271 THE OAK WEEPING OF and based on her origin that Deborah in her last stages of her life served as a professional crier. Therefore not surprisingly when they buried her under the tree they called it twkb –wla a reference to her duties as a professional crier. Moreover, the place named μykb in Judges 2,5 received its name because the Israelite cried there (v. 4). Like, Deborah who was buried under a tree, we read about King Saul and his sons who were buried under a tree. Thus, it appears that we have here an ancient custom of burying dead people under a tree. According to the Book of Samuel, the people of Jabesh-gilead removed the bodies of Saul and his sons, burned them, and buried the bones under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh (1 Sam 31,11-13). However, in the parallel text of 1 Chr 10,11-12, there is no mention of the burning of the bodies. In this text we read that they buried the bones, but this time it was under an oak tree. Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse and King Saul and his sons were buried under a tree because trees served as a memorial to the dead. Interment under a tree may have been a symbolic act intended to perpetuate the memory of the deceased, because the tree was a symbol of eternal life 6. In addition of serving as a memorial to the dead, trees served as a land mark that helped to identify the burial site. Trees were often used to mark the boundary between fields belonging to different owners. Indeed, in the story of the purchase of the cave of Machpelah by Abraham for a burial site for his wife Sarah, we read that he purchased the cave and all the trees around the field (Gen 23,17). Specifications of trees in land sale were common in ancient contracts in all periods. The burial of Deborah under an oak tree (–wla) is not the only burial under a tree mentioned in Genesis 35. Already in verse 4 we read about the burial of the false gods under a terebinth (hla). There is a contrast here between burial of false gods and the burial of Deborah. For the idols buried the narrator used the root –mf which means “to hide, conceal, especially in earth”, while, for Deborah’s burial the Bible uses the more usual root rbq which means “to bury”. As for the burial of false gods Sarna suggested that: “the internment of the idols intact under the tree may be intention to neutralize veneration of the terebinth” 7. Though we suggest the burial of Deborah under the tree served as a memorial to the dead, it was also a symbolic act intended to perpetuate the memory of the deceased. However, that fact remains that Deborah and the idols were buried under a tree. By contrast, in verse 19 we read that Rachel was E. BLOCH-SMITH, Judahite Burial Practices and Beliefs about the Dead 6 (Sheffield 1992) 115. N.M. SARNA, The JPS Torah Commentary, Genesis, 240. 7