And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim: and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment.
She dwelt under the palm tree - or, collectively, a palm grove. Stanley ('Sinai and Palestine,' p. 145) takes it to have been 'a well-known and solitary landmark,' and from the distinct specification of the locality, 'probably the same spot as that called Baal-tamar' (Judges 20:33), the 'sanctuary of the palm.' It is common in the present day in the East to administer justice in the open air, or under the canopy of an umbrageous tree. The traditionary spot which Deborah frequented is still pointed out; and it is remarkable that a great meeting or fair is statedly held at the place, as it has been uninterruptedly since her time, at which, among other matters of business, disputes are settled and quarrels adjusted between rival tribes. [The palm was rare in Palestine. But frequent notices of it do occur; and its contemporaneous existence with the vine has been used as an argument to prove that the mean temperature of that country has not changed since the days of Moses ('Edinburgh Journal of Science,' 1828; 'New Philosophical Journal,' April, 1862; also 'Plants of the Bible, Trees and Shrubs,' by Professor Balfour).]