Genesis 23 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Roughly 2030 BC by traditional dating, in the Middle Bronze Age, when Abraham was about 137 years old
Location
Kiriath-arba, later called Hebron, a hill town about 19 miles south of Jerusalem in the highlands of Canaan
Audience
The Israelites of Moses' generation, a people who had left Egypt and were preparing to take possession of Canaan
Situation
Sarah dies at the age of 127, and Abraham negotiates with the Hittite landholders of the town to buy the cave of Machpelah and the field around it as a burial plot. He pays Ephron 400 shekels of silver in front of witnesses at the town gate.
Key Background
Abraham calls himself a resident foreigner, which in the ancient Near East meant he could live and graze flocks in the area but held no legal title to land. Property deals were struck publicly at the town gate, where the elders sat as witnesses, and the flowery back and forth about giving the land away for free was standard bargaining courtesy rather than a real offer. This purchase is the first piece of Canaan the family owns outright, and it becomes the family tomb for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rebekah and Leah.
lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old -- that was the of
Sarah died at (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. Abraham went in to for Sarah and to weep over her.
Then Abraham got up from beside his dead wife and spoke to the He said,
"I am an and a among you. Sell me a here so I can bury my dead."
The Hittites answered Abraham,
"Listen to us, my lord. You are a among us. Bury your dead in the of None of us would refuse you a tomb for burying your dead."
Abraham stood up and before the Hittites, the
He said to them, "If you are willing to let me bury my dead, then hear me out and in a for me with Ephron son of Zohar."
"Ask him to sell me the of that belongs to him -- it's at the edge of his field. Have him sell it to me at right here in front of all of you, so I have a
Now Ephron was sitting right there among the Hittites. Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham publicly, with everyone at the listening:
"No, my lord -- listen. I'm you the field, and the cave in it too. Right here in front of my people, I'm it to you. Go bury your dead."
Abraham bowed low before the local landholders.
Then he spoke to Ephron so everyone could hear: "If you would -- please listen. I will the of the Take it from me, and I will bury my dead there."
Ephron answered Abraham,
"My lord, listen -- a piece of land worth of what's that between friends like us? Just go bury your dead."
Abraham agreed to Ephron's price. He out for Ephron the silver they had agreed on in front of the Hittites -- four hundred shekels of silver, at the
So Ephron's field in Machpelah, near -- the field and the cave in it, along with every tree within the boundaries of the field -- was
to Abraham as his property, by all the who had gathered at the city gate.
After this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of
So the field and the cave in it were from the Hittites to Abraham as his