Hebron - EtymologyThe name "Hebron" traces back to two Semitic roots, which coalesce in the form ḥbr, having reflexes in Hebrew, Amorite and Arabic, a

Etymology The name "Hebron" traces back to two Semitic roots, which coalesce in the form ḥbr, having reflexes in Hebrew, Amorite and Arabic, and denoting a range of meanings from "colleague", "unite", "friend" or "to be noisy". In the proper name Hebron, the original sense may have been alliance.[15] In Arabic, Ibrahim al-Khalil (إبراهيم الخليل) means "Abraham the friend", according to Islamic teaching signifying that, God chose Abraham as his friend.[16] Arabic Al-Khalil thus precisely translates the ancient Hebrew toponym Ḥebron, understood as ḥaber (friend).[17]

[edit] History[edit] Antiquity and Israelite period
Cave of the PatriarchsArchaeological excavations reveal traces of strong fortifications dated to the Early Bronze Age. The city was destroyed in a conflagration, and resettled in the late Middle Bronze Age.[18] Hebron was originally a Canaanite royal city.[19] Earlier, in Abraham's day, the city is said to be under Hittite control. In the narrative of the later Hebrew conquest, it is under Canaanite control and ruled by the three sons of Anak, descendants of the Nephilim (Joshua 10:5,6). The Book of Genesis mentions that it was formerly called Kirjath-arba, or "city of four", possibly referring to the four pairs or couples who were buried there, four tribes, four quarters[20] four hills,[21] or a confederated settlement of four families.[22]

Abraham's purchase of the Cave of the Patriarchs from the Hittites constitutes a seminal moment in the development of a Jewish attachment to the land.[23] In settling here, Abraham is described as making his first covenant, an alliance with two local Amorite clans who became his ba’alei brit or masters of the covenant.[24] The Abrahamic traditions associated with Hebron are nomadic, and may also reflect a Kenite element, since the nomadic Kenites are said to have long occupied the city,[25] and Heber is the name for a Kenite clan.[26]

Thereafter, Hebron is said to have been wrested from the Canaanites by either Joshua, Judah or Caleb.[27] The town itself, with some contiguous pasture land, is then said to have been granted to the Levites of the clan of Kohath, while the fields of the city, as well as its surrounding villages were assigned to Caleb,[28][29] who expels the three giants, Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, who ruled the city. Later, the biblical narrative has King David reign from Hebron for some seven years. It is there that the elders of Israel come to him to make a covenant before Yahweh and anoint him king of Israel.[30] It was in Hebron again that Absalom has himself declared king and then raises a revolt against his father David.[31] It became one of the principal centers of the Tribe of Judah and was classified as one of the six traditional cities of refuge for the slayer.[32]

Hebron continued to constitute an important local economic centre, given its strategic position along trading routes, but, as is shown by the discovery of seals at Lachish with the inscription lmlk Hebron (to the king. Hebron),[17] it remained administratively and politically dependent on Jerusalem.[33]

[edit] Second Temple periodAfter the destruction of the First Temple, most of the Jewish inhabitants of Hebron were exiled, and according to the conventional view,[34] their place was taken by Edomites in about 587 BCE. Some Jews appear to have lived there after the return from the Babylonian exile, however.[35] This Idumean town was said to have been in turn destroyed by Judah Maccabee in 167 BCE.[36][37] The city appears to have long resisted Hasmonean dominance, however, and indeed as late as the First Jewish–Roman War was still considered Idumean.[38] Herod the Great built the wall which still surrounds the Cave of the Patriarchs. During the first war against the Romans, Hebron was conquered by Simon Bar Giora, a Sicarii leader, and burnt down by Vespasian's officer Cerealis.[39] After the defeat of Simon bar Kokhba in 135 CE, innumerable Jewish captives were sold into slavery at Hebron's Terebinth slave-market.[40][41] Eventually it became part of the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine emperor Justinian I erected a Christian church over the Cave of Machpelah in the 6th century CE which was later destroyed by the Sassanid general Shahrbaraz in 614 when Khosrau II's armies besieged and took Jerusalem.[42]