MAKHPELAH (= “double thing”). — A plot of land with trees and a cave, situated Hebron (v.). It belonged to Ephron the Hittite, and Abraham (v.) purchased it as a family burial place (Gen. 23:9–19). There Sarah (ibid. 23:19), Abraham (ibid. 25:9), Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, and Leah were buried (ibid. 49:30–31; 50:13).
The cave was always held in veneration; Herod the Great erected an imposing enclosure over II. Within this, during the Byzantine period, a church was built, of which only scant traces remain. The Crusaders rebuilt it in 1115, and their structure, later converted into a mosque, is well preserved. The Arabs have added various cenotaphs.