Oil-tree

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This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.

Oil-tree - (Isa. 41:19; R.V. marg., "oleaster"), Heb. 'etz shemen, rendered "olive tree" in 1 Kings 6:23, 31, 32, 33 (R.V., "olive wood") and "pine branches" in Neh. 8:15 (R.V., "branches of wild olive"), was some tree distinct from the olive. It was probably the oleaster (Elaeagnus angustifolia), which grows abundantly in almost all parts of Palestine, especially about Hebron and Samaria. "It has a fine hard wood", says Tristram, "and yields an inferior oil, but it has no relationship to the olive, which, however, it resembles in general appearance".