Genesis 35:4

And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

They gave ... all the strange gods ... and ... earrings - strange gods-the Teraphim (cf. Genesis 31:30; Genesis 31:34) as well, perhaps, as other idols obtained among the Shechemite spoil - х hanªzaamiym (H5141)] earrings of various forms, sizes, and materials, which are universally worn in the East, and then as now connected with incantation and idolatry. Some of those earrings, which are used as talismans or amulets, have figures and mystic characters engraven upon them (cf. Hosea 2:13). The decided tone which Jacob, under an awakened sense of religion, now assumed was the probable cause of the alacrity with which those favourite objects of superstition were surrendered.

Jacob hid them under the oak - or terebinth, a towering tree, which, like all others of the kind, was a striking object in the scenery of Palestine; and beneath which, at Shechem, the patriarch had pitched his tent. He hid the images and amulets, delivered to him by his Mesopotamian dependents, at the root of this tree. The terebinth, being remarkable for longevity, was often employed as a landmark in designating places, and as a remembrancer.

Moreover, being, like the oak, deemed a consecrated tree (Joshua 24:26), to bury the idolatrous objects at its root was to deposit them in a place where no bold hand would venture to disturb the ground; and hence, it was called from this circumstance - "the plain of Meonenim" - i:e., the oak of enchantments (Judges 9:37); and from the great stone which Joshua set up - "the oak of the pillar" (Judges 9:6).