Genesis 23:3

And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying,

Abraham stood up, ... Eastern people are always provided with family burying-places; even nomadic shepherds have their ancestral sepulchres; but Abraham's life of faith-his pilgrim state-had prevented him acquiring even so small a possession (A. 7, 5). Spake unto the sons of Heth. No mention is made of Mamre, whence some have concluded that he and the other Amorites had been dispossessed, and that a Hittite tribe was now master of Hebron; while others suppose that the Amorite chiefs, as their name indicates, frequented the mountainous neighbourhood; while "the sons of Heth," elsewhere called "the children of the land," resided in towns and villages. This may account for a nomadic shepherd. like Abraham, having little acquaintance with the principal resident proprietor, or perhaps local ruler (Genesis 23:10), in Hebron, bespeaking their kind offices to aid him in obtaining possession of a cave that belonged to Ephron, a wealthy neighbour.