Genesis 23: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Sarah dies at the age of 127 in Kirjatharba, which is Hebron, in the land of Canaan, and Abraham mourns and weeps for her. He asks the sons of Heth for a burial place; they offer him the best of their tombs, and Ephron offers him the field and the cave of Machpelah, but Abraham asks to pay and weighs out four hundred shekels of silver. The field, the cave, and the trees in it are made over to Abraham as his property in front of the sons of Heth, and he buries Sarah there.

Claim by Claim

1. 23:1
   • Sarah's life lasted a hundred and twenty-seven years.
   • These were the years of the life of Sarah.
2. 23:2
   • Sarah died in Kiriath-arba.
   • Kiriath-arba is Hebron.
   • Hebron is in the land of Canaan.
   • Abraham came to mourn for Sarah.
   • Abraham came to weep for Sarah.
3. 23:3
   • Abraham rose up from before his dead.
   • Abraham spoke to the sons of Heth.
4. 23:4
   • Abraham said he was a stranger and a resident alien among them.
   • Abraham asked them to give him a burial holding among them.
   • Abraham said this was so that he could bury his dead out of his sight.
5. 23:5
   • The sons of Heth answered Abraham.
   • The sons of Heth spoke to him.
6. 23:6
   • The sons of Heth told Abraham to hear them.
   • The sons of Heth addressed Abraham as their lord.
   • The sons of Heth said Abraham was a prince of God among them, that is, a mighty prince.
   • The sons of Heth told Abraham to bury his dead in the choicest of their graves.
   • The sons of Heth said none of them would withhold his grave from Abraham for burying his dead.
7. 23:7
   • Abraham rose up.
   • Abraham bowed down to the people of the land, the sons of Heth.
8. 23:8
   • Abraham spoke with them.
   • Abraham said: if it is your will that I bury my dead out of my sight, then hear me.
   • Abraham asked them to intercede for him with Ephron son of Zohar.
9. 23:9
   • Abraham asked that Ephron give him the cave of Machpelah.
   • The cave of Machpelah belonged to Ephron.
   • The cave was at the end of Ephron's field.
   • Abraham asked that Ephron give it for the full price in silver.
   • Abraham asked that it be given in their presence as a burial holding.
10. 23:10
    • Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth.
    • Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham.
    • Ephron answered in the hearing of the sons of Heth.
    • Ephron answered in the hearing of all who entered the gate of his city.
11. 23:11
    • Ephron said no to Abraham.
    • Ephron addressed Abraham as his lord.
    • Ephron told Abraham to hear him.
    • Ephron said he gave Abraham the field.
    • Ephron said he gave Abraham the cave that was in the field.
    • Ephron said he gave it in the sight of the sons of his people.
    • Ephron told Abraham to bury his dead.
12. 23:12
    • Abraham bowed down before the people of the land.
13. 23:13
    • Abraham spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land.
    • Abraham said: if only you would hear me.
    • Abraham said he was giving the price of the field in silver.
    • Abraham told Ephron to take the silver from him.
    • Abraham said he would bury his dead there.
14. 23:14
    • Ephron answered Abraham.
    • Ephron spoke to him.
15. 23:15
    • Ephron addressed Abraham as his lord.
    • Ephron told Abraham to hear him.
    • Ephron said the land was worth four hundred shekels of silver.
    • Ephron asked what that amount was between him and Abraham.
    • Ephron told Abraham to bury his dead.
16. 23:16
    • Abraham listened to Ephron.
    • Abraham weighed out to Ephron the silver.
    • Ephron had named that amount in the hearing of the sons of Heth.
    • The amount was four hundred shekels of silver.
    • The silver was of the weight current among merchants.
17. 23:17
    • The field of Ephron was in Machpelah.
    • The field was facing Mamre.
    • The field passed over as confirmed property.
    • The cave that was in the field passed over as confirmed property.
    • All the trees in the field, within all its surrounding border, passed over as confirmed property.
18. 23:18
    • The property passed to Abraham as a purchased possession.
    • The transfer took place in the sight of the sons of Heth.
    • The transfer took place before all who entered the gate of his city.
19. 23:19
    • After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife.
    • Sarah was buried in the cave of the field of Machpelah.
    • The field of Machpelah faces Mamre.
    • Mamre is Hebron.
    • Hebron is in the land of Canaan.
20. 23:20
    • The field and the cave in it were confirmed to Abraham as a burial holding.
    • The confirmation came from the sons of Heth.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

23:1

People in these very old stories often lived much longer than people do now.

23:2

Kirjatharba means "city of Arba," the older name for Hebron, a town in the hill country of southern Canaan about nineteen miles south of what later became Jerusalem. Mourning in this world was public and formal: loud weeping and lament carried out where the community could see and hear it, not private grief.

23:3

"Sons of Heth" (elsewhere "Hittites") is the name Genesis gives to the people who held the land around Hebron. "Sons of" or "children of" is ordinary Hebrew for "members of the group," not a statement about anyone's father. Whether these people were connected to the Hittite empire far to the north, in what is now Turkey, is disputed.

23:4

A "foreigner living among you as an outsider" translates two Hebrew terms for a resident alien: someone permitted to live, graze flocks and trade in a territory, but with no right to own land in it. This is the whole problem of the chapter, Abraham cannot simply bury his wife on ground he holds, because he holds none, and he must get the community's consent to acquire any. "My dead" is the normal Hebrew way of referring to a family member who has died and is awaiting burial.

23:6

The Hebrew behind "mighty prince" reads literally "a prince of God" or "a prince of the gods." In Hebrew this construction can work as a superlative, "a very great chief", or can mean that God has singled the man out; translators divide over which is meant here. Either way it is high courtesy addressed to a man they are about to bargain with. Their "tombs" are burial caves, natural or cut into the rock, in which a family laid its dead over several generations.

23:7

Bowing low before others was the standard gesture of respect in a formal public negotiation, like a deep bow or a hat removed. It is politeness, not worship.

23:9

Machpelah is a place name; the Hebrew word suggests "double," perhaps describing a cave with two chambers. Abraham insists on the full price rather than accepting a gift, because in this legal world an outright purchase gave a title no one could later dispute, while a gift could be revoked by the giver or reclaimed by his heirs.

23:10

The gate of a walled town was its courthouse and marketplace, the open space where elders sat, contracts were struck and witnesses gathered. Saying the deal was made "in front of all who came in at the gate" is the ancient equivalent of saying it was done publicly and on the record.

23:11

An opening offer to give the property away was a recognized move in Near Eastern bargaining, not a serious proposal; the buyer was expected to decline it and ask the price, which is exactly what Abraham does. Ephron's repeated "in front of my own people" stresses that witnesses are present.

23:13

There were no coins yet. People paid with pieces of silver.

23:15

A shekel was a weight, not a coin, roughly two fifths of an ounce, about eleven or twelve grams. Four hundred shekels is something like ten pounds of silver, a very large sum: elsewhere in the Bible a field is bought for seventeen shekels and a threshing floor for fifty. "What is that between me and you?" is a polite bargaining formula dismissing the amount as trivial between friends, while naming it firmly.

23:16

Coined money did not yet exist; silver was measured out on scales, and the buyer's and seller's weights could differ. "By the weight that merchants used" means the recognized commercial standard, so the amount could not be disputed afterwards.

23:17

"Made over" translates a legal term for property formally transferred and confirmed. The careful listing of the field, the cave, the trees and the boundaries follows the wording of ancient Near Eastern deeds of sale, which itemised exactly what passed to the buyer, trees mattered because they were valuable and permanent. Mamre was a place near Hebron, known for its great trees, where Abraham had camped earlier.

23:19

Mamre was the stand of large trees near Hebron where Abraham had camped for years, used here as a landmark to fix the location.

23:20

The transfer is stated twice, in verses 17-18 and again here, in the manner of a legal record closing with a summary of what was conveyed and by whom. This burial plot is the only piece of Canaan Genesis ever says Abraham owned.