Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.
Abram ... came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron - [Hebrew, bª'eeloneey (H436), in the oaks; Septuagint, para teen drun; Vulgate, juxta convallem; from the latter of which our translation has evidently been made.] "Mamre," a Canaanitish chief in alliance with Abram (Genesis 14:13; Genesis 14:24), "which is in Hebron," - by or near Hebron (originally Kirjath-Arba, Genesis 33:2; Joshua 21:2; Joshua 15:13-14; Judges 1:10), called also Mamre (Genesis 23:17; Genesis 35:27), the frontier town of Palestine in the south, twenty miles south of Jerusalem, and the same distance north of Beer-sheba. This oak is said by Josephus to have been a terebinth (now butm), which is an evergreen; and Jerome says, 'it was standing in his childhood.' Celsius ('Hierobotan.') maintains the same view; but Gesenius, that Ellon denotes any durable tree, especially an oak. There is still, a little from Hebron, an ancient oak tree called by the Arabs Balut-es-Sebta, said to be the only surviving relic of the patriarchal oak groves; and 'it is highly probable,' says Van de Velde, 'that this elegant and majestic tree is an offshoot from the group which stood here in Abram's time.
No wonder that the patriarch, ravished with the delightful climate of this hill country, and with the splendid oaks of Mamre, pitched his tent here.' Dr. Hooker says that this tree, 'Abram's oak' (Quercus pseudo-coccifera), is popularly supposed to indicate the spot where grew the oak or lentisk (for it is disputed which), under which the patriarch pitched his tent, and is reverenced accordingly by Jews, Mahomedans, and Christians. In general habit, it much resembles the Q. Ilex, as grown in this country, but does not branch so much from the base; the bark is similar in colour and fissuring, the branches in direction, and the foliage in colour, etc. The diameter of foliage is 90 feet, and the girth of the trunk Isaiah 23 feet. One of the finest boughs of this tree, broken down by a storm in the winter of 1856-1857, was sawn as timber for transportation to Jerusalem, nearly 25 miles off, and loaded seven camels with the wood of the one limb of this fine tree. In geographical distribution, the Q. pseudo-coccifera completely overleaps Q. coccifera, extending from Spain and Algeria to the borders of the Mesopotamian desert, whereas the latter is not described as inhabiting any country further east than Asia Minor' ('Trausac. of Linn. Society,' vol. 23:, sec. 2).
Hebron - alliance (cf. Genesis 14:13).
Built there an altar unto the Lord. The renewal of the promise made to Abram (Genesis 13:14-17) was acknowledged by a fresh tribute of devout gratitude.