Mamre, which is at Hebron. There he built an altar to the LORD” (Gen. 13:18). The narratives are selective in their description, so we need to be careful about how far we press this evidence. It is conceivable, though, that it was Abraham’s common practice to build the altar near a prominent tree or grove of trees. In the first place, we should record that this practice was potentially dangerous in that it might lead to a false form of worship. After all, the Canaanites had a fertility religion and