PINE TREE

pin tre: (1) `ets shemen, translated the Revised Version (British and American) "wild olive," the King James Version "pine" (Nehemiah 8:15); the Revised Version (British and American) "oil-tree," m "oleaster" (Isaiah 41:19); "olive-wood" (1 Kings 6:23,31-33). See OIL TREE . (2) tidhhar (Isaiah 41:19, margin "plane"; Isaiah 60:13); peuke, "fir." Lagarde, from similarity of tidhhar to the Syriac deddar, usually the "elm," considers this the best translation. Symmachus also translated tidhhar (Isaiah 41:19) by ptelea, the "elm." The elm, Ulmus campestris, is rare in Palestine and the Lebanon, though it is found today N. of Aleppo. Post (HDB, III, 592-93) considers that (1) should be translated as "pine," which he describes as a "fat wood tree"; it is perhaps as probably a correct translation for (2), but great uncertainty remains. Two species of pine are plentiful in the Lebanon and flourish in most parts of Palestine when given a chance. These are the stone pine, Pinus pinea, and the Aleppo pine, P. halepensis; all the highlands looking toward the sea are suited to their growth.

E. W. G. Masterman

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.