Genesis 13 (WEB)
Machpelah, Location of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of the Jewish People
The Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, the great Herodian enclosure built over the cave of Machpelah. When Sarah died, Abraham bought the cave and the field around it from Ephron the Hittite. He insisted on paying the full price, four hundred shekels of silver, so that the burial place would be his own legal possession (Gen 23:9, 16-20). It is one of the earliest land purchases recorded in the Bible. Sarah was buried there first, and later Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, Leah and Jacob (Gen 25:9; 49:29-32; 50:13).
Herod built the massive stone walls. Byzantine and Islamic builders added to the site over the centuries, and the minaret rising behind the wall is one of those later additions. It is one of the holiest places in Judaism, and in Islam it is the Sanctuary of Abraham. Today access is controlled, the building is divided into Jewish and Muslim sections for prayer, and it remains a place of pilgrimage for both.
1Abram went up out of Egypt—he, his wife, all that he had, and Lot with him—into the South. 2Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3He went on his journeys from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4to the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first. There Abram called on Yahweh’s name. 5Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks, herds, and tents. 6The land was not able to bear them, that they might live together; for their possessions were so great that they couldn’t live together. 7There was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites lived in the land at that time. 8Abram said to Lot, “Please, let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen; for we are relatives. 9Isn’t the whole land before you? Please separate yourself from me. If you go to the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if you go to the right hand, then I will go to the left.”
10Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well-watered everywhere, before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar. 11So Lot chose the Plain of the Jordan for himself. Lot traveled east, and they separated themselves from one another. 12Abram lived in the land of Canaan, and Lot lived in the cities of the plain, and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 13Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinners against Yahweh.
14Yahweh said to Abram, after Lot was separated from him, “Now, lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, 15for I will give all the land which you see to you and to your offspring forever. 16I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can count the dust of the earth, then your offspring may also be counted. 17Arise, walk through the land in its length and in its width; for I will give it to you.”
18Abram moved his tent, and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to Yahweh.