The Cave of Machpelah: Burial Place of the Patriarchs

The First Purchase

The Cave of Machpelah holds a distinction unique in the Hebrew Bible: it is the first piece of land legally purchased by an Israelite. The transaction, recorded in Genesis 23 with the meticulous detail of a real estate contract, describes Abraham buying the cave and surrounding field from Ephron the Hittite for 400 shekels of silver.

Abraham made this purchase to bury his wife Sarah. The narrative emphasizes that he insisted on paying full price — he would not accept a gift. The deed of sale, conducted publicly “at the gate of the city” before witnesses, established an irrefutable legal claim.

This emphasis on legitimate purchase — rather than divine promise or military conquest — has made the Machpelah transaction one of the most frequently cited passages in Jewish arguments about the land. Even those who question other territorial claims acknowledge that Hebron was bought and paid for.

The Patriarchs and Matriarchs

Following Sarah’s burial, the cave became the family tomb of Abraham’s descendants:

• Abraham was buried there by his sons Isaac and Ishmael (Genesis 25:9)
• Isaac was buried there by his sons Esau and Jacob (Genesis 35:29)
• Rebecca (Isaac’s wife) is buried there (mentioned in Genesis 49:31)
• Leah (Jacob’s first wife) is buried there (Genesis 49:31)
• Jacob was brought from Egypt after his death and buried there by his sons (Genesis 50:13)

The only matriarch not buried at Machpelah is Rachel, who died on the road near Bethlehem and was buried there.

The Herodian Structure

The massive structure visible today over the cave was built by King Herod the Great in the 1st century BCE — the same builder who expanded the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The building is one of the best-preserved Herodian structures in the world.

The enclosure measures approximately 59 meters long by 34 meters wide, with walls rising up to 12 meters high. The stones are classic Herodian masonry — large, precisely cut ashlar blocks with the characteristic flat margins. Some blocks weigh several tons.

The structure has never been demolished. It was converted into a Byzantine church, then into a mosque during the Muslim conquest, briefly back into a church during the Crusades, and then into a mosque again by the Mamluks. Each successive culture added to the building — minarets, a mihrab (prayer niche), the characteristic Mamluk crenellations — but Herod’s walls remain the foundation.

The Sealed Cave

Remarkably, the actual cave beneath the Herodian structure has never been properly excavated. The burial chambers remain sealed, and access to the underground passages has been restricted for centuries.

In 1119, Augustinian monks reportedly entered the cave and claimed to have found bones. In 1967, after Israel captured Hebron, Moshe Dayan is said to have lowered a young girl through a narrow opening to explore — she reported a corridor leading to a large room. Limited archaeological investigations in the 1980s confirmed the existence of chambers but did not fully explore them.

The decision not to excavate reflects both political sensitivity and religious reverence — disturbing the remains of the patriarchs and matriarchs would be deeply problematic in Jewish law, and any archaeological work at the site would provoke intense controversy.

Centuries of Restriction

For most of its history since the Mamluk period, Jews were prohibited from entering the building. Beginning in 1266, the Mamluk sultan Baybars issued a decree banning Jews and Christians from entering the structure. Jews were permitted to ascend only to the seventh step of the staircase on the eastern side.

For 700 years — from 1266 to 1967 — Jews could pray no closer than that seventh step. They left notes in cracks in the wall, prayed facing the structure, and maintained a small presence in Hebron despite periodic violence and expulsion.

After the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel captured Hebron and for the first time in seven centuries, Jews could enter the building and pray inside.

The Division

The modern history of the site is deeply painful. In 1929, the Arab massacre in Hebron killed 67 Jews and effectively ended the ancient Jewish community there. In 1994, an Israeli settler named Baruch Goldstein opened fire on Muslim worshippers inside the mosque, killing 29 people — an atrocity condemned across the political spectrum.

Following the 1994 massacre, the Israeli government divided the building between Jewish and Muslim worship areas. The arrangement is complex:

• Approximately 81% of the space is allocated to the Muslim side and 19% to the Jewish side during regular days
• On ten Jewish holidays per year, the entire building is open to Jewish worshippers
• On ten Muslim holidays per year, the entire building is open to Muslim worshippers
• Israeli soldiers maintain security throughout

The division satisfies no one fully. Muslims object to the Jewish military presence and restricted access to a site they venerate as the Ibrahimi Mosque. Jews note that the percentage allocation does not reflect the site’s Jewish historical significance. The arrangement is a compromise born of tragedy — functional but deeply unsatisfying to all parties.

Sacred Ground

Despite the political complexity, the Cave of Machpelah remains what it has been for four millennia: the burial place of the founding families of the Jewish people. Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah — three generations of patriarchs and matriarchs whose stories fill the Book of Genesis and whose faith established the covenant that defines Judaism.

To stand at Machpelah is to stand at the beginning — the place where the Jewish story takes root in the earth, where the first purchase established the first claim, and where the founders of a civilization rest beneath stones that Herod placed and time has not removed.