Sarah’s death and burial
23
📚And Sarah’s lifespan was a hundred and twenty-seven years. These were the years of Sarah’s life. 2 📚And Sarah died in Kirjath Arba. This is Hebron in the land of Canaan. And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.3 📚And Abraham got up from the presence of his dead wife and spoke to the sons of Heth 📖, saying, 4 📚“I am a foreigner and a settler 📖 among you. Permit 📖 me the possession of a burial site among you, so that I may bury my dead out of my sight”.
5 And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, 6 📚“My lord, listen to us. You are a mighty prince 📖 among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb for burying your dead”.
7 📚And Abraham stood up, and bowed down before the people of the land, to the children of Heth. 8 📚And he talked with them, saying, “If it is your wish that I should bury my dead out of my sight, listen to me and on my behalf ask Ephron the son of Zohar, 9 📚to permit me to have the cave of Machpelah, which he owns, which is at the end of his field. For its full price let him give it me as a possession for a burial site among you”.
23:9 Though God had given Abraham and his descendants the whole land, he actually possessed none of it and had to buy a portion for a burial ground. In the same way, by promise the whole world belongs to believers in Christ (Rom 4:13; 8:17; 1 Cor 3:21-22; Gal 4:7). However, at present most of them possess very little or none of it. The fulfillment of these promises of God await the time when God rises in judgment on the world and the kingdoms of the world becomes the kingdom of God and Christ (Rev 2:26-27; 11:15; 19:15).⚜
10 📚And Ephron lived among the children of Heth, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the children of Heth, of all those who went in at the gate 📖 of his city, saying, 11 📚“No, my lord, listen to me. I will give the field to you, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the presence of the sons of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead”.
12 📚And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land. 13 📚And he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, “But if you will give it, please, listen to me. I will give you money for the field. Take it from me, and I will bury my dead there”.
14 And Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, 15 📚“My lord, listen to me. The land is worth four hundred shekels 📖 of silver. What is that between me and you? So bury your dead”.
16 📚And Abraham listened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed the silver for Ephron, the price he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.
17 📚And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which faced Mamre, the field and the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the area of its borders, were deeded 18 📚to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city. 19 📚And after this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah facing Mamre. This is Hebron in the land of Canaan. 20 📚And the field, and the cave that is in it were deeded to Abraham by the sons of Heth as a possession for a burial site.