MACHPELAH măk pē’ lä (מַּכְפֵּלָ֔ה, always with the definite article meaning the double [cave]; Gr. [LXX] τό σπήλαιον τό διπλοῦν, the double cave), the burial place which Abraham purchased of Zohar the Hitt. of Hebron, now located under the Ḥaram el-Khalil in Hebron. The name does not occur outside Genesis and always designates the sepulchers of the patriarchs.

The occasion of the mention of Machpelah was the death of Sarah and the necessity to find a secure sepulcher for her, himself and their posterity. Analysis of Genesis 23 and Hitt. law codes have shown that Hittites of Anatolia maintained an outpost at Hebron at this time (M. Lehmann, “Abraham’s Purchase of Machpelah and Hittite Law,” BASOR, 129 [1953], 15-18). The process of negotiation was perfect etiquette and custom which still prevails in many Arab communities, but in Abraham’s case the price finally paid was deliberately exorbitant, and the offer first of the land for nothing is not to be considered a true offer. The high price was prompted by the aversion of the native Hittites to have a non-Hitt. acquire proprietary, hence citizenship, rights in their midst. They could hardly deny the privilege to Abraham since he was a prince of God (Gen 23:5, 6), but sought to dissuade him by the excessive price asked. Abraham was not so easily put off, and going on the strength of God’s promises that he should inherit the land (12:7; 13:15; etc.), he took the first step to this end as a token of his belief in God’s promises and unhesitatingly paid the price demanded.

The record simply locates the cave “in Machpelah” (23:17), “east of (opposite) Mamre” (v. 19; 25:9), “in the field” (25:9; 49:30; 50:13). Abraham was buried there by Isaac and Ishmael; Isaac and Rebekah were likewise buried there, and Jacob required that his sons bury him where he had buried Leah (49:30). By this Jacob expressed the same confidence in the promises of God which was exhibited by Abraham his grandfather. However, though the record locates the cave opposite Mamre, yet it is only a general term and no other landmarks are given by which to locate it, indicating that the site was obviously known, and that the name was sufficient to localize it. For the archeology of the locale of Hebron see Hebron. The Ḥaram lies NE from the tell of Hebron across the vale on the lower slope of the N ridge on its S side.

Acts 7:15 poses a problem, but one of report, not of actuality. The writer had confused the purchase by Jacob of a field from Hamor of Shechem with the field Abraham purchased; it may well be that his words cite a variant Gr. VS of his day. His usage does not change Genesis.

Josephus was the next earliest writer to mention Machpelah (War IV. ix. 7) in which he wrote of the “monuments” of Abraham as being “shown to this very time” in the “small” city of Hebron. He records that Isaac was buried by his sons beside his wife in the same cave. From that time to this a connected witness places Abraham’s tomb in the present city of Hebron under the present Ḥaram.

This Ḥaram is today a Muslim sanctuary, but in 1967 the cenotaphs marking the burials were removed from their inner rooms to an outer court. The sanctuary itself sets NE to SW, measuring 197 ft. long by 110 ft. wide with masonry walls eight to nine ft. thick. The stonework up to the cornice atop the pilasters is homogeneous and Herodian, while that above is Muslim. Around the exterior at about the line of the floor within occur a series of pilasters about 3 ft. 9 in. wide spaced approximately seven ft. apart, providing for sixteen on the sides and eight on the ends. Entrance to the Ḥaram is along the SW side from the N to the S between adjacent buildings. The visitor is required to wait in a vestibule before proceeding into an arched aisle at the westerly side with a court opening off therefrom with the cenotaphs of Jacob and Leah formerly each in his (her) own chapel on the N side, while those of Abraham and Sarah are to the S in theirs.

A former church, now a mosque, occurs to the S of these memorial rooms; here were located the cenotaphs of Isaac and Rebekah. All the men were placed on the easterly side of the sanctuary. The location of each of the cenotaphs of Isaac and Rebekah supposedly mark the location of their bodies in the cave below, which is reported to extend under the entire church. In the mosque is found a low curb with a brass plate viewing hole, located over a small room of the cave below (about twelve ft. square). A small mosque outside the Ḥaram commemorates Joseph’s reburial from Shechem on account of the antipathy between Jews and Samaritans.

The history of Machpelah since Genesis is obscure down to the Christian era. Perhaps Isaiah 51:1, 2: “Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were digged. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you,” is perhaps a veiled reference to the cave. The later veneration of the site by Jews and Muslims alike supports the view that knowledge of the cave was not lost. Jubilees frequently mentions Abraham’s “house” in Hebron (29:17-19, 20; 31:5, etc.). In Lat. tradition it was called baris Abraham (palace of Abraham). (See R. H. Charles, Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs [1908], 247.) Comparison with Herodian stonework of the Temple in Jerusalem with that of the Ḥaram in Hebron makes it certain that the Ḥaram enclosure in Hebron was built by Herod the Great to memorialize for all later time the location of the cave. This included apparently an entrance and vestibule before the double cave, and on an upper level erected the memorial to which Josephus referred.

In the time of Eudoria of Justinian (c. early 6th cent. a.d.) the church, now a mosque, was built, recorded c. 570 by an anonymous visitor who also recorded seeing the tombs of the patriarchs. In a.d. 670 Arculf recorded the presence of the cenotaphs. In a.d. 980 Muqaddasi recorded the cenotaphs located as of recent times (Le Strange, Palestine Under the Moslems), that the monuments of Isaac and Rebekah were built by the Mamelukes but those of Abraham and Sarah came from the Abbasid or Omayyad periods. The Calif Mahdi is reported by Nasir-i-Kosru in a.d. 1047 that he constructed the present access in 918, possibly due to the obstruction of Joseph’s tomb to the E.

In a.d. 1119 the bones of the patriarchs were reportedly found when access through the church floor at the peephole was made to a vestibule below to the two chambers to the W. This same chamber is reported to have been visited by an Eng. officer in 1917 through an opening hidden since the crusades. Benjamin of Tudela visited the graves in a.d. 1170. The Eng. officer is said to have glimpsed one of them. See Hebron.

Bibliography G. Le Strange, Palestine Under the Moslems (1890); R. H. Charles, “Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs,” The Greek Versions of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (1908); L. H. Vincent, E. J. H. MacKay and F. M. Abel, Hebron, le Haram el Khalil, sepulture des Patriarchs (1923); M. Lehmann, “Abraham’s Purchase of Machpelah and Hittite Law,” BASOR, 129 (1953), 15-18; R. de Vaux, “Machpelah,” Dictionnaire de la Bible, Supp. V (1953), cols. 618-627.