Derivation of the botanical name:
Quercus, Latin for oak.
boissieri, named for Pierre-Edmond Boissier (1810-1885), Swiss botanist.
infectoria, "dyed, colored".
The Hebrew name: אלון, alon, properly 'a large strong tree', and like אלה ( = terebinth; oak) derived from אול, oel (= to be strong); related to Akkadian: allanu.
The different Hebrew words used for oak in the Bible (O.T.) are "êl", "êlon", "îlan", "allah", "allôn", and "êlâh" or "âlâhim" (see: pistacia).
- The standard author abbreviation Reut. is used to indicate George François Reuter (1805 – 1872), a French botanist and plant collector.
- The standard author abbreviation C.K. Schneider is used to indicate Camillo Karl Schneider (1876 – 1951), an Austrian botanist and landscape architect.
- The standard author abbreviation Meikle is used to indicate Robert Desmond Meikle (born 1923), a Northern Irish botanist from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Three species of oak are common in Israel: the Quercus calliptinos (coccifera), the Quercus ithaburensis (aegilops), and the Quercus boissierri (infectoria).
Henry Baker Tristram (1822 - 1906) in the Natural History of the Bible: "A third species of Oak is Quercus infectoria, a decidious tree, with foliage very white on the under surface. It is not so common as the other species, but grows on Carmel, and we also met with it in great abundance near Kedes, the ancient Kedesh Naphtali. We saw no very large trees of this Oak, which was seldom much more than twenty feet high. It did not occur south of Samaria".
In the Scriptures the species of oak are not distinguished from one another:
Bible resources:
- Genesis 35:4
So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem.
Genesis 35:3-5 (in Context) Genesis 35 (Whole Chapter)
Genesis 35:8
Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak outside Bethel. So it was named Allon Bakuth.
- Joshua 24:26
And Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the LORD.
- Judges 6:11
The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.
- Judges 6:19
Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.
- 2 Samuel 18:9
Now Absalom happened to meet David’s men. He was riding his mule, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom’s hair got caught in the tree. He was left hanging in midair, while the mule he was riding kept on going.
- 2 Samuel 18:10
When one of the men saw what had happened, he told Joab, “I just saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree.”
- 2 Samuel 18:14
Joab said, “I’m not going to wait like this for you.” So he took three javelins in his hand and plunged them into Absalom’s heart while Absalom was still alive in the oak tree.
- 1 Kings 13:14
and rode after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” “I am,” he replied.
- Psalm 29:9
The voice of the LORD twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in his temple all cry, “Glory!”
- Psalm 56:1
[ Psalm 56 ] For the director of music. To the tune of “A Dove on Distant Oaks.” Of David. A miktam. When the Philistines had seized him in Gath. Be merciful to me, my God, for my enemies are in hot pursuit; all day long they press their attack.
- Isaiah 1:29
“You will be ashamed because of the sacred oaks in which you have delighted; you will be disgraced because of the gardens that you have chosen.
- Isaiah 1:30
You will be like an oak with fading leaves, like a garden without water.
- Isaiah 2:13
for all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lofty, and all the oaks of Bashan,
- Isaiah 6:13
And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”
- Isaiah 44:14
He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow.
- Isaiah 57:5
You burn with lust among the oaks and under every spreading tree; you sacrifice your children in the ravines and under the overhanging crags.
- Isaiah 61:3
and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.
- Ezekiel 6:13
And they will know that I am the LORD, when their people lie slain among their idols around their altars, on every high hill and on all the mountaintops, under every spreading tree and every leafy oak—places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols.
- Ezekiel 27:6
Of oaks from Bashan they made your oars; of cypress wood from the coasts of Cyprus they made your deck, adorned with ivory.
- Hosea 4:13
They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar and terebinth, where the shade is pleasant. Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery.
- Amos 2:9
“Yet I destroyed the Amorites before them, though they were tall as the cedars and strong as the oaks. I destroyed their fruit above and their roots below.
- Zechariah 11:2
Wail, you juniper, for the cedar has fallen; the stately trees are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan; the dense forest has been cut down!
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