MEONENIM, OAK OF. A place mentioned only in Judges 9:37 as being near Shechem. It is agreed that the rendering should be ‘oak of the diviners,’ but the derivation of the word mÄ•‘ônÄ•nîm is uncertain. There is a cognate Arabic word, however, which is used of the hum of insects and the whispering of leaves, and it is tempting, therefore, to connect me‘ônÄ•nîm with such a phenomenon as the ‘sound of a marching in the tops of the balsams’ of 2 Samuel 5:24 , where the rustling of the leaves is the sign of the presence of Jahweh, as the rustling of the leaves of the oaks of Dodona proclaimed the will of Zeus.
W. F. Cobb.