil in Isaiah 6:13—this is the terebinth tree also. The tr. in Hosea 4:13 renders the word אֵלָה֒, H461—“elm.” But this may be because oaks had been mentioned previously in the same phrase. The fact that the terebinth has the power to produce strong new branches after the tree has been felled makes the writer believe that this is the tree referred to in Isaiah 6:13, for it gives the picture of the restoration of God’s chosen people.

Isaiah confirmed idol worship under oak trees—“You shall be ashamed of the oaks in which you delighted” (Isa 1:29). The old Germanic races believed that heathen gods resided in oak trees.

It is said that the Heb. words for “oak” really mean thick, large trees, and would normally be applied to oaks, though the terebinth comes as a good second, for it flourished throughout Pal.