MAMRE măm’ rə (מַמְרֵ֔א, LXX Μαμβρή, meaning unknown) (1) A friend of Abraham. (2) A place near or in Hebron where Abraham lived.

Three men bearing the names of Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre helped the patriarch Abraham rout the invading Mesopotamian kings according to Genesis 14:24. Earlier in that ch. Abraham had pitched his tents by the oaks or terebinths of Mamre, who is given the patronymic Amorite (v. 13). Most likely it was this man who gave his name to the place.

Abraham was still living in Mamre when he entertained the three heavenly visitors described at the beginning of Genesis 18. It was in Mamre that he prayed for the deliverance of Sodom and Gomorrah.

After Sarah died, Abraham bought a burial plot from Ephron the Hitt. Thus Abraham came into possession of the field of Machpelah which is E of Mamre, and there he buried his wife (Gen 23:17-20). The four other times Machpelah is mentioned are always in relation to Mamre (Gen 23:19; 25:9; 49:30; 50:13).

Genesis 23:29 and 35:27 seem to identify Mamre with Hebron, which is the same as Kiriath-arba, whereas Genesis 13:18 states that Mamre was in or by (Heb. בְּ Hebron.

Through the centuries there have been several places vying for the site of Mamre and Abraham’s oaks. The first problem in establishing its identity is the great antiquity of the place—nearly 4,000 years. The second problem is that oaks do not live that long. The third is that the building and destruction of shrines by Jews, pagans, and Christians have focused undeserved attention on some places and perhaps obscured the true site.

Khirbet Nimreh and ’Ain Nimreh (Ruin and Spring of Nimreh) have a name similar to Mamre. They are about one and a half m. NNW of Hebron. However, the best accepted site today is Ramat el-Khalil, “The high place of the friend (of God),” which is c. two m. N of Hebron. An enclosure of huge proportions built by Herod is there. It may have marked where the site was thought to be in NT times. Chalcolithic and Early Bronze remains found in the vicinity show at least that it is an ancient site.

If Machpelah is indeed under the mosque at Hebron, then Ramat el-Khalil does not lie before it in the usual sense of those words in Heb., i.e., E of it. On the other hand, if Hebron were generally approached from the N, then this preposition would not be out of order in describing the relationship between Mamre and Hebron.

Bibliography A. E. Mader, Mambrie, Die Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen im heiligen Bezir Râmet et-Ḥalêl in Sudpalästina (2 vols., 1957).