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Geneszs xxii. 1-18. And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old these were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.

Geneszs xxii. 1-18. And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old these were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.

To guard against the innocent thus suffering, God commanded that "cities of refuge" should be appointed, to which the slayer might flee, "which killeth any person at unawares." These cities were six in number: Kedesh, Shechem, and Kirjath-arba, on the west of Jordan; and Bezer, Ramoth, and Golan, on the east of that river.

Kirjath-Arba seems to have been built in the valley, close to the pools which still provide water for its modern inhabitants. On the eastern side the slope of the hill is honeycombed with tombs cut in the rock, and, if ancient tradition is to be believed, it was in one of these that Abraham desired to lay the body of his wife.

Abraham returned to Beer-sheba, and from thence went to Hebron, where Sarah died. Hebron or Kirjath-Arba as it was then called was occupied by a Hittite tribe, in contradistinction to the country round about it, which was in the possession of the Amorites.

As at Jerusalem, or at Kadesh on the Orontes, the Hittites had intruded into Amoritish territory and established themselves in the fortress-town. But while the Hittite city was known as Kirjath-Arba, "the city of Arba," the Amoritish district was named Mamre: the union of Kirjath-Arba and Mamre created the Hebron of a later day.

And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjath-arba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah. 8. And on the other side Jordan by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh. 9.

Sarah had died in Kirjath-arba: 'the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.

It is probable that the sanctuary which in days to come was to make Hebron famous had not as yet been established there; at all events the name of Hebron, "the confederacy," was not as yet known, and the city was called Kirjath-Arba.