Over the Hebrews’ grave!
Yet a day cometh when those white walls shaking
Shall give again to light the living dead;
And Abraham, Isaac, Jacob reawaking
Spring from their rocky bed.”
On the return from Hebron, a slight detour by a road leading through vineyards brings us to a magnificent tree known as Abraham’s Oak. Here according to tradition, Abraham sat at the door of his tent, when he received the visit of the angels.[[55]] It is a stately Syrian oak, of the species known to the Arabs as Sindiân. Though of great age it is obviously later than the Christian era. Yet it well deserves a visit, not only for its great size and beauty, but as the last survivor of the grove of oaks, which stood here in Patriarchal and Hebrew times. It measures twenty-three feet round the trunk, and its branches cover an area in one direction of fifty feet, and of ninety feet in another. Its situation answers admirably to the biblical description of Mamre, being “before” or “over against” Machpelah, whilst from the hill above it a view, already referred to,[[56]] of the plain of Sodom is gained. Here, therefore, I should fix the site of Mamre rather than at Rhamet el Khulil (the Hill of the Friend), which stands some distance to the north.
ABRAHAM’S OAK NEAR HEBRON.
BETHLEHEM TO THE DEAD SEA.
