Teil Tree

The teil tree (KJV) translates the Hebrew elah, the terebinth (Pistacia palaestina or Pistacia atlantica), a large, long-lived deciduous tree of the Palestinian landscape. Isaiah uses it in his famous stump metaphor: "But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof" (Isa. 6:13 KJV) — the surviving stump retaining life and regenerative capacity. The terebinth was a landmark tree for the patriarchs (Gen. 35:4; Judg. 6:11) and is the same tree under which Absalom's hair was caught (2 Sam. 18:9). Modern translations render elah as "terebinth" throughout.