MAKHPĒLĀH (= “a double thing”). - A tract of land with trees and a cave, situated Hebron (v.). It belonged to Ephron the Hittite, Abramo (v.) bought it as a family burial place (Gen. 23, 9-19). Sara (ibid. 23, 19), Abramo (ibid. 25, 9), Isacco, Rebecca, Giacobbe, and Lia were buried there (ibid. 49, 50; 50, 13).
The cave was always held in veneration; Erode il Grande erected a magnificent enclosure over II. Within it, during the Byzantine period, a church was built, of which few traces remain. In 1115 the Crusaders rebuilt it, and their structure, converted into a mosque, is very well preserved. The Arabs added various cenotaphs to II. With
the Arab reoccupation of Palestine (1187), the cave became inaccessible to Christians, who for a considerable time, that is, from the 14th to the 19th century, were also excluded from the enclosure; this prohibition has been maintained to the present day. Thus it is now impossible to know exactly the form of the cave and the condition in which it stands.
BBL.: L. Heidet, s. V. in DB, IV, cols. 520-31; L.-H. Vincent - E. Mackay - F.-M. Abel, Hebron, Parigi 1923.
Bellarmino Bagatti
#### MALABAR, LATIN MISSIONS: V. INDIA.