Machpelah

Machpelah

(măkpē`lə), cave, near Hebron; also called the Cave of the Patriarchs. The Book of Genesis relates that it was bought by Abraham from Ephron, son of Zohar the Hittite, for a family burial place. The Mosque of Ibrahim, which now encloses the site, may be a successor to a structure built by the Herods. The mosque was the site of the murder of Muslim worshipers by an extremist Jewish settler in 1994.

Machpelah

cave where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob are buried. [O.T.: Genesis 23:19, 25:9, 49:30, 50:13]See: Burial Ground