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KIRIATH-ARBA is used as a name for Hebron (wh. see) in Gen_23:2 etc. Only in Gen_35:27 and Neh_11:25 is Arba‘ written with the article. The city may have been so called as the seat of a confederacy between four men or tribes, or the name may be = Tetrapolis, ‘the city of four quarters.’ The Heb. text explains it as ‘the city of Arba,’ ‘the greatest man among the Anakim’ (Jos 14:16 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ), or ‘the father of Anak’ (Jos_15:13; Jos_21:11). In the first passage LXX [Note: Septuagint.] reads ‘the city Argob, the metropolis of the Anakim’: in the second ‘the city Arbok, metropolis,’ etc. Perhaps in the last two, therefore, we should read ’çm, ‘mother,’ i.e. ‘mother-city,’ instead of ’abi, ‘father.’
W. Ewing.