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wide prospect of the land as a whole. We. (Comp.$2$ 25 f.) admits that these 'general impressions' are not such as to procure universal assent. In point of fact they are rather overstated; and Di.'s answers may satisfy those who refuse to carry critical operations further than is absolutely necessary. Nevertheless, We.'s impression is probably correct, and has commended itself to KS. Ho. Gu. al. The vv. may be omitted not only without injury to the context, but with the obvious advantage of bringing out the reference of $9ff.$ to $JE$. The redactor has rightly seized the point of the story, which is that by his selfish choice Lot left Abram the sole heir of Canaan.

18. Abram moves his tent to the terebinth(s) of Mamre, in Hebron, and inaugurates the local sanctuary there. In the main narrative of J$18$ the statement was immediately followed by ch. 18; and it is possible that the theophany recorded at the beginning of that chapter is that which marked the place as holy (see on 12$12f.$).

The site of the tree (or trees, v.i.) is not known. There was a Terebinth of Abraham about 15 stadia from Hebron, which was the scene of mixed heathen and Christian worship, suppressed by order of Constantine (Sozomen, HE, ii. 4). Josephus (BJ, iv. 533) mentions a very large terebinth said to have existed , 6 stadia from the city. In spite of the discrepancy as to distance, it is probable that these are to be identified; and that the site was the Ḥarām Rāmet el-Ḫalīl, 2 m. N of Hebron. The difficulty in accepting this, the oldest accessible, tradition is that the distance is inconsistent with the statement that the sanctuary was in Hebron. And if we suppose the ancient Hebron to have been at er-Rāme in the vicinity of the Ḥarām, this conflicts with the tradition as to the cave of

,—approved by Ball.—18. (14$h$ 18$7$)] see on 12$13$. G. S also reads the sing., which may be right, though 18$1$ cannot be cited in support of it. In J, Mamre is said to be in Hebron, in P (where the tree is never mentioned) it is a name of Hebron, and in 14$6$ it becomes the name of an Amorite chief, the owner of the trees. So S here, as shown by the addition of.