Hebron (Cave of the Patriarchs) חברון — מערת המכפלה
The city of the patriarchs: the cave Avraham bought, David's first capital, and one of tradition's four holy cities.
Hebron is the first Jewish holding in the Land of Israel. When Sarah dies, Avraham—resident there for decades—tells the Hittites "I am a stranger and a sojourner among you" and buys the cave of Machpela and its field from Efron for four hundred shekels of silver, in public, at full price. The Torah records the transaction with unusual legal detail: the title must be beyond dispute.
Avraham and Sarah, Yitzchak and Rivka, Yaakov and Leah are buried there; midrash adds Adam and Chava, which explains the city's other name, Kiryat Arba, "city of four". The spies pass through Hebron, and Kalev, the sages say, goes to pray at the graves of the fathers so as to withstand the others.
Later Hebron is a city of refuge and of kohanim, and David reigns there seven and a half years before taking Jerusalem.
On the timeline
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Sources
Tanakh
- Bereishit 23 — the purchase of the cave of Machpelah
- Bereishit 25:9 — Avraham buried by his two sons
- Bereishit 49:29–33 — Yaakov’s charge concerning the cave
- Bamidbar 13:22 — “Chevron was built seven years before Tzoan”
- Shmuel II 2:1–4 — David anointed at Chevron
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Sotah 34b — Kalev prostrated himself at the graves of the patriarchs
- Eruvin 53a — the discussion of the cave: “a chamber and an upper storey”
Basis: tradition.