I. Name

אלה, Pistacia terebinthus, has been explained by W. F. Albright as a Hebrew form of Canaanite ʾēlat, goddess, the feminine of ʾēl, which is also applied to Asherah as El’s consort (Albright 1968:165). The concept of the terebinth as a holy tree is well-known in the OT, but the terebinth is never seen as a representative of Yahweh. Sometimes the terebinth is connected with idolatry in a way that presupposes a relationship between the terebinth and a fore…