Much later only did I become fully aware of what it had all been about: Hebron, where 69 Jews—men, women and children—had been brutally massacred by Arab rioters! Hebron, where my paternal grandmother had been born.
Hebron, built seven years before Zoan [Tanis, an ancient capital] in Egypt (Num. 13:22), is first mentioned in the Bible in Gen. 13:22. There, Abraham built an altar (his third) to God, and it was in Hebron that the first purchase of land—the Cave of the Makhpelah and the plot surrounding it (Gen. 23)—is biblically recorded.
The massive stone structure over the Cave was built by King Herod, and it is the only Herodian structure to remain intact and still serve its original purpose: that of a gathering place for prayer at the Tomb of the Patriarchs. The Byzantines and the Crusaders transformed it into a church.
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