Grove
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Gen. 21:33 and elsewhere). Pagans worshiped their gods on mountains and hills and in groves. Sacred groves were used from deep antiquity; Genesis says that Abraham planted a grove at Beersheba and called there upon the name of the everlasting God (Gen. 21:33). The source suggests that shade and seclusion inspired religious awe or concealed immoral pagan rites, and that burial beneath trees encouraged associations between groves and the spirits of the dead (Gen. 35:8; 1 Sam. 31:13).