A Polish Jew had been persuaded to receive us into his house, but as it was Friday night, the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath, the family refused to prepare us food, or do any thing for our comfort which required work. Our host’s name was Jonah, a most unpromising fact. According to the style of Polish Jews, he wore yellow robes trimmed with fur, and a high round fur cap. His wife was elegantly attired, and was a person of more than ordinary beauty, which was not true of the other ladies of the family. Their house was near the Cave of Machpelah, and built of gray limestone. The room we occupied was in the second story; the ceiling was arched, and on the sides of the apartment was a raised platform, which served us as a couch. We had eaten nothing since we left Bethlehem; our host’s religion would not allow him to relieve our hunger, and, while we sent for a little Mohammedan maid to prepare the meal, I thought on our Lord’s parable of the ass in a ditch on the Sabbath-day. Hebron comes from Kirjath-Arba――city of Arba――from Arba, who was father of Anak, and progenitor of the giants called Anakims. At a later period it received the name of Mamre, in honor of Mamre, the Amorite, the friend and ally of Abraham. It now bears the Arabic name of El-Khulêl, “The Friend of God,” evidently referring to the “Father of the Faithful.” Hebron is older than the oldest authentic history. According to Moses, Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.[343] But when was Zoan built? Seven years after Hebron! This indefinite answer leaves us to infer that Hebron is among the oldest cities in the world, having a greater antiquity than Damascus. Though its earliest history is obscure, its identity with the home of the patriarchs is unquestioned. Subsequently to his separation from Lot at Bethel, Abraham pitched his tent on the Plains of Mamre.[344] Hither came the fugitive from the battle of the kings, and informed him of the capture of his nephew.[345] From these peaceful pasture-fields he went forth with 318 trained servants, born in his own house, and, pursuing the victors unto Dan, there retook his relative.[346] It was here, while sitting in his tent door, as old men are accustomed now to sit, that three angels in human form came to his tent, one to promise him a son, the others to pass on and destroy the “cities of the plain;”[347] and, ascending the eastern hill early the next morning, he saw the smoke of the country that went up as the smoke of a furnace.[348] Here, in harmony with the renewal of a covenant previously formed, and in obedience to the Lord’s command, he and all the males of his house were circumcised. Here is the scene of the unhappy story of Hagar and Ishmael,[349] and, years later, of the birth of Isaac. Here Sarah died, and in the cave of Machpelah Abraham interred his beloved wife.[350] Years after, the prince of patriarchs was laid by her side; and, in the termination of generations, Isaac and Rebecca,[351] Leah and Jacob,[352]