The Trees of Prophets

Alice C. Linsley

In the Old Testament trees are associated with gender, cardinal directions, and with wise counselors known as morehs, prophets, or judges. The word "Torah" means instruction and is associated with a prophet or a seer sitting under a tree. These trees were important landmarks.

Women prophets, like Deborah, sat under the date nut palms and male prophets sat under oak trees. In Judges 4:4-6 we read that “Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet who was judging Israel at that time. She would sit under the Palm of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites would go to her for judgment."

Deborah's duties included settling disputes, instructing leaders, providing guidance to people, and rallying the people to defend themselves in battle. According to Judges 4 and 5 the people of Israel had peace for forty years under Deborah’s rule.

Deborah judged from her palm tree (tamar) between Bethel to the north and Ramah to the south. Deborah's tree was between two important settlements. It marked the "sacred center" between Ramah to and Bethel. Ramah means high or lifted up, and Bethel means house of God. As as the case with John the Forerunner, people seeking counsel from the prophet had to journey into the wild. 

Abraham pitched his tent at the “Oak of Moreh” (Gen. 13), between Ai to the east and Bethel to the west. The Oak of Moreh, or the Oak of the Seer, is described as “the navel of the earth” in Judges 9:37. Here we find a parallel to Deborah's palm tree at the sacred center. The oak was an important landmark. It is likely that Abraham went there seeking divine guidance. Sacred oaks were known elsewhere, according to Deuteronomy 11:30.

Deborah's tree was at the center of a north-south axis between Ramah and Bethel. The oak where Abraham camped was at the center of the east-west axis between Ai and Bethel. It appears that among the ancient Hebrew, the date nut palm and the north-south axis were associated with the feminine while the oak and the east-west axis of the solar arc were associated with the masculine. The pillar-like oak resembles the male reproductive organ and represented masculine virtues. The date nut when opened resembles the female reproductive organ and represented feminine virtues. 

The association of the physical appearance of a plant and a human organ was further developed in the Middle Ages and is known as the “Doctrine of Signatures”.

Related reading: Samuel's Horite Family; The Judges Deborah, Samuel and Huldah; Trees of the Bible; Trees As Boundary Markers; What Happened to the Cedars of Lebanon?; Trees in Genesis