POOL OF HEBRON.
For some time onward, Hebron receives only slight and passing mention. But in this old royal city, hallowed by so many associations, David established his throne on the death of Saul, and here he reigned as king of Judah for “seven years and six months.”[[48]] Soon Hebron again comes before us as a place of burial. Abner, falling a victim to the vengeance and ambition of Joab, who slew him in the gate of the city, received a magnificent funeral, and king David himself followed the bier, and they buried Abner in Hebron, and the king lifted up his voice and wept, and all the people wept.[[49]] A tomb is yet shown and regarded with great reverence as that of Abner.
One spot in the suburbs of Hebron we are enabled to associate with the residence of David here. There are two tanks or pools just outside the city gate, evidently of great antiquity. It was here that he executed the murderers of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul. “And David commanded his young men, and they slew them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up over the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth, and buried it in the sepulchre of Abner in Hebron.”[[50]]
ENTRANCE TO MOSQUE.
From a Photograph.
When the tribes of Israel came down to Hebron, and made David king over all the land, the interest and importance of the city ceased. Only once again does it appear in history. Here Absalom came and raised the standard of revolt against his father, and “sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, As soon as ye hear the sound of the trumpet, then shall ye say, Absalom reigneth in Hebron.”[[51]] The name does not occur in the New Testament, nor does our Lord appear to have visited it in the course of his ministry; but on the flight into Egypt, when Joseph “arose and took the young child and his mother by night,”[[52]] they must have passed through the city and probably rested here on the first night of the journey.
Great and various as is the interest associated with Hebron, that interest culminates in the cave of Machpelah. Here lie the bodies of the three great patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with their wives—Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah. Mohammedan tradition affirms that the embalmed body of Joseph, likewise, rests here, and his cenotaph is in the mosque over the cave, with those of the other patriarchs.[[53]]
