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This tree “is seldom seen in clumps or groves, never in forests, but stands isolated and weird-like in some bare ravine or on a hill-side where nothing else towers above the low brushwood” (Tristram).

TEKEL weighed (Daniel 5:27).

TEKOA, TEKOAH pitching of tents; fastening down, a town of Judah, about 12 miles south of Jerusalem, and visible from the city. From this place Joab procured a “wise woman,” who pretended to be in great affliction, and skilfully made her case known to David. Her address to the king was in the form of an apologue, similar to that of Nathan (2 Samuel 12:1-6). The object of Joab was, by the intervention of this woman, to induce David to bring back Absalom to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 14:2, 4, 9).

This was also the birth-place of the prophet Amos (1:1).

It is now the village of Teku’a, on the top of a hill among ruins, 5 miles south of Bethlehem, and close to Beth-haccerem (“Herod’s mountain”).

TEL-ABIB hill of corn, a place on the river Chebar, the residence of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 3:15). The site is unknown.

TELAIM young lambs, a place at which Saul gathered his army to fight against Amalek (1 Samuel 15:4); probably the same as Telem (2).

TELASSAR or Thelasar, (Isaiah 37:12; 2 Kings 19:12), a province in the south-east of Assyria, probably in Babylonia. Some have identified it with Tel Afer, a place in Mesopotamia, some 30 miles from Sinjar.

TELEM oppression. (1.) A porter of the temple in the time of Ezra (10:24).

(2.) A town in the southern border of Judah (Joshua 15:24); probably the same as Telaim.