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.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
kir-i-ath-ar?ba. See HEBRON.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.