Tamarisk

The tamarisk (Hebrew eshel) was a shrub or small tree of the genus Tamarix — feathery-branched, salt-tolerant, and adapted to the arid conditions of the Negev and Sinai. It provided the shade of a sacred grove. Abraham planted a tamarisk at Beersheba and called there on the name of the LORD El Olam (Gen. 21:33), marking the site as a place of covenant worship. Saul held court "under the tamarisk tree on the hill at Gibeah" (1 Sam. 22:6), a detail that evokes both the dignity and the rootlessness of his kingship. His bones and those of his sons, retrieved from Beth-shan, were buried "under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh" (1 Sam. 31:13). The KJV translates eshel variously as "grove" and "tree."