Genesis 23
Big idea: Sarah dies at a hundred and twenty-seven, and Abraham has nowhere to bury her. What follows is a long, careful, almost tedious negotiation — and the tedium is the point. Abraham calls himself a stranger and a foreigner; the Hittites call him a prince of God and offer him any tomb he likes; Ephron offers the field as a gift; Abraham insists on paying, and pays four hundred shekels of silver, weighed out in public, according to the current merchant rate. He will not hold the land as a favour. After a lifetime of promises about a whole country, the first piece of it he actually owns is a grave — bought, deeded, and witnessed.
Chapter 23 secures a burial plot and closes Sarah's life. Chapter 24, with Abraham now old, turns to the other half of the future: a wife for Isaac, fetched from the family he left behind and brought into the land he has just bought a foothold in.
23:1–9 — A stranger asking for a grave
Sarah dies in Hebron and Abraham mourns and weeps for her. Then he rises from before his dead and asks the Hittites for a burying place — introducing himself as a stranger and a foreigner among them. They answer with generous deference: you are a prince of God, bury her in the choicest of our tombs. Abraham bows and makes a specific request: intercede with Ephron for the cave of Machpelah, at full price.
1 Sarah lived one hundred twenty-seven years. This was the length of Sarah’s life. 2 Sarah died in Kiriath Arba (also called Hebron), in the land of Canaan. Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. 3 Abraham rose up from before his dead and spoke to the children of Heth, saying, 4 “I am a stranger and a foreigner living with you. Give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” 5 The children of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, 6 “Hear us, my lord. You are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the best of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb. Bury your dead.” 7 Abraham rose up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, to the children of Heth. 8 He talked with them, saying, “If you agree that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, 9 that he may sell me the cave of Machpelah, which he has, which is in the end of his field. For the full price let him sell it to me among you as a possession for a burial place.”
23:10–20 — Four hundred shekels, weighed in public
Ephron, sitting among the Hittites at the gate, offers the field and the cave as a gift, in everyone's hearing. Abraham bows again and insists on paying. Ephron names a price with studied casualness — what is four hundred shekels of silver between me and you? — and Abraham weighs it out in the merchants' current standard. The field, the cave, and every tree in its borders are legally deeded to him in the presence of the whole city.
10 Now Ephron was sitting in the middle of the children of Heth. Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the children of Heth, even of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying, 11 “No, my lord, hear me. I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the presence of the children of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead.” 12 Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land. 13 He spoke to Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, “But if you will, please hear me. I will give the price of the field. Take it from me, and I will bury my dead there.” 14 Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, 15 “My lord, listen to me. What is a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver between me and you? Therefore bury your dead.” 16 Abraham listened to Ephron. Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in the hearing of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the current merchants’ standard. 17 So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all of its borders, were deeded 18 to Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city. 19 After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre (that is, Hebron), in the land of Canaan. 20 The field, and the cave that is in it, were deeded to Abraham by the children of Heth as a possession for a burial place.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).