But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.
Deborah, Rebekah's nurse died. This event seems to have taken place before the solemnities were commenced. Deborah - i:e., a bee. The nurse in an Eastern family was an important personage, and always held in high esteem. 'In Syria she is a sort of second parent. She always accompanies the bride to her husband's house, and ever after remains there an honoured character' ('Siege of Acre').
Supposing Deborah to have been fifty when she came to Canaan (Genesis 24:59), she had attained the great age of a hundred and eighty. When she was removed from Isaac's household to Jacob's, is unknown. But it probably was on his return from Mesopotamia (her mistress, Rebekah, being dead), that she had been on a visit to Jacob, whom she had taken charge of in his infancy; and she would have been of invaluable service to his young family. Old nurses, like her, were, not only honoured, but loved as mothers; and, accordingly, her death was the occasion of a great lamentation. She was buried 'beneath Beth-el,' i:e., in the subjacent plain, under the oak-hence, called the "terebinth of tears" (cf. 1 Kings 13:14).