The field and the cave of Machpelah
20 After these things, Abraham was told, “Behold, Milcah, she also has borne children to your brother Nahor: 21 Uz his firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel the father of Aram, 22 Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel.” 23 Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. These eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham’s brother. 24 His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah. Genesis 23 1 Sarah lived one hundred twenty-seven years. This was the length of Sarah’s life. 2 Sarah died in Kiriath Arba (also called Hebron), in the land of Canaan. Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. 3 Abraham rose up from before his dead and spoke to the children of Heth, saying, 4 “I am a stranger and a foreigner living with you. Give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” 5 The children of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, 6 “Hear us, my lord. You are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the best of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb. Bury your dead.” 7 Abraham rose up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, to the children of Heth. 8 He talked with them, saying, “If you agree that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, 9 that he may sell me the cave of Machpelah, which he has, which is in the end of his field. For the full price let him sell it to me among you as a possession for a burial place.” 10 Now Ephron was sitting in the middle of the children of Heth. Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the children of Heth, even of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying, 11 “No, my lord, hear me. I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the presence of the children of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead.” 12 Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land. 13 He spoke to Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, “But if you will, please hear me. I will give the price of the field. Take it from me, and I will bury my dead there.” 14 Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, 15 “My lord, listen to me. What is a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver between me and you? Therefore bury your dead.” 16 Abraham listened to Ephron. Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in the hearing of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the current merchants’ standard. 17 So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all of its borders, were deeded 18 to Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city. 19 After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre (that is, Hebron), in the land of Canaan. 20 The field, and the cave that is in it, were deeded to Abraham by the children of Heth as a possession for a burial place.
Sarah dies and Abraham insists on paying full price for a grave — the only piece of the promised land he ever owns.
A short family notice closes chapter twenty-two, listing the children born to Abraham's brother back in Mesopotamia. It looks like an appendix and is a hinge: the last name in it is Rebekah, and two chapters later a servant will travel eight hundred miles to find her.
Then Sarah dies, at a hundred and twenty-seven — the only woman in Scripture whose age at death is recorded — and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. The man who has been silent through every crisis in his life is described weeping.
What follows is a property negotiation reported at a length that seems out of proportion until one sees what is at stake. Abraham's opening states his position exactly: I am a stranger and a foreigner living with you. Give me a possession of a burying-place with you. Sixty-two years in the country and he cannot bury his wife without asking permission.
The courtesies of the exchange are elaborate and are not simple. The Hittites call him a prince of God among us and offer the best of their tombs — which sounds generous and would leave him a guest in someone else's grave, with no title. Ephron then offers to give him the field and the cave outright, in public, twice. A gift would also leave the ownership ambiguous and revocable.
Abraham refuses both, bows twice, and insists on the one thing he actually wants: I will give the price of the field. Take it from me.
Ephron names it with studied casualness — What is a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver between me and you? — which is a great deal of money and is stated as though it were nothing. Abraham does not haggle. He weighs out the silver according to the current merchants' standard, in the hearing of the assembly at the gate.
The deed is then recorded with the precision of a legal instrument: the field, the cave in it, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all of its borders, transferred in the presence of the children of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city. Nothing about the transaction could be reopened.
Why it mattered enough to pay above the odds for is the whole point of the chapter. God had promised him this land, all of it, forever. He dies owning a field and a cave. And the one act of ownership he ever performs in the country is to buy a grave in it at full price, in public, with a title no one can dispute — which is a claim about the future rather than about the present. He is not renting a plot in a foreign country; he is taking possession of the first square of an inheritance.
Everyone who matters in the next two generations is buried there. Abraham himself, Isaac and Rebekah, Leah, and finally Jacob, carried up from Egypt on his own oath Genesis 49:29–31. Scripture's comment on all of them is that they died in faith, not having received the promises but having seen them from a distance, and confessing that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth Hebrews 11:13 — which is the phrase Abraham used of himself at the start of this negotiation.
settled What this mark means