Mamre

AI summary: Mamre is one of the place names that gives texture to Abraham's life in the land. It is the setting around Hebron where Abraham dwells, where covenant relationships are formed, and where the burial field of Machpelah lies in view. Because of that, Mamre sits close to some of the most personal moments in Genesis: home, alliance, loss, burial, and the passing of generations. The cross references present Mamre as part of the intimate patriarchal landscape around Hebron rather than as a merely incidental landmark.¹

The name of the place in the neighbourhood of Hebron (q.v.) where Abraham dwelt (Gen. 23:17, 19; 35:27); called also in Authorized Version (13:18) the “plain of Mamre,” but in Revised Version more correctly “the oaks [marg., ‘terebinths’] of Mamre.” The name probably denotes the “oak grove” or the “wood of Mamre,” thus designated after Abraham’s ally. This “grove” must have been within sight of or “facing” Machpelah (q.v.). The site of Mamre has been identified with Ballatet Selta, i.e., “the oak of rest”, where there is a tree called “Abraham’s oak,” about a mile and a half west of Hebron. Others identify it with er-Rameh, 2 miles north of Hebron. ³