All
the tribes of Israel came to see him in Hebron to tell him: « We are
your flesh and blood. Already in the past when Saul was our king,
you were the one that led Israel out on its expeditions and back.
The Eternal said to you: You will lead my people, Israel, and you
will be a ruler over Israel... » All the Elders of Israel came to
the king in Hebron; and King David made a covenant with them before
the Eternal and they anointed David king over Israel. David was thirty
years old when he became king and he reigned for forty years. He reigned
over Yehuda in Hebron for seven years and six months and he reigned
over all Israel and Yehuda in Jerusalem for thirty-three years.
II
Samuel 5: 1 – 5
Throughout all
those years, the city was the scene of bloody events such as the assassination
of Joav, Saul’s general, by Avner.
The
collapse of the kingdom of Yehuda in 585 B.C. is accompanied by the
deportation of the inhabitants of Hebron. It becomes an Edomite city
that will not be recovered by the Jews until the general annexation
of Edom by the Hasmonean kingdom towards the end of the second century
B.C. Herod the Great (37 – 34 B.C.) restores the city, building, among
other things, the wall that still surrounds the burial cave of the
patriarchs. 2 Hebron will severely suffer from the successive revolts
against the Romans without, however, having its inhabitants evacuated.
In
the 6th century, Justinian builds a church over the burial cave. The
Arabs transform it into a mosque in honor of Abraham, the father of
the faithful – khalil al Rahman or the beloved [Abraham] of the Merciful
[God]; they, nevertheless, authorize the Jews to build a synagogue
near the tombs. In 1110 – 1115, the Crusaders, in turn, convert the
mosque into a church and the synagogue into a monastery. They, moreover,
establish the Praesidium ad sanctum Abraham to maintain twenty-five
knights in the service of the king of Jerusalem. Jewish travelers
that visit the city in the 12th and 13th centuries no longer mention
a Jewish presence.
The Mamluks (1260 – 1517) make Hebron a regional capital. Some Jews
settle around the burial cave. In 1267, a decree – in force until
the 20th century – prohibits them from entering the cave. They pray
at a small window cut into the entrance wall; two cavities at the
level of the sixth step on the main staircase are still visible today.
Pierre Loti notes in his travel journal: