It was not until Lot had separated himself from Abraham that the land of
Canaan was promised to the descendants of the patriarch. "Lift up now
thine eyes," God said to him, "and look from the place where thou art,
northward and southward, and eastward and westward: for all the land
which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever."
Once more, therefore, Abraham departed southward from Shechem; not this
time to go into the land of Egypt, but to dwell beside the terebinth-oak
of Mamre hard by Hebron, where the founder of the Davidic monarchy was
hereafter to be crowned king. It is probable that the sanctuary which in
days to come was to make Hebron famous had not as yet been established
there; at all events the name of Hebron, "the confederacy," was not as
yet known, and the city was called Kirjath-Arba. Whether it was also
called Mamre is doubtful; Mamre would rather seem to have been the name
of the plateau which stretched beyond the valley of Hebron and was
occupied by the Amorite confederates of the Hebrew patriarch.

It was while he "dwelt under the terebinth of Mamre the Amorite" that
the campaign of Chedor-laomer and his Babylonian allies took place, and
that Lot was carried away among the Canaanitish captives. But the
triumph of the conquerors was short-lived. "Abram the Hebrew" pursued
them with his armed followers, three hundred and eighteen in number, as
well as with his Amorite allies, and suddenly falling upon their
rear-guard near Damascus by night, rescued the captives and the spoil.
There was rejoicing in the Canaanitish cities when the patriarch
returned with his booty. The new king of Sodom met him in the valley of
Shaveh, "the king's dale" of later times, just outside the walls of
Jerusalem, and the king of Jerusalem himself, Melchizedek, "the priest
of the most High God," welcomed the return of the victor with bread and
wine. Then it was that Abram gave tithes of the spoil to the God of