mamre Summary and Overview

manliness. (1.) An Amoritish chief in alliance with Abraham (Gen. 14:13, 24). (2.) The name of the place in the neighbourhood of Hebron (q.v.) where Abraham dwelt (Gen. 23:17, 19; 35:27); called also in Authorized Version (13:18) the "plain of Mamre," but in Revised Version more correctly "the oaks [marg., 'terebinths'] of Mamre." The name probably denotes the "oak grove" or the "wood of Mamre," thus designated after Abraham's ally. This "grove" must have been within sight of or "facing" Machpelah (q.v.). The site of Mamre has been identified with Ballatet Selta, i.e., "the oak of rest", where there is a tree called "Abraham's oak," about a mile and a half west of Hebron. Others identify it with er-Rameh, 2 miles north of Hebron.

(strength, fatness) an ancient Amorite, who with his brothers, Eshcol and Aner, was in alliance with Abram, #Ge 14:13,51| and under the shade of whose oak grove the patriarch dwelt in the interval between his residence at Bethel and at Beersheba. ch. #Ge 13:18; 18:1| In the subsequent chapters Mamre is a mere local appellation. ch, #Ge 23:17,19; 25:9; 49:30; 50:13|

MAM'RE (fatness, strength), an Amorite chief with whom Abraham made an alliance, Gen 14:13, and who gave his name to certain localities in his possessions.

An ancient Amorite. Genesis 13:18, "the plain (rather the oaks or terebinths) of Mamre"; Genesis 14:13; Genesis 14:24, brother of Eshcol, friend and ally of Abraham. The chieftain had planted the terebinths, or was associated with them as his tenting place; so "the oak of Deborah" (Judges 4:5). Mamre was less than a mile from Hebron (Josephus, B. J. 4:9, section 7); but Robinson makes it two Roman miles off, now the hill er Rameh. Constantine, to suppress the superstitions veneration to the terebinths, erected a basilica or church on the spot. That it was on an elevation appears from the record that Machpelah faces it (Genesis 23:17-19; Genesis 25:9). Abram resided under the oak grove shade in the interval between his stay at Bethel and at Beersheba (Genesis 13:18; Genesis 18:1; Genesis 20:1; Genesis 21:31). If Machpelah be on the N.E. side of the Hebron valley, then Mamre as "facing it" must have been on the opposite slope, where the governor's house now is. (See HEBRON.)