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Genesis 23
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Chapter 23
The tomb of the patriarchs
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The length of Sarah’s life was a hundred and twenty-seven years.
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She died at Kiriath-arba, or Hebron, in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn and grieve for her.
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Then leaving his dead, Abraham spoke to the sons of Heth:
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‘I am a stranger and a settler among you’ he said. ‘Let me own a burial-plot among you, so that I may take my dead wife and bury her.’
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The sons of Heth gave Abraham this
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answer, ‘Listen, my lord, you are God’s prince amongst us; bury your dead in the best of our tombs; not one of us would refuse you his tomb and keep you from burying your dead’.
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Abraham rose and bowed to the ground before the people of the land, the sons of Heth,
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and spoke to them. ‘If’ he said ‘you are willing for me to take my dead wife and bury her, then listen to me. Intercede for me with Ephron,
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Zohar’s son, to give me the cave he owns at Machpelah, which is on the edge of his land. Let him make it over to me in your presence at its full price, for me to own as a burial-plot.’
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Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the sons of Heth and of all the citizens of the town.
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‘My lord, listen to me’ he said. ‘I give you the land and I give you the cave on it; I make this gift in the sight of the sons of my people. Bury your dead.’
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Abraham bowed before the people of the land
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and he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, ‘Oh, if it be you… But listen to me. I will pay the price of the land; accept it from me and I will bury my dead there.’
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Ephron answered Abraham,
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‘My lord, listen to me. A property worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is a little thing like that between me and you? Bury your dead.’
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Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms, and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver he had stipulated in the hearing of the sons of Heth, namely four hundred shekels of silver, according to the current commercial rate.
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Thus Ephron’s field at Machpelah opposite Mamre, the field and the cave that was on it, and all the trees that were on it, the whole of its extent in every direction, passed
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into Abraham’s possession in the sight of the sons of Heth and of all the citizens of the town.
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After this Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah opposite Mamre, in the country of Canaan.
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And so the field and the cave that was on it passed from the sons of Heth into Abraham’s possession to be owned as a burial-plot.
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