Allon-Bachuth

Al´lon-Bac´huth (the oak of weeping), a place in Bethel, where Rebekah’s nurse was buried (Gen 35:8).

Oak of weeping; the spot where Rebekah’s nurse was buried, Gen 35:8 .\par

(Hebrew Allon’-Bakcuth’ בָּכוּת אִלֹּון, oak of weeping; Sept. βάλανος πένθους),a spot near Bethel, so designated from a tree under which Jacob encamped, and where Rebekah’s nurse Deborah was buried (Gen 35:8). SEE OAK. From the comparative rarity of large trees in the plains of Palestine, they were naturally designated as landmarks, and became favorite places for residence and sepulture (Jdg 6:11-19; 1Sa 31:13). SEE ALLON. The particular tree in question is thought by some to have been a terebinth (q.v.), but scarcely the same under which Abraham sojourned (Gen 18:1) SEE MAMRE, but perhaps the "palm-tree of Deborah," under which Deborah (q.v.) dwelt (Jdg 4:5). So Ewald (Isr. Gesch. 1, 344; 3, 29) believes the "oak of Tabor" (1Sa 10:3, Auth. Vers. "plain of T.") to be the same as, or the successor of, this tree, “Tabor" being possibly a merely dialectical change from “Deborah" (see also Stanley, Palest. p. 143, 220). SEE BAAL- TAMAR.

("Oak of Weeping").

By: Gerson B. Levi, Louis Ginzberg

—Biblical Data:

An oak near Bethel, at the foot of which Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, was buried (Gen. xxxv. 8). In Judges, iv. 5 a tree is referred to as the "palm-tree of Deborah," which has been identified by some with the "oak of weeping."

G. B. L.—In Rabbinical Literature:

According to the Haggadah, the word "allon" is the Greek ἄλλον (another); and it explains the designation of the burial-place of Deborah as "another weeping," by stating that before Jacob had completed his mourning for Deborah, he received the news of the death of his mother. Scripture does not mention the place of Rebekah's interment, because her burial took place privately. Isaac was blind; Jacob was away from home; and Esau would have been the only one to mourn; and his public appearance as sole mourner would not have been to Rebekah's honor (PesiḲ. Zakor, pp. 23b et seq.; Gen. R. lxxxi., end; Tan. Wayishlaḥ, xxvi.).