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. in archaeology from the Hebrew University and is Co-Director of the Tel Hebron and the Jordan Valley Excavation Projects. Popularity rankings are based on search volume data from the Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool. A monastery was eventually built on the top of the mound called Deir el-Arba’in (“the monastery of the forty”), which later Jewish tradition referred to as “Tomb of Ruth and Jesse.” During the early Islamic period the mound was only sporadically inhabited. Tanis) in Egypt (Numbers 13:22); its ancient name was Kiriath-arba, probably meaning the "Four Cities," perhaps because divided at one time into four quarters, but according to Jewish writers so called because four patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Adam were buried there. Already in the Early Bronze Age III (ca. What about the average Idumean in Hebron? בְּרֵכָה בְּחֶבְרוֹן; 2 Sam. 2. Hebron is said to have been rounded before Zoan (i.e. 2: 1). [18] During the late Roman and early Byzantine period the remains indicate an agricultural settlement or a farm, probably settled by pagans, perhaps Roman veterans who received land grants. [17] See Itzhak Magen, “Elonai Mamreh – Herodian Cult Site,” Qadmoniot 24 (1991): 46-45 [Hebrew]. [17] In any event, Herod’s treating the city as Jewish does not prove that the Idumean inhabitants thought of themselves as Jews. Hebron was: Associated with the patriarchs Genesis 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. A city of the tribe of Judah, south of Jerusalem, • Hoham, King Of, Confederated With Other Kings of the Canaanites Against Joshua, • The Conspirators Against Ish-Bosheth Hanged at, • Jews of the Babylonian Captivity Lived at, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Large ritual baths (מקואות) – A number of Jewish ritual baths (. [13] Both forms of this name (Shephatyahu and Shephatya) appear in the Bible (the latter is more common). Hebron is significant in the Bible for a couple of reasons. [7] Philip C. Hammond, “Hebron,” Revue Biblique 75 (1968): 253–258. Genesis 13:18. Historically, Hebron is one of the oldest cities in the world. See also KORAH. Philipp Hammond was the first archaeologist to excavate Hebron, during the 1960’s. [19] For more on Second Temple period mikvaot, see Yonatan Adler, “On the Origins of Tevilah (Ritual Immersion),” TheTorah.com (2017); David Ben-Shlomo, Ritual Baths from the Second Temple Period at Tel Hebron” Judea and Samaria Research Studies 26.1 (2017): 47-68 [Hebrew]. The Religious Significance of Hebron, Palestine: Hebron is unlike any other city in Palestine for many reasons. The name means “[X] has supported.” One form of the name, Aḥisamakh—using the element “my brother” (a familial epithet for God)—appears in the Bible as the patronymic for the leader of the tribe of Dan (Exod 31:6). For a discussion of how the concept of mikvah developed, see Hayah Katz, “Biblical Purification: Was It Immersion?” TheTorah.com (2014), [20] Ronny Reich, Miqwa’ot (Jewish Ritual Baths) in the Second Temple, Mishnaic and Talmudic Periods (Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi, 2013). Only Jews used these types of vessels that were much more difficult to make, and more expensive than clay vessels. The Iron Age city of Hebron and its massive wall were destroyed in the early 6th century B.C.E. Gen 13:18 . 11:25, which is dated by many scholars to the period of Josiah’s rule. “Hebron,” NEAEHL (Jerusalem:Keter, 1993), 606–609. The name Hebron is also very ancient. Our excavations at Tel Hebron during 2014 and 2017 revealed a domestic and industrial quarter dated to the Second Temple Period (from the Hasmonean period until the Bar-Kokhba revolt). A city in Palestine. [16] This is the only Herodian structure to survive intact into modern times. The name Hebron likely derives from the Hebrew root ח.ב.ר, meaning Please support us. According to Genesis 23:1–20, Abraham's wife Sarah dies in Kiryat Arba near Hebron in the land of Canaan at the age of 127, being the only woman in the Bible whose exact age is given, while Abraham is tending to business elsewhere. A major city in the hill country of Judah about nineteen miles south of Jerusalem and fifteen miles west of the Dead Sea. The name Kiriath-arba occurs ten times in the Bible, nine times in the construction "Hebron, formerly known as Kiriath-arba," or something to that extent.We hear first of Kiriath-arba as the place where Sarah died (Genesis 23:2). All of the people who considered themselves Canaanites lived in the city. It was built "seven years before Zoan in Egypt" (Genesis 13:18; Numbers 13:22). Tools. [3] Editor’s note: For a different approach to the question of multiple names, see Jacob L. Wright and Zev Farber, “Kiryat-arba Is Hebron… But Is It?” TheTorah.com (2016). The town was constructed seven years prior to the building of Zoan, a city in Egypt. a community; alliance. Many of the seals also carry a royal emblem of a two- or four-winged figure.[14]. Click the PLAY button below to hear how to pronounce Hebron . What does the Bible say about Hebron? As Ronny Reich has shown in his seminal work, the majority of the stepped pools found in Judah during the Second Temple period and later should be identified as mikvahs. The jars have been found in many locations, and they are generally marked with the name of one of four towns: Hebron (חברן), Mamshit, Zif, or Sochoh. [18], In the Second Temple period, a standard mikvah consisted of a small stepped pool, in which Jews immersed, often daily, or when needed, to be clean of impurities. Joshua 10:4 Meaning. The cave itself has never been excavated, but various pieces of evidence such as pottery dated from the Iron Age and probably earlier, indicate that it contains (or once contained) ancient burials. Sacred to both Jews and Muslims as the home and burial place of Abraham and (to Jews) as King David's capital for … Something went wrong while submitting the form. Quotes available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Among other things, two domestic houses were excavated on both sides of a street, as well as a pottery workshop, and some agricultural installations. Next to Jerusalem, this is the most important city in the Bible. Considering that Hebron was an Idumean town, but that Idumea was ruled by Judah and the Idumeans had been converted to Judaism, was Hebron a Jewish town during the late Hellenistic and Roman periods? He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. Hebron means a "community" or "alliance"). Hebron in the Bible. Read More » A Bond Sealed in Blood PrintOf the 24 students of the Slabodka yeshivah murdered in the Chevron massacre, eight of them were Americans. He lived for a while in Harran, before settling near Hebron in Canaan. [Hebrew]. Meaning: society; friendship . There is no other explanation for the well-smoothed rounded finishing of the plastering of the walls of the pool and the stairs, other than preventing the bathers from getting hurt when descending to be immersed, naked, and often in the dark. or later; the date was obtained from pottery and other finds from the fill of the enforcement walls. [15] Avi Ofer. It was built "seven years before Zoan in Egypt" ( Genesis 13:18 ; Numbers 13:22 ). This massive city wall, built of huge rocks (up to six feet in size), would have been visible from afar to passersby. Several other MB sites in the central hills were fortified by similarly sized walls, as Jerusalem-the City of David, Shechem and Shiloh. Some scholars have suggested that this cyclopean wall is the reason Hebron developed a reputation as a city originally built by (mythical) giants (Ê¿anaqim),[9] though other scholars have offered a more prosaic suggestion that that the original meaning of Ê¿anaq was not “giant” but a clan name, related to the Amorite clan yÊ¿nq mentioned in second millennium B.C.E. New excavations conducted by the author and Emanuel Eisenberg indicate that the massive fortification existed then as well, and that they were used and even reinforced during the First Temple period continuously, up until the last days of the kingdom of Judah in the early 6th century B.C.E.[11]. Use this table of contents to go to any section: Use this scale to tell how popular the verses on this page are. The Bible, however, insists over and over again on the true origin of the name: "Cariath-Arbe the father of Enac, which is Hebron" (Joshua 15:13; 21:11). There are three different Hebrons in the Bible; one city and two men: The most famous Hebron is a city in Canaan, which was originally named Kiriath-arba (Genesis 23:2). 13:22). ), the king of Judah. Hebron is said to have been rounded before Zoan (i.e.