from:

A TRIP ABROAD

An Account of a Journey to the Earthly Canaan and the Land of the
Ancient Pharaohs

To Which Are Appended

A Brief Consideration of the Geography and History of Palestine,
and a Chapter on Churches of Christ in Great Britain

BY

DON CARLOS JANES

1905
 

...Hebron is a very ancient city, having been built seven and a half years
before Zoar in Egypt. (Num. 13:22.) Since 1187 it has been under the
control of the Mohammedans, who raise large quantities of grapes, many
of which are made into raisins. Articles of glass are made in Hebron,
but I saw nothing especially beautiful in this line. The manufacture of
goat-skin water-bottles is also carried on. Another line of work which I
saw being done is the manufacture of a kind of tile, which looks like a
fruit jug without a bottom, and is used in building. Hebron was one of
the six cities of refuge (Joshua 20:7), and for seven years and a half
it was David's capital of Judah. It is very historic. "Abraham moved his
tent, and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and
built there an altar unto Jehovah." (Gen. 13:18.) When "Sarah died in
Kiriath-arba (the same is Hebron), in the land of Canaan, * * * Abraham
came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her." At this time the worthy
progenitor of the Hebrew race "rose up from before his dead, and spoke
unto the children of Heth, saying, I am a stranger and a sojourner with
you: give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury
my dead out of my sight." The burial place was purchased for "four
hundred shekels of silver, current money of the land. * * * And after
this Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave in the field of Machpelah
before Mamre (the same is Hebron), in the land of Canaan" (Gen.
23:1-20). Years after this, when both Abraham and his son Isaac had
passed the way of all the earth and had been laid to rest in this cave,
the patriarch Jacob in Egypt gave directions for the entombment of his
body in this family burial place. "There they buried Abraham and Sarah
his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I
buried Leah" (Gen. 49:31), and here, by his own request, Jacob was
buried. (Gen. 50:13.) Joshua, the successor of Moses, "utterly
destroyed" Hebron (Joshua 10:37), and afterwards gave it to Caleb, to
whom it had been promised by Moses forty-five years before. (Joshua
14:6-15.) Here Abner was slain (2 Samuel 3:27), and the murderers of
Ishbosheth were put to death. (2 Samuel 4:12.)
 

The most interesting thing about the town is the "cave of Machpelah,"
but it is inaccessible to Christians. Between 1167 and 1187 a church was
built on the site, now marked by a carefully guarded Mohammedan mosque.
It is inclosed by a wall which may have been built by Solomon. We were
allowed to go in at the foot of a stairway as far as the seventh step,
but might as well have been in the National Capitol at Washington so far
as seeing the burial place was concerned. In 1862 the Prince of Wales,
now King of England, was admitted. He was accompanied by Dean Stanley,
who has described what he saw, but he was permitted neither to examine
the monuments nor to descend to the cave below, the real burial chamber.
As the body of Jacob was carefully embalmed by the Egyptian method, it
is possible that his remains may yet be seen in their long resting place
in this Hebron cave. (Gen. 50:1,2.)...

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