Genesis 13:18

the oaks of Mamre Better, as R.V. marg., terebinths. Cf. Genesis 14:13; Genesis 18:1. Probably the sacred trees of the Canaanite sanctuary at Hebron. Josephus (Ant. i. x. § 4 and B.J. iv. ix. § 7) mentions the oak tree (δρύς) of Hebron. The so-called oak of Abraham, 3 miles N.W. of Hebron, was shattered by a storm in the winter of 1888 9. The tree was said to be six or seven hundred years old. In Genesis 14:24 Mamre is the name of a local chieftain allied with Abram. Here, and in Genesis 23:17; Genesis 23:19; Genesis 25:9; Genesis 49:30; Genesis 50:13, it is the name of a place near Hebron.

in Hebron The famous city of Judah; cf. Genesis 23:2. From its connexion with Abram it derives its modern name El Ḥalil, "the friend," an abbreviation of Ḥalil er-raḥman, "the friend of the Merciful One, i.e. God," the designation of Abram. Cf. Isaiah 41:8; James 2:23. It stands 3000 ft. above the sea, at the junction of the main roads, from Gaza in the W., from Egypt in the S.W., from the Red Sea on the S.E., and from Jerusalem, 19 miles away, on the N.