town or village

Hebron

• Today Tel Rumeida

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Events

1. c. 1010 BCDavid is anointed king over Judah at Hebron

In ancient writers

• Josephus, Jewish War 4.529–532 — The people say Hebron is older than any city in the land, older even than Memphis, 2,300 years old; it was Abraham's home, his family's tombs of fine marble are shown there, and six stades off stands a huge terebinth said to be as old as creation.

Questions

• Where was Hebron?

History

Hebron lies high in the hills of Judah, about 30 km south of Jerusalem, among springs and vineyards. The ancient town stood on the hill of Tel Rumeida: it was fortified in the Early Bronze Age, and in the Middle Bronze Age it was rebuilt as a city girded with massive walls. The Bible calls it Kiriath-arba in earlier times and says it was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.

In Genesis Abraham settles by the oaks of Mamre near Hebron and buys the cave of Machpelah from Ephron the Hittite to bury Sarah; Isaac and Jacob are later buried there too. After the conquest Hebron is given to Caleb. David was anointed king over Judah at Hebron and reigned there seven and a half years before he moved to Jerusalem, and Absalom began his revolt from it.

Rehoboam counted Hebron among the fortified cities of Judah. Jar handles stamped for the king in the late eighth century BC bear its name as one of four places, a sign that it was a centre of royal administration. After the fall of Judah in 587 or 586 BC the south of the hills passed to Edomite settlers, the later Idumea, though Nehemiah's lists still place Judahites in Kiriath-arba. Judas Maccabeus took Hebron, pulled down its fortifications and burned its towers, and John Hyrcanus' conquest of Idumea in the late second century BC brought it under Hasmonean rule.

The great stone enclosure that still stands over the cave of Machpelah is usually attributed to Herod the Great. In the war against Rome Simon bar Giora seized Hebron, and the Roman commander Cerialis then burned the town. Constantine ordered a basilica built at Mamre to end the pagan cult there, yet Sozomen, writing in the fifth century, describes a yearly fair there that drew Christians, Jews and pagans alike.

Scripture: Gen 13:18; Gen 23:2–20; Gen 49:29–31; Gen 50:13; Num 13:22; Josh 14:13–15; 2 Sam 2:1–4; 2 Sam 5:3–5; 2 Sam 15:10; 2 Chr 11:5–10; Neh 11:25

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (62)

Gen 13:18

Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.

Gen 23:2

And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.

Gen 23:19

And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan.

Gen 35:27

And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.

Num 13:22

And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)

Josh 10:3

Wherefore Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem sent unto Hoham king of Hebron, and unto Piram king of Jarmuth, and unto Japhia king of Lachish, and unto Debir king of Eglon, saying,

Josh 10:5

Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together, and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it.

Josh 10:23

And they did so, and brought forth those five kings unto him out of the cave, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon.

Josh 10:36

And Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron; and they fought against it:

Josh 10:37

And they took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof, and all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining, according to all that he had done to Eglon; but destroyed it utterly, and all the souls that were therein.

Josh 10:39

And he took it, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof; and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining: as he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir, and to the king thereof; as he had done also to Libnah, and to her king.

Josh 11:21

And at that time came Joshua, and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel: Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities.

Josh 12:10

The king of Jerusalem, one; the king of Hebron, one;

Josh 14:13

And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance.

Josh 14:14

Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite unto this day, because that he wholly followed the LORD God of Israel.

Josh 14:15

And the name of Hebron before was Kirjath-arba; which Arba was a great man among the Anakims. And the land had rest from war.

Josh 15:13

And unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh he gave a part among the children of Judah, according to the commandment of the LORD to Joshua, even the city of Arba the father of Anak, which city is Hebron.

Josh 15:14

And Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak.

Josh 15:54

And Humtah, and Kirjath-arba, which is Hebron, and Zior; nine cities with their villages:

Josh 20:7

And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjath-arba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah.

Josh 21:11

And they gave them the city of Arba the father of Anak, which city is Hebron, in the hill country of Judah, with the suburbs thereof round about it.

Josh 21:13

Thus they gave to the children of Aaron the priest Hebron with her suburbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Libnah with her suburbs,

Judg 1:10

And Judah went against the Canaanites that dwelt in Hebron: (now the name of Hebron before was Kirjath-arba:) and they slew Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai.

Judg 1:20

And they gave Hebron unto Caleb, as Moses said: and he expelled thence the three sons of Anak.

Judg 16:3

And Samson lay till midnight, and arose at midnight, and took the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and went away with them, bar and all, and put them upon his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of an hill that is before Hebron.

1 Sam 30:31

And to them which were in Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men were wont to haunt.

2 Sam 2:1

And it came to pass after this, that David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the LORD said unto him, Go up. And David said, Whither shall I go up? And he said, Unto Hebron.

2 Sam 2:3

And his men that were with him did David bring up, every man with his household: and they dwelt in the cities of Hebron.

2 Sam 2:4

And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. And they told David, saying, That the men of Jabesh-gilead were they that buried Saul.

2 Sam 2:11

And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.

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King James Version

Tours through this place

• Abraham's journey →
• Jacob →
• The life of David →
• Absalom's revolt →