It has been maintained that אלון מורה at Shechem,
mentioned in Gen. 12:6 and Dt. 11:30, refers to the same tree as Judg. 9:37, אלון
מעוננים, “the oak, terebinth of the soothsayers”. In Judg. 7:1, there occurs
the phrase “the hill of המורה”. Note here the determinative. C. F. Burney sees
this מורה as “the giver of tōrāh”, explaining it as “decision or counsel
purporting to be dictated by divine or supernatural agency.” A similar opinion
is advocated by H. Gunkel. Translating אלון מורה in Gen. 12:6 with “Orakelterebinthe”,
he explained מורה as a man of God, איש אלהים, who understands how to give
oracles. He also mentioned that the deity himself could be called a מורה, as is
shown by Job 36:22. In these places, מורה is referring to a person.
Now, the place called אלין מורה, Gen. 12:6, can be
nothing other than a reference to a sanctuary, a holy place, which was probably
well known to both Canaanites and Israelites since ancient times as a famous
site of oracular activity. It is also possible to see אלין מורה as a parallel
expression to מקום שכם in the same verse, because מקום often signifies a cult
place, and the phrase עד מקום שכם is immediately followed by עד אלון מורה as an
explanative apposition to Shechem’s מקום. In Gen. 12:6 ff. it is said that Abram
built an altar at this cult place, and in this way, the sanctuary got its
Israelite legitimation. (G. W. Ahlström, Joel and the Temple Cult in
Jerusalem [Leiden, Brill: 1971], 100-1)
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