Genesis 23 - Introduction

The Purchase of Land for a Possession Inclusive of a Burial Place (Genesis 23).

This chapter was originally a tablet on its own. It is the record of the business transaction between Abraham and Ephron the Hittite and bears the marks of a typical Hittite contract. But as far as the compiler is concerned in it we learn of the first piece of the land which comes permanently into the possession of the family of Abraham. It is the firstfruits, the earnest (visible and tangible guarantee) of his inheritance. Thus Isaac's beginnings are founded in a solemn occasion, first ownership of the land.

So while it is at first sight the record of the closing of an era (the death of Sarah) it is actually the depiction of the beginning of a new era, the commencement of the possession of the land. Genesis 22:20 has begun the preparation for the new era, and this continues it. The emphasis of the compiler is on the fact that ‘the field and the cave that is in it were made sure to Abraham for a possession of a buryingplace by the children of Heth' (Genesis 23:20). It is a proof of permanence in the land.

Abraham has, of course, already buried many of his ‘household' in the land and Sarah could have been buried similarly. But this is the first time he has had to face up to the burial of his own close kin and she is a great lady. The previous burials were of strangers and sojourners in a land not their own. Abraham wants Sarah to be buried in her own land. Her burial therefore prepares the way for his own burial, and those of his descendants (Genesis 49:30; Genesis 50:13), in the chosen land. It looks to the future. The ‘possession of a buryingplace' is an indication of permanence. It is a new beginning.