Hebron – What does it mean?

In the 23rd chapter of the Bible, it is written that Abraham went out to the land of the Hittites to bury his dead, his wife Sarah. This land is said to be at a place called Mamre, which is then explained as being called Hebron.

“Afterward Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre (which is at Hebron) in the land of Canaan. So the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site.”
– NIV Bible

Mamre sounds similar to land names from that region, where all of the Biblical events are taking place. I speak Turkish. In the bible there are a lot of references to Harran, and we have a song called “The Plains of Harran” in Turkish. And Mamre sounds natural.

But what is Hebron? I had never heard of it, and the dual names of places in the Bible piqued my interest. There is always a more oriental sounding name, like Mamre, and then the Bible explains that it also is called Hebron, a name sounding much more western, maybe Hellenistic (Ancient Greek)?

I assumed the name had found its way into the English translation through the Greek Translations, maybe done by the Byzantines?

So I searched for Hebron. Wikipedia says that there is a modern day city named Hebron, in Palestine, south of Jerusalem, nestled in the Judean Mountains… In a paranthesis explaining the name, Wikipedia writes:

Hebron (Arabic: الخليل أو الخليل الرحمن‎ al-Khalīl or al-Khalil al-Rahman[4]^[5]; Hebrew: חֶבְרוֹן‎ Ḥevron)

al-Khalil al-Rahman ? “Halil” and “Rahman” are Arabic words we also have in Turkish. I know what Rahman means, it means the great, the old and wise and great. I have friends named Halil. What does halil mean? The turkish dictionary says:

(Ar. ḫullet “dostluk”tan ḫalіl) Sâdık ve gerçek dost

From Arabic hullet, which means friendship, halil… True and real friend. The dictionary goes on to explain a side meaning of the word:

Halîlullah – Halîlü’r-rahman: “Allah’ın dostu” sözünün kısaltılmışı olarak Hz. İbrâhim için kullanılır]

Halil ür rahman, which turns out to be a phrase used in Turkish, though I hadn’t heard it before. The same phrase as the Arabic name for the city Hebron, al-Khalil al-Rahman. It is explained in the Turkish dictionary that it means “the friend of God”, used to refer to the prophet Abraham…

So Rahman means God, as it also means in Turkish. Halil means friend, and al-Halil al-Rahman means the friend of God. There can be only one to whom this phrase refers to, it is the prophet Abraham. He went to the land of Hittites to buy a burial site from them. He said to them that he was a stranger in their lands, but would be paying for the burial site he was asking for. The Hittites greeted him as a prince, not as a stranger, and said that he could have any burial site he wished for, and no one would ask anything for it in return. But Abraham insisted that he pays, and he bought the land from the Hittites as everyone stood witness, and to this day it belongs to him.

This is fascinating, because the Arabs still call the city of Hebron by the name of Abraham. The words still stand witness to this day, that he owned property in that land.