This post was originally made in June 2017. *To navigate up to the Genesis index, see index-genesis.
And Yahweh appeared to him at Elonei Mamre, as he was sitting at the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day.
The NKJV renders elonei mamre here as terebinths of Mamre. So far, so good. But then the NKJV has a footnote on the phrase, and the footnote reads “Hebrew Alon Mamre.”
But that’s not right. Alon Mamre would be the singular “terebinth of Mamre.” It doesn’t agree with the underlying Hebrew text, nor with the translation offered by the NKJV.
On the other hand, it does agree with the Septuagint, which has a singular for the Greek word that is equivalent to the Hebrew Alon.
So the footnote should be revised to “Hebrew Elonei Mamre; the Septuagint seems to indicate a text reading Alon Mamre.”