Appendix II : The Cave at Machpelah (part 1)
by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D.
IN my lecture on the History of Abraham I en-
larged on the extraordinary interest attached to the Cave of
Machpelah. At that time I little thought that I should ever
be enabled to penetrate within the inaccessible sanctuary which
surrounds it. This privilege I owe to the effort made by His
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, in 1862, to obtain an
entrance in to the Mosque of Hebron; the success of which
gave to his Eastern journey a peculiar value, such as has at-
tached to the visit of no other European Prince to the Holy
Land.
The Cave of Machpelah is described in the Book of Genesis
with a particularity almost resembling that of a legal
deed. The name of "Machpelah," or rather "the
Machpelah," appears to have belonged to the whole
district or property, though it is applied sometimes to the cave,
and sometimes to the field. The meaning of the word is quite
uncertain, though that of "double," which is adopted in all
the ancient versions (almost always as if applied to the cave) is
the most probable. In this "Machpelah" was a field, "a culti-
vated field," which belonged not to one of the Amorite chiefs —
Aner, Eshcol, or Mamre, but to a Hittite, Ephron the son of
Zohar. The field was planted, as most of those around the
vale of Hebron, with trees: olives, terebinths, or ilexes. At
one "end," probably the upper end, was a cave. The whole
place was "in the face of Mamre," that is, as it would seem,
opposite the oaks or terebinths of Mamre, the Amorite, where
Abraham had pitched his tent. In this case, it would be im-
mediately within view of his encampment; and the open mouth
of the cave must be supposed to have attracted his attention long
before he made the proposal which ended in his purchase of this,
his first and only property in the Holy Land. "There they
buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac
and Rebekah his wife; and there," according to the dying
speech of the last of the Patriarchs, "Jacob buried Leah;"
and there he himself was buried "in the cave of the field of
Machpelah, which Abraham bought for a possession of a burial-
place from Ephron the Hittite before Mamre."
This is the last Biblical notice of the cave of Machpelah. It
is remarkable that after the close of the book of Genesis no
mention is made of it in the Scriptures. Even in the New Tes-
tament, by a singular variation, in the speech of Stephen, the
tomb at Shechem is substituted for it. It is not even mentioned
in the account of Caleb's conquest of Hebron, nor of David's
reign there. The only possible allusion to the statement in Ab-
salom's life, that he vowed a pilgrimage to Hebron.
But the formal and constant allusion to it in the Book of Gen-
esis is a sufficient guaranty not only or a spot of that name hav-
ing existed from early times, but also for its having been known
at the time of the composition, and of the introduction of the
Book into the Jewish Canon. That cannot be earlier, on any
hypothesis, than the time of Moses, nor later than the times of
the Monarchy.
We are not left, however, entirely in the dark. Josephus, in
his "Antiquities," tells us that there were "monuments
built there by Abraham and his descendants;" and
in his "Jewish War," that "the monuments of Abraham and
his sons" (apparently alluding to those already mentioned in the
Antiquities) "were still shown at Hebron, of beautiful marble,
and admirably worked." These monuments can hardly be
other than what the "Bourdeaux Pilgrim," in A.D. 333, de-
scribes as "a quadrangle of stones of astonishing beauty;" and
the massive enclosure of the Mosque. The tradition, thus carried
up unquestionably in the age of Josephus, is n fact carried by
the same argument much higher. For the walls, as they now
stand, and as Josephus speaks of them, must have been built
before his time. The terms which he uses imply this, and he
omits to mention them amongst the works of Herod the Great,
the only potentate who could or would have built them in his
time, and amongst whose buildings they must have occupied, if
at all, a distinguished place. But, if not erected by Herod, there
is then no period at which we can stop short of the Monarchy.
So elaborate and costly a structure is inconceivable in the dis-
turbed and impoverished state of the nation after the Return. It
is to the kings, at least, that the walls must be referred, and, if
so, to none so likely as the sovereigns to whom they are ascribed
by Jewish and Mussulman tradition, — David or Solomon.
Beyond this we can hardly expect to find a continuous proof.
But by this time, we have almost joined the earlier tradition im-
plied in the reception of the Book of Genesis, with its detailed
local description, into the Jewish Sacred Books.
With this early origin of the present enclosure its appearance
fully agrees. With the long continuity of the tradition agrees
also the general character of Hebron and its vicinity. There is
no spot in Palestine, except, perhaps, Mount Gerizim, where the
genius loci has been so slightly disturbed in the lapse of centu-
ries. There is already a savor of antiquity in the earliest men-
tion of Hebron, "built seven years before Zoan in Egypt." In
it the names of the Amorite inhabitants were preserved long
after they had perished elsewhere; and from the time that the
memory of Abraham first begun to be cherished there it seems
never to have ceased. The oak, the "antediluvian oak," "the
Terebinth as old as the Creation," were shown in the time of
Josephus. The Terebinth gave to the spot where it stood the
name which lingers there down to the present day, centuries
after the tree itself had disappeared. The fair held beneath it,
the worship offered, shows that the Patriarch was regarded al-
most as a Divinity. His name became identified not only with
the sepulchral quadrangle, "The Castle of Abraham," but with
the whole place. The Mussulman name of "El-khalîl," "The
Friend" (of God), has as completely superseded in the native
population the Israelite name of "Hebron," as the name of
"Hebron" had already superseded the Canaanite name of
"Kirjayth-arba." The town itself, which in ancient times must
have been at some distance (as is implied in the original account
of the purchase of the burial-place) from the sepulchre, has de-
scended from the higher ground on which it was formerly situ-
ated, and clustered round the tomb which had become the chief
centre of attraction. A similar instance may be noted in the
name of El-Lazarieh, applied to Bethany, from the reputed
tomb of Lazarus, round which the modern village has gathered.
In our own country a parallel may be observed at St. Alban's.
The town of Verulam has crossed the river from the northern
bank on which it formerly stood, and has climbed the southern
hill in order to enclose the grave of St. Alban, whose name,
in like manner, has entirely superseded that of the original
Verulam.
For the sake of this sacred association, the town has become
one of the Four Holy Places of Islam and of Judaism, _ the
other three in the sacred group being, in the case of Islam,
Mecca, Medinah, and Jerusalem; in the case of Judaism, Jeru-
salem, Safed, and Tiberias. The Mosque is said to have been
founded and adorned in the successive reigns of Sultan Kelaoun,
and of his son Naser-Mohammed, in the thirteenth and four-
teenth centuries. Its property consists of some of the best land
in the plains of Sharon and Philistia.
But of all the proofs of the sanctity of the place the most re-
markable is the impenetrable mystery in which the sanctuary
has been involved, being in fact a living witness of the unbroken
local veneration with which the three religions of Jew, Christian,
and Mussulman have honored the great Patriarch. The stones
of the enclosures have, as has been said, been noticed from the
time of Josephus downwards. The long roof of the Mosque,
the upper part of its windows, the two minarets at the south-
west and north-east corners rising above the earlier and later
walls of the enclosure, have been long familiar to travellers.
But what lay within had , till within the present year, been a
matter if not of total ignorance, yet of uncertainty more pro-
voking than ignorance itself. There were confused accounts of
an early Christian Church, of a subsequent mosque, of the cave
and its situation, which transpired through widely contradictory
statements of occasional Jewish and Christian pilgrims, Antoni-
nus, Arculf, and Sæwulf, Benjamin of Tudela, and Maundeville.
For the six hundred years since the Mussulman occupation, in
A.D. 1187, no European, except by stealth, was known to have
set foot within the sacred precincts. Three accounts alone of
such visits have been given in modern times; one, extremely
brief an confused, by Govanni Finati, an Italian servant of
Mr. Bankes, who entered as a Mussulman; a second, by an
English clergyman, Mr. Monro, who, however, does not profess
to speak from his own testimony; a third, by far the most dis-
tinct, by the Spanish renegade Badia, or "Ali Bey." While
the other sacred places in Palestine — the Mosque at Jerusalem,
within the last ten years, the Mosque at Damascus, within the
last two years — have been thrown open, at least to distinguished
travellers, the Mosque of Hebron still remained, even to royal
personages, hermetically sealed.
To break through this mystery, to clear up this uncertainty,
even irrespectively of the extraordinary interest attaching to
the spot, was felt by those most concerned, to be an object not
unworthy of the first visit of a Prince of Wales to the Holy
Land.
From the moment that the expedition was definitively arranged
in January, 1862, it was determined by His Royal
Highness and his advisers, that the attempt should be
made, if it were found compatible with prudence, and
with the respect due to the religious feelings of the native popula-
tion. On arriving at Jerusalem, the first inquiry was, as to the
possibility of accomplishing this long-cherished design. Mr.
Finn, the English Consul, had already prepared the way, by re-
questing a Firman from the Porte for this purpose. The Gov-
ernment at Constantinople, aware of the susceptible fanaticism
of the population of Hebron, sent, instead of a direct order, a
Vizierial letter of recommendation to the Governor of Jerusalem,
leaving in fact the whole matter to his discretion. The Governor,
Sûraya Pasha, — partly from the natural difficulties of the pro-
posed attempt, partly, it may be, from his own personal feeling on
the subject, — held out long and strenuously against taking upon
himself the responsibility of a step which had hitherto no prece-
dent. Even as lately as the preceding year, he had resisted the
earnest entreaty of a distinguished French scholar and antiquary,
though armed with the recommendations of his own government
and of Fuad Pasha, then Turkish Commissioner in Syria. The
negotiation devolved on General Bruce, the Governor of the
Prince of Wales, assisted by the interpreter of the party, Mr.
Noel Moore, son of the Consul-General of Beyrût. It may
truly be said, — as it was in enumerating the qualifications of the
lamented General after his death, — that the tact and firmness
which he showed on this occasion were worthy of the first ranks
of diplomacy. Many grave political difficulties might, in other
and grander spheres, have been unlocked by the dexterity with
which he forced open the Mosque of Hebron.
Sûraya Pasha offered every other civility or honor that could
be paid. The General took his position on the ground, that
since the opening of the other Holy Places, this was the one
honor left for the Turkish Government to award to the rare priv-
ilege of a visit of the Prince of Wales. He urged, too, the
feeling with which the request was made: that we, as well as
they, had in common interest in the Patriarchs common to both
Religions; and that nothing was claimed beyond what would
be accorded to Mussulmans themselves. At last the Pasha ap-
peared to give way. But a new alarm arising out of a visit of
the Royal party to the shrine commonly called the Tomb of
David, in Jerusalem, complicated the question again, and the
Pasha finally declared that the responsibility was too serious, and
that, unless the General actually insisted upon it, he could not
undertake to guarantee the Prince's safety from the anger either
of the population or of the Patriarchs themselves. "So strong
is our sentiment on this subject," he said, "that, when some
time ago the Prophet's Tomb at Medina needed repairs, and
a recompense was offered to any one who would undertake the
repairs, a man was with difficulty found for the task; he went
in, he performed the work, he returned, — and was immediately
put to death: that was considered to be the only adequate rec-
ompense for so sacrilegious an errand." It was an anxious
moment for the Prince's advisers. On the one hand, there was
the doubt, now seriously raised, as to the personal safety of the
attempt, which, though it hardly entered into the Prince's own
calculation, was a paramount question for those who were charged
with the responsibility of the step. On the other hand, the
point having been once raised, could not be lightly laid aside,
the more so, as it was strongly felt that to allow of a refusal in
the case of the Prince of Wales, would establish an impregnable
precedent against future relaxations, and close the doors of the
Mosque more firmly than ever against all inquirers. General
Bruce adopted a course which ultimately proved successful. He
announced to the Pasha the extreme displeasure of the Prince at
the refusal, and declared his intention of leaving Jerusalem in-
stantly for the Dead Sea; adding that, if the sanctuary at He-
bron could not be entered, the Prince would decline to visit
Hebron altogether. We started immediately on a three days'
expedition. On the evening of the first day, it was found that
the Pasha had followed us. He sent to reopen the negotiations,
and offered to make the attempt, if the numbers were limited
to the Prince and two or three of the suite, promising to go him-
self to Hebron to prepare for the event. This proposal was
guardedly, but decisively accepted. And accordingly, on our
return to Jerusalem, instead of going northwards immediately,
the plan was laid for the enterprise.
It was early on the morning of Monday, the 7th of April, that
we left our encampment, and moved in a southerly direction.
The object of our journey was mentioned to no one. On our
way, we were joined by Dr. Rosen, the Prussian Consul at
Jerusalem, well known to travellers in Palestine, from his pro-
found knowledge of sacred geography, and, in this instance,
doubly valuable as a companion, from the special attention which
he had paid to the topography of Hebron and its neighborhood.
Before our arrival at Hebron, the Pasha had made every prep-
aration to insure the safety of the experiment. What he feared
was, no doubt, a random shot or stone from some individual
fanatic, some Indian pilgrim, such as are well known to hang
about these sacred places, and who might have held his life cheap
at the cost of avenging what he thought an outrage on the sanc-
tities of his religion. Accordingly, as our long cavalcade wound
through the narrow valley by which the town of Hebron is ap-
proached, underneath the walls of those vineyards on the hill-
sides, which have made the vale of Eshcol immortal, the whole
road on either side for more than a mile was lined with soldiers.
The native population. which usually on the Prince's
approach to a town streamed out to meet him, was in-
visible, it may be from compulsion, it may be from silent indig-
nation. We at length reached the greensward in front of the
town, crowned by the Quarantine and the Governor's residence.
There Sûraya Pasha received us. It had been arranged, in ac-
cordance with the Pasha's limitation of the numbers, that His
Royal Highness should be accompanied, besides the General, by
the two members of the party who had given most attention to
Biblical pursuits, so as to make it evident that the visit was not
one of mere curiosity, but had also a distinct scientific purpose.
It was, however, finally conceded by the Governor, that the
whole of the suite should be included, amounting to seven per-
sons besides the Prince. The servants remained behind. we
started on foot, two and two between two files of soldiers,
by the ancient pool of Hebron, up the narrow streets of the
modern town, still lined with soldiers. Hardly a face was visi-
ble as we passed through; only here and there a solitary guard,
stationed at a vacant window, or on the flat roof of a projecting
house, evidently to guarantee the safety of the party from any
chance missile. It was, in fact, a complete military occupation
of the town. At length we reached the south-eastern corner of
the massive wall of enclosure, the point at which inquiring trav-
ellers from generation to generation have been checked in their
approach to this, the most ancient and the most authentic of all
the Holy Places of the Holy Land. "Here," said Dr. Rosen,
"was the furthest limit of my researches." Up the steep flight
of the exterior staircase — gazing close at hand on the polished
surface of the wall, amply justifying Josephus's account of the
marble-like appearance of the huge stones which compose it — we
rapidly mounted. At the head of the staircase, which by its
long ascent showed that the platform of the Mosque was on the
uppermost slope of the hill, and therefore above the level where, if
anywhere, the sacred cave would be found, a sharp turn at once
brought us within the precincts, and revealed to us for the first
time the wall from the inside. A later wall of Mussulman times
has been built on top of the Jewish enclosure. The enclos-
ure itself, as seen from the inside, rises but a few feet above the
platform.
Here we were received with much ceremony by the five or six
persons, corresponding to the Dean of the Canons of a
Christian cathedral. They were the representatives of
the Forty hereditary guardians of the Mosque.
We passed at once through an open court into the Mosque.
With regard to the building itself, two points at once
became apparent. First, it was clear that it had been
originally a byzantine church. To any one acquainted with the
cathedral of S. Sophia at Constantinople, and with the monastic
Churches of Mount Athos, this is evident from the double nar-
thex or portico, and from the four pillars of the nave. Secondly,
it was clear that it had been converted at a much later period
into a mosque. This is indicated by the pointed arches, and by
the truncation of the apsis. The transformation was said by the
guardians of the Mosque to have been made by Sultan Kelaoun.
The whole building occupies (to speak roughly) one third of the
platform. The windows are sufficiently high to be visible from
without, above the top of the enclosing wall.
I now proceed to describe the Tombs of the Patriarchs, pre-
mising always that these tombs, like all those in Mus-
sulman mosques, and indeed like most tombs in Chris-
tian Churches, do not profess to be the actual places of
sepulture, but are merely monuments or cenotaphs in honor of
the dead who lie beneath. Each is enclosed within a separate
chapel or shrine, closed with gates or railings similar to those
which surround or enclose the special chapels or royal tombs in
Westminster Abbey. The two first of these shrines or chapels
are contained in the inner portico or narthex, before the entrance
into the actual building of the Mosque. In the recess on the
right is the shrine of Abraham, in the recess on the left that of
Sarah, each guarded by silver gates. The shrine of
Sarah we were requested not to enter, as being that of
a woman. A pall lay over it. The shrine of Abraham, after a
momentary hesitation, was thrown open. The guar-
dians groaned aloud. But their chief turned to us with
the remark, "The princes of any other nation should
have passed over my dead body sooner than enter. But to the
eldest son of the Queen of England we are willing to accord
even this privilege." He stepped in before us, and offered an
ejaculatory prayer to the dead Patriarch, "O Friend of God, for-
give this intrusion." We then entered. The chamber is cased
in marble. The so-called tomb consists of a coffin-like structure,
about six feet high, built up of plastered stone or marble, and
hung with three carpets, green embroidered with gold. They
are said to have been presented by Mohamed II, the conqueror
of Constantinople, Selim I, the conqueror of Egypt, and the late
Sultan Abdul Mejid. Fictitious as the actual structure was, it
was impossible not to feel a thrill of unusual emotion at standing
on such a spot, — an emotion enhanced by the rare occasion
which had opened the gates of that consecrated place, as the
guardian of he Mosque kept repeating to us, as we stood round
the tomb, "to no one less than the representative of England."
Within the area of the church or mosque were shown the
tombs of Isaac and Rebekah. They are placed under separate
chapels, in the walls of which are windows, and of which the
gates are grated not with silver, but iron bars. Their situation,
planted as they are in the body of the Mosque, may indicate
their Christian origin. In almost all Mussulman sanctuaries,
the tombs of distinguished persons are placed, not in the centre
of the building, but in the corners. To Rebekah's
tomb the same decorous rule of the exclusion of male
visitors naturally applied as in the case of Sarah's.
But, on requesting to see the tomb of Isaac, we were entreated
not to enter; and on asking, with some surprise, why
an objection which had been conceded for Abraham
should be raised in the case of his far less eminent son, were
answered that the difference lay in the characters of the two
Patriarchs, — "Abraham was full of loving-kindness; he had
withstood even the resolution of God against Sodom and Go-
morrah; he was goodness itself, and would overlook any affront.
But Isaac was proverbially jealous, and it was exceedingly
dangerous to exasperate him. When Ibrahim Pasha [as con-
queror of Palestine] had endeavored to enter, he had been
driven out by Isaac, and fell back as if thunderstruck.'"
The chapel, in fact, contains nothing of interest; but I men-
tion this story both for the sake of the singular sentiment which
it expresses, and also because it well illustrates the peculiar feel-
ing which has tended to preserve the sanctity of the place, — an
awe, amounting to terror, of the great personages who lay be-
neath, and who would, it was supposed, be sensitive to any dis-
respect shown to their graves, and revenge it accordingly.
The shrines of Jacob and Leah were shown in recesses, cor-
responding to those of Abraham and Sarah, — bu in
a separate cloister, opposite the entrance of the Mosque.
Against Leah's tomb, as seen through the iron grate, two green
banners reclined, the origin and meaning of which were unknown.
They are placed in the pulpit on Fridays. The gates
of Jacob's tomb were opened without difficulty, though
with a deep groan from the by-standers. There was some good
painted glass in one of the windows. The structure was of the
same kind as that in the shrine of Abraham, but with carpets of
a coarser texture. Else it calls for no special remark.
Thus far the monuments of the Mosque adhere strictly to the
Biblical account as given above. This is the more remarkable,
because in these particulars the agreement is beyond what might
have been expected in a Mussulman sanctuary. The prominence
given to Isaac, whilst in entire accordance with the Sacred nar-
rative, is against the tenor of Mussulman tradition, which exalts
Ishmael into the first place. And, in like conformity with the
Sacred narrative, but unlike what we should have expected, had
mere fancy been allowed full play, is the exclusion of the famous
Rachel, and the inclusion of the insignificant Leah.
The variation which follows rests, as I am informed by Dr.
Rosen, on the general tradition of the country (justified, perhaps,
by an ambiguous expression of Josephus) that the body of
Joseph, after having been deposited first at Shechem, was sub-
sequently transported to Hebron. But the peculiar sit-
uation of this alleged tomb agrees with the exceptional
character of the tradition. It is in a domed chamber attached
to the enclosure from the outside, and reached, therefore, by an
aperture broken through the massive wall itself, and thus visible
on the exterior of the southern side of the wall. It is less
costly than the others, and it is remarkable that, although the
name of his wife (according to the Mussulman version, Zuleika)
is inserted in the certificates given to pilgrims who have visited
the Mosque, no grave having that appellation is shown. A staff
was hung up in a corner of the chamber. There were painted
windows as in the shrine of Jacob. According to the story told
by the guardian of the Mosque, Joseph was buried in the Nile,
and Moses recovered the body, 1005 years afterwards, by marry-
ing an Egyptian wife who knew the secret.
No other tombs were exhibited inside the Mosque. In a
mosque on the northern side of the great Mosque were two
shrines, resembling those of Isaac and Rebekah, which were af-
terwards explained to us as merely ornamental. On a platform
immediately outside the Jewish wall on the north side, and seen
from the hill rising immediately to the north-east of the Mosque,
is the dome of a mosque named Jawalîyeh, said to have
been built by the Emir Abou Said Sandjar Jâwali, from
whom, of course, it derives its name, in the place of the
tomb of Judas, or Judah, which he caused to be destroyed.
These are the only variations from the catalogue of tombs in
the Book of Genesis. In the fourth century, the Bourdeaux pil-
grim saw only the six great patriarchal shrines. But from the
seventh century downwards, one or more lesser tombs seem to
have been shown. Arculf speaks of the tomb of Adam, "which
is of meaner workmanship than the rest, and lies not far off
from them at the farthest extremity to the north." If we
might take this direction of the compass to be correct, he must
mean either "the tomb of Judah" or one of the two in the
northern mosque. This latter conjecture is confirmed by the
statement of Maundeville that the tombs of Adam and Eve
were shown; which would thus correspond to these two. The
tomb of Joseph is the first distinctly mentioned by Sæwulf, who says
that "the bones of Joseph were buried more humbly than the
rest, as it were at the extremity of the castle." Mr. Monro
describes further "a tomb of Esau , under a small cupola, with
eight or ten windows, excluded from lying with the rest of the
Patriarchs." Whether by this he meant the tomb of Joseph,
or the tomb of Judah, is not clear. A Mussulman tomb of Esau
was shown in the suburb of Hebron called Sir.
The tomb of Abner is shown in the town, and the tomb of
Jesse on the hill facing Hebron on the south. But these have
no connection with the Mosque, or the patriarchal burying-place.
We have now gone through all the shrines, whether of real or
fictitious importance, which the Sanctuary includes.
It will be seen that up to this point no mention has
been made of the subject of the greatest interest,
namely, the sacred cave itself, in which one at least of the pa-
triarchal family may possibly still repose intact, — the embalmed
body of Jacob. It may well be supposed that to this object our
inquiries were throughout directed. One indication alone of the
cavern beneath was visible. In the Interior of the Mosque, at
the corner of the shrine of Abraham, was a small circular hole,
about eight inches across, of which one foot above the pavement
was built of strong masonry, but of which the lower part, as far
as we could see and feel, was of the living rock. This cavity
appeared to open into a dark space beneath, and that space
(which the guardians of the Mosque believed to extend under
the whole platform) can hardly be anything else than the ancient
cavern of Machpelah. This was the only aperture which the
guardians recognized. Once, they said, 2,500 years ago, a servant
of a great king had penetrated through some other entrance. He
descended in full possession of his faculties, and of remarkable cor-
pulence; he returned, blind, deaf, withered, and crippled. Since
then the entrance was closed, and this aperture alone was left,
partly for the sake of suffering the holy air of the cave to escape in-
to the Mosque, and to be scented by the faithful; partly for the sake
of allowing a lamp to be let down by a chain which we saw sus-
pended at the mouth, to burn upon the sacred grave. We asked
whether it could not be lighted now. "No," they said; "the
saint likes to have a lamp at night, but not in the full daylight."
With that glimpse into the dark void we and the world with-
out must for the present be satisfied. Whether any other en-
trance is know to the Mussulmans themselves, must be a matter
of doubt. The original entrance to the cave, if it is now to be
found at all, must probably be on the southern face of the hill,
between the Mosque and the gallery containing the shrine of
Joseph, and entirely obstructed by the ancient Jewish wall, prob-
ably built across it for this very purpose.
from The History of the Jewish Church, Vol. I : Abraham to Samuel,
Appendix II : The Cave at Machpelah
by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D., Dean of Westminster
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1879, pp. 535-549
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