Judges 9:37

the middle of the land the Navel of the land; this is the traditional meaning of the word, Talm., LXX ὀμφαλός, Vulgate umbilicus. The word only occurs again in Ezekiel 38:12 of the mountains of Israel, apparently as central and prominent in the earth. Some hill near Shechem was called the Navel, perhaps because it was supposed to be midway between the sea and the Jordan (cf. the navelof Italy, Sicily, Greece, in Latin authors).

the oak of Meonenim the augurs" terebinth (marg.), the seat of a Canaanite tree-oracle, administered by priests here called augursor soothsayers, cf. Deuteronomy 18:10; Micah 5:12; the omens were taken, it seems, from the rustling leaves or waving boughs (2 Samuel 5:24), or by the "ordinary processes of divination performed in the presence of the sacred object" (R. Smith, Rel. of Sem., p. 178). The allusions to a sacred terebinth at or near Shechem (Judges 9:6; Genesis 12:6; Genesis 35:4; Deuteronomy 11:30; Joshua 24:26) need not all refer to the same tree. See further on Judges 9:6 and Judges 6:11.