Mamre

Abram pitched his tent at Mamre, built an altar there, and stayed. The plain of Mamre in Hebron is where he lived when he heard that his nephew had been taken captive, and it is also the name of a man, one of three allies who went with him to the rescue. In Genesis 14 he asks only that Aner, Eshcol and Mamre receive their share. The place appears several more times in Genesis as the home of Abraham’s family. Genesis 13:18 is where the story first settles there, and it is worth reading to see the altar.

3 verses

Genesis

Genesis 13:18

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.

Genesis 14:13

And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew; for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner: and these were confederate with Abram.

Genesis 14:24

Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.

From Easton's Bible Dictionary

Matthew George Easton, 1897

Manliness. (1.) An Amoritish chief in alliance with Abraham (Gen. 14:13, 24).

(2.) The name of the place in the neighbourhood of Hebron (q.v.) where Abraham dwelt (Gen. 23:17, 19; 35:27); called also in Authorized Version (13:18) the “plain of Mamre,” but in Revised Version more correctly “the oaks [marg., ‘terebinths’] of Mamre.” The name probably denotes the “oak grove” or the “wood of Mamre,” thus designated after Abraham’s ally.

This “grove” must have been within sight of or “facing” Machpelah (q.v.). The site of Mamre has been identified with Ballatet Selta, i.e., “the oak of rest”, where there is a tree called “Abraham’s oak,” about a mile and a half west of Hebron. Others identify it with er-Rameh, 2 miles north of Hebron.

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From Smith's Bible Dictionary

William Smith, 1884

(strength, fatness) an ancient Amorite, who with his brothers, Eshcol and Aner, was in alliance with Abram, (Genesis 14:13,51) and under the shade of whose oak grove the patriarch dwelt in the interval between his residence at Bethel and at Beersheba. ch. (Genesis 13:18; 18:1) In the subsequent chapters Mamre is a mere local appellation. ch, (Genesis 23:17,19; 25:9; 49:30; 50:13)

Based on Nave's Topical Bible by Orville J. Nave (1896). Dictionary entries from Easton's Bible Dictionary and Smith's Bible Dictionary. Public domain. KJV scripture text, public domain.