Hebron

Hebron, Feb. 17. 1856. We were not sorry that our first Sabbath in Palestine should be at Hebron. The day and the place suited each other well; and we could the more quietly and the more genially go back to the olden time, and dwell amid its memories. Age has not altered the scene, nor made its recollections stale

True, the present city is not old. Its houses are not Jewish; its inhabitants are not sons of Abraham; nor do these nine minarets speak to us of Abraham, or David, or Christ, but of Mahomet alone. Yet underneath Moslem rubbish we can discern the relics of an

* The Moslem name for Hebron is El-KhulU or Khalil, as we have already noticed. In all Mahommedan writers, such as Ibn-Batutah, this is the one name employed. In the old Arabic history of the temple of J erusalem {a.d. 1444) we several times read of “Abraham THE FRIEND, prayer and peace be with him,” (p. 103, Oriental transl. fund edition): “a certain individual, of great strength and courage, ascended the steep rock wherein was the cave, and found our Lord, the FRIEND, (the peace and blessing of God be with him) lying in his coffin, on his back,” (p. 106). The epithet is taken from Scripture, “the friend of God,” (2 Chron. xx. 7; lsa. xli. 8; Isa. ii. 23).

HEBROX.

earlier and holier day. The coin itself is genuine, though defaced and worn; and beneath its thick rust we can read the old u image and superscription “on the one side the figure of the aged patriarch, and on the other, “Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness.”

Beersheba is an utter waste, with only low mounds of stones here and there, to say that it once was; but Hebron is still a town; and in the distance at least, a town of some beauty and stateliness. Jerusalem is not a mere waste, like Beersheba, but the plough has so often passed over it; its parts have been so displaced and mangled; its very rubbish tossed hither and thither, that the present does not seem the representative of the city of Melchizedek, but only the last of a hundred successors, each one different from the preceding. But the present Hebron, though not the city of Arba, or of Abraham, or of David, appears more truly the representative of its original, and carries us back to it by fewer steps or links. That which lies before us now gives us no untrue idea of what the ancient city may have been. The olives of Gethsemane may not be the same trees as existed two thousand years ago, but they probably spring from the same roots; so Hebron is not the veritable city of the old age, but it comes very near it; it springs directly from the old stem. The breaks or intervals between the present and the past of Hebron are neither so many nor so perceptible as in other places. Lying less in the way of the conqueror, whether of the east or west, Babylonian or Roman, Saracen or Crusader, it has not known so many overturnings as the cities of the less fortunate north.

The early history of the city is the divine commentary on faith. The outstanding feature of its long story is the life of one believing man. It was that life that rose before us now, and spread itself out, in all its shapes and aspects, over these rocks, and slopes, and hollows. The inscription graven upon them seemed to be, “fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward,” (Gen. xv. 1).

Hebron was one of the six cities of refuge (J osh. xx. 7), and, being such, it was understood to be visible in all directions from a considerable distance, according to the Rabbis. But though on some sides less shut in than others, and visible from the adjoining heights, I question whether it could have been at any time an object generally visible from any great distance on any side. The Jewish tradition that in the light of the morning sun it was visible from Jerusalem, is certainly a fable or a mistake.* What the “gleams as far as Hebron” may mean, is not easy to say; but that the sunbeams, shining on the walls or roofs of Hebron, should be so reflected as to be seen at J erusalem is an unlikely thing.

* Reland gives the sentence from Maimonides in which this is affirmed, (Palestina p. 710). But Maimonides there speaks of Hebron as eastward of Jerusalem; and it may be questioned whether he can mean the same Hebron as the city of Arba; for surely a Jew such as Maimonides would not speak of such a well-known city, as east of Jerusalem.

CAVE OF MACHPELAH.

The whole city is full in view; for the quarantine house which we occupy is on the opposite ascent, so that while part of the town lies under our feet, a large part of it stretches up the hill which faces us. The chief attraction to our eye, however, is the Moslem Mosque that covers the Cave of Machpelah. It makes but a poor tombstone for Abraham; yet beneath it his ashes really lie. For I see no ground for questioning the concurring testimony of all ages, and nations, and sects, as to this being really the spot which Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite, as a burying-place. It might be, wTith truth, said, that we have the same evidence for this spot being Ephron’s cave as we have for this town being Hebron. Of all places in the land this was the one which was surest of being known by the J ews. It is not likely that they would be mistaken as to the tomb of Abraham; nor is there any chasm or interval in the history of the city, during which the original spot could be lost sight of and another substituted in its room. Hebron has always been inhabited by Jews; and amid all its changes, Christian and Mahommedan, it has never ceased to be Jewish, and it is to this day one of their four holy cities. Cast out of almost every other city of the land, they have still retained footing here. J ewish veneration for, and adhesion to, the sacred spots of their fathers are like their reverence for every letter and point of their sacred books, superstitiously unchangeable. Covetous and pliable as a Jew is thought to be, yet no hope of gain, ho fear of suffering, no love of life, will make him alter one jot in his alphabet or one line in his topography.

When we add to this the appearance of the stones in the more ancient part of the mosque, the links in this J ewish chain are as complete as they are strong. These stones, — some of them thirty-eight feet long, — hewn and bevelled like the temple stones at Jerusalem — are manifestly Jewish, and most probably of the age of Solomon.* They are vouchers for the authenticity of the spot, and shew us how ancient and unfaltering has been the tradition of the Jews upon the matter. The tomb was no doubt known to David and Solomon; and here are, to this day, the unmoved stones of the marble monuments, erected, as Josephus says, by Abraham and his descendants, — monuments still standing in the time of the historian, *f- — monuments which the Romans did not touch, against which the Christians placed their Church, and which the Moslem has made use of as the wall of his mosque. Very few historical or topographical chains are so perfect and so tangible as this.J

* Ibn-Batutah mentions the stones; I give the words of his French translator: “Sa mosquee est cTun joli travail, d’une construction solide, d’une grande beaute et fort elevee. Elle est batie en pierres de taille, et dans un de ses angles il y en a une dont un cote a t rente- sept empans.” Voyages, p. 114.

+ Josephus, Jewish War, pp. 4, 9, 7.

£ It would appear from Eusebius that the Romans had done what they could to defile the place by the erection of heathen monuments. These were destroyed by order of Constantine, and a Christian church built on the spot. Euseb Life of Const. Ciampini de Sacris aedificiis a Const. Magn. constructs, p. 164. Quaresmius; Elucid. Terrae Sanctae. Ciampini speaks

ABRAHAM S TESTIMONY.

Another thing that strengthens this chain is the relative position of Mam re and the Cave of Machpelah. The cave is said to be “before Mamre,” and that expression is not an indefinite one, so that the question might come up” which is behind and whichSsJbefore f The Hebrew words when used topographically always denote the east, and accordingly we find Machpelah lying east of Mamre.* Not perhaps due east, but only a point or so to the south of it. From this balcony where we stand, we do not indeed see the plain and the oak; but we see the direction in which they lie; and we can judge as to their relative positions.

This wish to identify Abraham’s tomb has in it something better than superstition, and something higher than curiosity. The identification of Wurka as the Ur of the Chaldees, and the birth-place of the patriarch, does not seem to us so interesting as the identification of yon mosque-buried cave as the site of his tomb. For the great point on which Abraham’s testimony bore was resurrection; and the terminating point of the divine

of a treatise on this church by Nicephorus (of Constantinople, I suppose, in the beginning of the ninth century). The Jews say it was a synagogue which was converted into a church. Benjamin of Tudela. vol i. p. 76.

* See the dissertation of C. B. Michaelis de locorum differentia ratione, &c. Sect. viii. pp. 90, 91. Gesenius, Lexicou, p. 6S0. Journal of Sacred Literature, Oct. 1851. p. 154, The quarters of the compass are conventionally referred by the Hebrews to the position of a spectator fronting the rising sun. Since the jront is the east, and the right hand the south, the left must be the north, and behind the west.” The hill to which gttiason carried the gates of Gaza was “before Hebron” (Judges, xvi. 3). that is east of Hebron, perhaps the hill to which Abraham went up to look down on Sodom. testimony to the relationship subsisting between the patriarchs and the God who had entered into covenant with them, was the same. “As touching THE RESUR-RECTION OF THE DEAD, have ye not read that which was spoken unto yon by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the DEAD but of the living,” (Matt. xxii. 31, 32). And it was this same testimony that was embodied in the anxiety shewn by these patriarchs “concerning their bones,” One feels that it is round the TOMB of Abraham, — the place where his dust lies waiting for resurrection, — that a special, and a not unreasonable, interest gathers. It is this tomb, above others, that is the intimation of patriarchal faith and hope. And it would seem that just as Moses’ tomb was so carefully concealed that no man knoweth of his sepulchre to this day, because his great testimony was of other things, so Abraham’s tomb has been so fully kept in view, and so signally preserved from mistake or doubt, because his was a special testimony, in life and in death, to resurrection.

While the tomb of Abraham is the special object of attraction in the distance,* the Moslem burying-ground lying just under our walls, and stretching down from

* Yet there is no great external attraction, though Moslem writers are large in their praises. Felix Fabri says more truly, “Post terrae sanctse araissionem fecerunt Sarraceni ex ecclesia muscheam, et altis muris et turribus earn muniverunt et ita hodie stat in civitatis medio, sicut fortecastrum, nec habet aspectum ecclesiae, sed castri vol grandis palatii.” Evagatorium, vol. ii. p. 350.

MOURNERS.

them to the city, draws our eye towards itself, as kindred to the other. It is only Mahommedans that are buried here. The Jews’ grave-yard is not in sight, and I know not where the Christians of other days were buried. A funeral procession has come and gone, with nothing remarkable about it. But the frequent groups of mourners interest us, reminding us of John xi. 31, “She goeth unto the grave to weep there,” They were mostly women, with the well-known white shawl over their heads, though in one or two instances we saw men also. They sat round the tomb for perhaps half an .hour, and then went away, to return again to-morrow. They wore their ordinary dresses, and had no outward badge of sorrow. They had a sort of wail, yet not loud nor distinct, and often exchanged for the generalities of conversation, as they were seated together on the tombstones or on the heaving ground. Few things can be imagined more picturesque and striking than these white-robed groups sitting round the broken turf of a new-made grave. The numerous tombstones, too, all of white stone, some smaller, some larger, sprinkled over the field, and dotting, like snow-drops, the surface of the half-green, half-grey mounds, added a dreamy softness to the repose of the scene. Putting together the various parts of the view, the distant as well as the near, Machpelah as well as this Moslem grave-yard, the shadows seemed to pass off, and we could feel as if it were not so much life that was linked with death, as death that was linked with life for ever.

Towards evening we were allowed to quit our lazaretto for an hour, with a guard to prevent us entering the town. We wandered slowly out a little way, to breathe the fresh air of the hills; and it was wonderful to observe what an additional zest one day’s confinement had imparted to earth and sky. We moved in a somewhat north-westerly direction, passing a large deep well called Ain-el-Gedida (which I suppose means the “new well”), and a very old deep well, not far from the cemetery, overshadowed with olives cut out of the rock, roofed with several arches, all underground. The descent to it is by a flight of steps. It is the finest well that we have seen. Here we came to the ruins of the deir or convent, on a height, from which it is said there is a passage to the mosque, which must be a mile or more distant. A few minutes brought us to the Jewish burying-ground. Most of the tombstones are so large that they appear like masses of the rock laid bare, or the tombstones of giants, all lying flat. Probably this has been a burying-ground from the days of Abraham. Thousands of his children are sleeping below. We saw a large ruin, like a castle, close at hand, which we mean to examine more fully to-morrow. In the distance, more than two miles off, we got a glimpse of Abraham’s tree, which is planted in the only part of the district where there is a plain. Near us, we were shewn Abraham’s well, carefully built over. Having thus breathed the fine bracing air of these hillsides for half an hour, amid olives and figs and

KURMUL.

prickly pears, we wandered slowly back, as the shadows wrere falling. Every step we have taken seemed an illustration of some scene of Old Testament story.

Re-entering our sanitary prison we got a charcoal fire kindled in one of our too-well-ventilated rooms; and seated round it w7e enjoyed our tea, — gathering together in our conversation, the fragments of Scripture history which we had been searching out, in connection with the scene around.

Hebron, Monday, Feb, 18th. — We are still under restraint, and have had to pass the morning and forenoon in durance. About one, however, we were allowed to set out for a walk, under the charge of a keeper. Our guide shewed us the birket or pool near the lazaretto; and after this led us up the hill wrhich lies somewhat to the south. From this he pointed out the site of Kurmul, the ancient town of Garmel, mentioned as one of Judah’s mountain-cities (Josh. xv. 55), in which Saul “set up a place” after the overthrow of Amalek (] Sam. xv. 1 2),* and where Nabal the “man of Belial,” the churlish “millionaire,” with whom no one dared speak, had his possessions, (1 Sam. xxv. 2, 17, 25). On the eastern hill our guide pointed out the tomb of Lot, Nebi Lilt, or as I suppose it ought to be given in

* Id 2 Sam. xviii. 18, the pillar set up by Absalom is called “Absalom’s place,” or in the Hebrew “Absalom’s hand.” Saul’s “place” was probably a monument. Rabbi Tanchum, in his Arabic Commentary on Samuel, affirms that it was a house or building or separate place, as in Deut. xxiii. 12, where the word is the same. See Haarbruecker’s translation of Tanchum, Leipsic 1844, p. 22.

lot’s tomb. full, Ruber Nebi Lut, the tomb of the prophet Lot.* Who has fixed this hill for the sepulchre of this “righteous man” (2 Pet. ii. 8), and erected the tomb, I know not. The hill could not certainly be the one to which Lot fled after the ruin of Sodom (Gen. xix. 30), for that seems to have been hard by Zoar; but it may be the hill to which Abraham accompanied the angel of the Lord, and from which he viewed next morning the ascending “smoke of the country,” (Gen. xix. 27, 28).

On we wandered, turning westward, over the heights which look down from the south upon the town. As we descended, we came to rich fields of dark brown soil; enclosed with dry stone walls, and well cultivated by the hand of man. The plough was not there, for it was evidently not a grain country; nor did we come upon wide pasturages; this part at least was evidently not for flocks and herds. It seemed to be one vast orchard, in which were springing all kinds of fruit-trees, some on terraces, some on more level and open fields. Some of the trees we could not recognise, as no bud of spring was as yet visible upon them. But

* lbn-Batutah mentions this. “The Tomb of Lot may he seen set on a lofty hill, which commands the country called Ghaour, or low region, of Syria. Below this sepulchre is a beautiful building, and the tomb is inclosed in one of its chambers. Close to this you see the Sea of Lot.... At the side of the Tomb of Lot is the mosque which is called Mesdjid-elyahin (temple of truth), which is situated on a lofty hill. It possesses a clearness and splendour which no other enjoys to such a degree. There is only a single habitation in its neighbourhood, which is occupied by its keeper.” — Voyages, p. 118.

THE PRUNING OF THE VINE.

we knew at least the olive, the fig, and the vine. With the last the husbandman was busy, carefully pruning them and tying their curving stems to the strong-set staves. The long and regular rows of these vines must form cool walks for July days to the inhabitants of Hebron. Some of our party, anxious for a Hebron vine, got one or two small shoots, which, “hermetically sealed” at the section, with good collodion, were despatched home by post.* The prunings of the vine were heaped together for burning, — no part of the vine being useful for any domestic or agricultural purpose, — “Men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned,” (John xv. 6). Son of man!

What is the vine-wood more than any wood?

A branch which is among the trees of the forest!

Shall wood be taken from it to do any work?

Will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon?

Lo! it is cast into the fire for fuel:

The fire devoureth both ends of it, (root and branch),

And the midst of it is burnt, (stem).

Is it meet for work?

Lo! when it was whole it was meet or no work;
How much less is it meet for work
When the fire hath devoured it,
And it is burned.” (Ezek. xv. 2-5).

* They reached Scotland in good condition, and were immediately set. They have not “struck” however. I was more fortunate in a piece of prickly pear, one of whose cactus-like knobs I took possession of and deposited in my portmanteau. After lying there for three months, and tossing about by sea and land, it was safely transferred to a hot-house, in which it is now living at least, if not growing.

As we moved on (still on high ground) we saw a well, which our guide called Hammam Forens, which name seems to indicate some connection with a hot spring. I am not aware, however, of any such waters in this neighbourhood. A little farther on we came to another well, called Bir Abu Tabakeh. This seemed a very fine well indeed. Does it take its name from Tebah the son of Nahor, which the Septuagint gives as Tabeh (Gen. xxii. 24)? We descended into the plain in which Abraham’s tree is growing. Our guide called it Wady Tttpheh, or Teffuh, a remnant of the ancient name of Tappuah, (Josh. xii. 17; xv. 34), indicating, perhaps, that the wady had once been famous for its apple-trees. Proceeding onwards, we reached another well, called Bir-Shirah. At first I thought that this name might connect itself with Sarah. Again, I was inclined to identify it with the “well of Sirah,” mentioned in that part of Abner’s history which is connected with David’s residence at Hebron. “When Joab was come out from David, he sent messengers after Abner, which brought him again from the well of Sirah” (2 Sam. iii. 26). But there is a difficulty in regard to this. No doubt Sirah must have been near Hebron, and on some road or track leading northward; for Abner was returning to the land of Benjamin. So far all is clear. But then Josephus says, quite explicitly, that Abner was overtaken at a place called Besira, (a corruption or contraction of Beer-Sirah), and that this Besira was twenty stadia from Hebron, whereas the Bir-Sirah which we saw THE WELL OF SIRAH.

could not be so much. I thought, perhaps, that this might be explained by the town of Hebron, in its earlier days, lying more to the east than it does at present. But then, elsewhere, Josephus says that Abraham’s tree was but six stadia from Hebron. In which case the well of Sirah must have been to the north-west of that tree, not to the south-east, as Bir-Sirah is now. Then, on the other hand, we have J erome shewing us that Abraham’s terebinth was, at least, two miles from Hebron, which statement is not easily made to square with that of Josephus as to the six stadia. It is hard to reconcile these conflicting statements; and J osephus’s measurement is so much at variance with other testimonies, as well as with the present position of places, that we are inclined to dispute its accuracy. It is not impossible, after all, that this Bir-Sirah may really be “the well of Sirah,” * At least there is less likelihood of its having undergone an alteration of site than there is of the other parts of the scene having done so. Both the tree and the city seem to have changed their places during the last seventeen or eighteen hundred years, the latter lying more eastward and the former more westward than once they did. In Abraham’s day the cave of Machpelah was not in the city as it is now, but was alone in a field; and so it remained for many a cen-

* I ought to notice that old travellers speak of “the well of Sarah.” Rabbi Petachia, in the twelfth century, writes, “by the tree is the well of Sarah; its waters are clear and sweet. Close by Mamre is a plain, and an the other side there are about a hundred cubits from the well of Sarah kp the well of Abraham.” — Travels, edited by Benisch, p. 67.

Abraham’s tree. tury, down perhaps to the beginning of the Christian era. After that the city seems to have crept down the valley, and gathered itself round the sepulchre.*

We soon reached Abraham’s tree. It is a magnificent Ballut or prickly oak, somewhat isolated, yet with other trees not far off. The protruding knots of root at its base looked almost like pieces of dark brown rock. The stem is enormous; and as rough and shapeless as can be fancied. The branches, spreading widely in several detachments, and with their extremities drooping to the sward, throw their shade over a vast circle. It stands near the foot of an easy rising ground. — in as pleasant a valley as one could wish to see, with terraced hills close at hand, before and behind. The day was bright, with light clouds floating above, and a quiet breeze wandering about, to bring down the heat. There was not enough of sunshine to oppress, but enough to give a mellow brilliance to the landscape, and to cover, with a soft gladness, a scene of no common interest and beauty. For two hours we lingered on the spot, sitting on the projecting knots of the rugged roots, picking up the scattered acorns of last autumn, which were lying around in thousands, though most of them worm-eaten or decayed; — cutting off some twigs or

* The old historians speak of Hebron as on the side of a hill. See Edrisi and Ibn Haukal, quoted by Asher in bi3 edition of Benjamin Tudela, vol. ii. p. 92. Asher, quoting from D’Arvieux, says “Hebron formerly stood on a hill to the uorth, but it has gradually changed its site in the course of its various rebuildings.” Ib. Benjamin of Tudela says that in his day the ruins of the old city on the hill were visible. Vol. i. p. 76.

WELLS.

branches as memorials, and gazing round us in all directions upon hill, and rock, and vale. The noon-breeze, as it once or twice slightly shook the foliage above us, was most grateful. As this is the month of February, and as the tree is in full leaf, we were satisfied that it was an evergreen. All the trees around were bare, waiting for spring. It alone had not parted with its leaves. Judging by the eye, and guessing the length of road by which we had reached it, we should say that it was considerably within a mile of the town.

Returning home we passed an old well called A in Arb, which seems to retain the old name of the city and its founder. Was this Avba’s well, somewhere beyond the walls of Kirjath Arba? We came to another well called Ain Medan, which may be the memorial of Medan, the son of Abraham by Keturah (Gen. xxv. 2), whom he sent away with gifts “eastward, unto the east country’’’ (Gen. xxv. 6). We saw another well, Ain AmiXs, which may perhaps be a remembrance of Amasai, the chief of the captains of the children of Judah and Benjamin, who “came to David at Hebron, ready armed for war, to turn the kingdom of Saul to him according to the word of the Lord,” (1 Chron. xii. 18, 23). Passing up through Kubev-el-Yehudi, or Jewish burying-ground, we saw another wrell, Bir Laun, which I cannot connect with any name in Scripture. The hill opposite is called Jebel Belun, which is not unlike the word Laun just noted; but it mqre nearly resembles Bealoth, a town in the south of Judah mentioned by Joshua (xv.

24); only Bealoth must have lain much farther south. We looked into another well on our route, Bir Abll-A yd, but what may be its place in story I know not. The whole region is full of wells dug in the rock and still carefully preserved, — indications of a larger city and a more numerous population than are at present to be found here.

Among the many ruins which we saw, none interested us more than an old castle, already referred to. It is not far from the Jewish burying-ground, and is surrounded with fields, and fruit-trees, and prickly pears. It has been a place of considerable strength, though now little more than the walls remain. These walls are no doubt old; but they are not the oldest part of it. The tombs under it are evidently of a very ancient date, quite possibly as far back as the time of Abraham.* There are five or six of them in an under chamber or cell, which you have to stoop very low, or rather to crawl, in order to enter. Having entered the outer chamber you find the rocky roof somewhat higher than the entrance, but still low. Between the entrance and the actual tombs there is a hollow which seemed to us like a filled up well; or perhaps it might be a descent to a lower range of tombs. On the inner side of this were the tombs

* I thought at first that this was the place noted by Jewish topographers as the tomb of Abner; but they speak of that as only a bowshot from the cave, and west of it, whereas this must be more, and also south-west, not west. Zunz. Geogr. of Pal. Asher’s Benjamin, vol. ii. p. 437. I do not know whether this may not be what some have given as the tomb of Othniel. — Narrative of Scotch Deputation. 182.

PALACE OF EFHRON.

themselves. These were about seven feet long, running inwards, and about two or three feet broad, each of which had probably held a coffin or sarcophagus, which however had disappeared. There was no masonry about them; they were cut out of the rock, so many on the right and left, and so many in the centre, facing the entrance. We crept into them with our lights, but found nothing save a little dry soil or dust. On comingout we observed on one side of the castle, a carved entrance to another subterraneous vault or chamber* but it was closed. The stones above the aperture or door were ornamented.

Our guide called this Kdsr Nadr HabvAn, the palace or castle of Habrun* At first this appeared to me to be the name of the old city Hebron, before its Arab conquerors gave it the name of El-Khulil. But this is not likely. The city has changed its name with each successive occupant, Kirjath-Arba, Hebron, El-Khulil; but the two former seem to have quite perished. But then Hdbrun is the modern native pronunciation of Epkron;”f* and it seems likely this is the old residence of Ephron the Hittite, or at least a structure built above

* The meaning of Nadr I am not sure of, but see Index under Kasr.

I See the conversation between Dr Wilson and the Sheikh of Hebron. “When speaking of Abraham I alluded to the Scripture account of his purchase of the Cave of Machpelah, ‘Aye,’ said he, ‘Ibrahim was a man of no common strength of intellect; he did Habrun to some purpose. Ibrahim asked merely as much ground as could be covered with a cow’s hide; but after the agreement was concluded, he cut the hide into thongs and surrounded the whole space now forming the Haram.’” — Lands of the Bible, vol. i p. 361. his tomb, whether in after ages or not we cannot say. Was it to this spot that he came and found for himself a tomb after he had generously given up Machpelah to the stranger? Yes, generously, for there is no proof of the construction put upon the transaction by Kitto and others, that he was merely acting a part and speaking fine words, as Arabs do in the present day. The modern misconstruction of Ephron’s politeness has as little to found upon, as the Arab tradition, just cited, has for Abraham’s cunning.