Kirjath-arba

Kirjath-arba (meaning city of Arba or city of the four) was the ancient Canaanite name of Hebron, the prominent city in the hill country of Judah where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah were all buried in the cave of Machpelah. The name derived from Arba, who is described in Joshua 14:15 as the greatest man among the Anakim—one of the giant pre-Israelite inhabitants of Canaan. The site retained its ancient designation alongside the new name Hebron well into the period of the Judges.

Caleb son of Jephunneh was given Kirjath-arba as his inheritance, and he drove out from it the three sons of Anak: Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai (Joshua 15:14; Judges 1:10–11). The city became one of the six cities of refuge in Israel (Joshua 20:7) and was assigned to the Kohathite Levites (Joshua 21:11–13). Kirjath-arba also appears in Nehemiah 11:25 as a resettlement site after the Babylonian exile. The modern city of Hebron, with its patriarchal tomb of Machpelah (now the Ibrahim Mosque/Cave of Machpelah), preserves the memory of this ancient sacred site.