Hebron

Hebron is one of the most ancient cities of Canaan, set in the Judean hill country about 19 miles south of Jerusalem at some 3,000 feet elevation. Scripture notes it was “built seven years before Zoan in Egypt” (Numbers 13:22), and it was originally called Kiriath-arba (Joshua 14:15). It figures in Israel’s story from the patriarchs to the monarchy and remains a place of deep covenant memory.

Hebron is above all the patriarchal city. Abraham settled by the oaks of Mamre nearby and built an altar to the LORD (Genesis 13:18); there he received the visit of the three messengers and interceded for Sodom. When Sarah died, Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah from Ephron the Hittite as a family burying place (Genesis 23:17-20) — the tomb of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah (Genesis 49:31; Genesis 50:13), Israel’s first permanent foothold in the land of promise.

At the conquest Caleb, who with Joshua alone had brought back a faithful spy’s report, asked for and received Hebron as his inheritance, driving out the Anakim (Joshua 14:13-14). The city was given to the priests and set apart as one of the cities of refuge, where the man who killed unintentionally could flee for safety (Joshua 20:7; Joshua 21:13).

Hebron became David’s first royal city: there the men of Judah anointed him king, and he reigned over Judah seven and a half years before capturing Jerusalem (2 Samuel 2:1-4; 2 Samuel 5:5); there too the elders of all Israel came to make him king over the whole nation (2 Samuel 5:1-3). It was later the base from which Absalom launched his rebellion (2 Samuel 15:10). As the city of the patriarchs’ graves, Caleb’s reward, a refuge for the manslayer, and the cradle of David’s kingship, Hebron stands among the most storied places in the land of Israel.