273 THE OAK WEEPING OF we mentioned King Saul and his sons were buried first under a tree which served as memorial to them. According to the Biblical narrative, when the men of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines did to Saul, they went and took Saul’s corpse and his sons’ corpses from the wall of Beth-shan. According to 1 Sam 31,12-13, the people of Jabesh-gilead burned the corpses of Saul and his sons before they buried the bones. Both traditional commentators and modern scholars, puzzled by this, since cremation was not practiced in Israel; thus, they have advanced various explanations 10. The Sages, for example, explained that they burned the personal effects of the deceased 11. Hence, it is more plausible that in this case the bodies were cremated to prevent the Philistines from abusing the corpses. Thus, we can see that the burning of the corpses and the burial under a tree was done under duress, an urgent act performed out of mercy 12. Burial under a tree was reserved for common people not for the king of Israel. Therefore, not surprisingly we read later that king David took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan and gave them an honorable burial. King David reburied them in the family grave (2 Sam 21,14). In conclusion Deborah, besides acting as a guardian to Rebekah, had additional duties as a bakkıtu, a professional crier, and, therefore, her ¯ burial cite was called twkb –wla. Important people such as the patriarchs and matriarchs and, later the kings of Israel were buried in family tombs. Common people were buried in common grave yard or under a tree. Since Deborah did not belong to the family, she was buried under a tree. The University of Memphis Shaul BAR 301 Mitchell Hall Memphis, TN 38152, U.S.A. According to Driver, here va-yisrefu does not mean burning at all; ´ 10 rather, it is related to saraf “ resin ”, and the verse should be rendered “they ´ anointed them there with resinous spices.” See : G.R. DRIVER, “A Hebrew Burial Custom”, ZAW 66 (1954) 315; Budde holds that the reference to cremation is a gloss added by a later author who detested Saul and wanted to blacken his name. See: D.K. BUDDE, Die Bücher Samuel (Tübingen 1902) 192. See : T. Shabbat 7(8),18; T. Sanh 4,2-3; B. Av.Zar 11a. 11 Burning the deceased’s bones was considered an awful crime (Amos 12 2,11). However, here it is considered an honorable act. See: D.T. TSUMURA, The First Book of Samuel (Grand Rapids, MI 2007) 655.