Topic
Augur's Oak
5 passages cited, from 1 classic reference work.
These works date from 1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Genesis 12:6ISBE
¶ And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
- Judges 4:5ISBE
And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Beth-el in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.
- Judges 9:6ISBE
And all the men of Shechem gathered together, and all the house of Millo, and went, and made Abimelech king, by the plain of the pillar that was in Shechem.
- Judges 9:37ISBE
And Gaal spake again and said, See there come people down by the middle of the land, and another company come along by the plain of Meonenim.
- 2 Samuel 5:24ISBE
And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then shall the LORD go out before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines.
In the reference works
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 7 references
o'-gurs' ok: If we translated the Hebrew verb `onen, "to practice augury" (see AUGURY) we should in Jud 9:37 for "the oak of Meonemm" render "the augurs' oak" as in the Revised Version, margin, for the last word is simply the part. of the same verb and means "one who practices augury," though there is some doubt as to the exact connotation of the word. See under DIVINATION.
The English Versions of the Bible make this noun the name of a place; but no such place is known and the derivation and form of the word are clear and certain. We have a similar phrase similarly misunderstood by our translators in Ge 12:6 where the "oak of Moreh" should be "the oak" (or "terebinth?") "of the diviner" or "augur," for moreh is also a part. = "one who teaches" or "directs." Probably the same tree is meant, since in each ease the neighborhood is that of Shechem. The worship of trees, or rather the deity supposed to make them his home, has prevailed very widely. See W. R. Smith, Rel. Semitic. (2), 195; compare Jud 4:5; 2Sa 5:24 and "the oak of Zeus at Dodona. " In Jud 9:6 we read of a "matstsebhah, oak tree": the tree with an altar on which sacrifices were offered. The oak trees of Ge 12:6 and of Jud 9:37, if two distinct trees are meant, would be trees which the Canaanites had been in the habit of consulting: hence, the name.
T. Witton Davies
Texts: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.