Turpentinetree

Turpentine-tree

(τερέμινθος, τερέβινθος ; Vulg. terebinthus) occurs only once, viz. in the Apocrypha (Ecclus. 24:16), where wisdom is compared with the "turpentine-tree that stretcheth forth her branches." The τερέβινθος or τέρμινθος of the Greeks, is the Pistacia terebinthus, terebinth-tree, common in Palestine and the East, supposed by some writers to represent the elâh (אֵלָה) of the Hebrew Bible. SEE OAK. The terebinth, though not generally so conspicuous a tree in Palestine as some of the oaks, occasionally grows to a large size. See Robinson (Bibl. Res. 2, 222, 223), who thus speaks of it. "The butm" (the Arabic name of the terebinth) "is not an evergreen, as often represented, but its small lancet-shaped leaves fall in the autumn, and are renewed in the spring. The flowers are small, and followed by small oval berries, hanging in clusters from two to five inches long, resembling much those of the vine when the grapes are just set. From incisions in the trunk there is said to flow a sort of transparent balsam, constituting a very pure and fine species of turpentine, with an agreeable odor like citron or jessamine, and a mild taste, and hardening gradually into a transparent gum. In Palestine nothing seems to be known of this product of the butm!" The terebinth belongs to the natural order Anacardiaceae, the plants of which order generally contain resinous secretions. SEE TEREBINTH.

⇒See also the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.