GroundedNarrativeGenesis 23

Sarah’s death

Genesis 23 (selected)narrative

Sarah’s death

The history

Abraham buys a cave at Machpelah from Ephron the Hittite to bury Sarah, and the long, formal haggling over the price is exactly how property changed hands in the ancient Near East, witnesses at the city gate and all. The quiet point is the chapter’s heart: the man promised the whole land dies owning none of it except a grave. The first piece of the promise he can actually hold is a tomb.

Sarna · Westermann

1Now Sarah lived to be 127 years old. 2She died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went out to mourn and to weep for her. 4“I am a foreigner and an outsider among you. Give me a burial site among you so that I can bury my dead.” 9to sell me the cave of Machpelah that belongs to him; it is at the end of his field. Let him sell it to me in your presence for full price, so that I may have a burial site.” 17So Ephron’s field at Machpelah near Mamre, the cave that was in it, and all the trees within the boundaries of the field were deeded over 18to Abraham’s possession in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city. 19After this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field at Machpelah near Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 20So the field and its cave were deeded by the Hittites to Abraham as a burial site.