Genesis 23:1-20

PART THIRTY-FIVE
THE STORY OF ABRAHAM: HIS PROVISIONS FOR POSTERITY

Genesis 23:1 to Genesis 25:18

1. Provision of a Burial Place (Genesis 23:1-20)

1 And the life of Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years: these were the years of the life of Sarah. 2 And Sarah died in Kiriatharba (the same is Hebron), in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. 3 And Abraham rose up from before his dead, and spake unto the children of Heth, saying, 4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. 5 And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, 6 Hear us, my lord; thou art a prince of God among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead. 7 And Abraham rose up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. 8 And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind 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 give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field; for the full price let him give it to me in the midst of you for a possession of a burying-place. 10 Now Ephron was sitting in the midst of the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, 11 Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the children of my people give, I it thee: bury thy dead. 12 And Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land. 13 And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt, I pray thee, hear me: I will give the price of the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there. 14 And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, 15 My lord, hearken unto me: a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that betwixt me and thee) bury therefore thy dead. 16 And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in the audience of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.

17 So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the border thereof round about, were made sure 18 unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city. 19 And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre (the same is Hebron), in the land of Canaan. 20 And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a burying-place by the children of Heth.

(1) The Death of Sarah is the next recorded event in the life of Abraham. At the age of 127 years Sarah died at Hebron (the earlier name of which was Kiriatharba). The fact that Sarah died at Hebron indicates that Abraham had returned from Beersheba to his old home there; or he could have sojourned back and forth repeatedly between Beersheba and Hebron throughout the intervening years. (It could have been, too, that Sarah was away from Beersheba, possibly on a visit to her former home, when she died, Genesis 23:1-2). It so happens that Sarah is the only woman whose age and death are reported in the Scriptures, as commentators have observed from days of old. This cannot be without design. She is the mother of all believers, according to 1 Peter 3:6, and so deserving of some such distinction (EG, 640). (For Kiriath-arba, cf. Numbers 13:28; Joshua 15:13-14; Joshua 21:11; Judges 1:20). Abraham mourned and wept for her: a reference to formal rites, which has no bearing, one way or another, on the survivor's personal feelings; just so, a Nuzi adoption document provides that -when A dies, B shall weep for him and bury him-' (ABG, 69). But such demonstrations of grief are as natural and as proper to the Oriental as is our greater measure of restraint to us (EG, 642); and we must therefore believe that this mourning and weeping was the expression of deep and sincere sorrow on Abraham's part.

(2) Negotiations for a Burying-place (Genesis 23:3-16). As burial within one day's time after death was the rule in this land, Sarah's death made necessary the purchase of a burial ground. Hence we now have the story of how Abraham becomes the owner of the field and cave of Machpelah, by formal purchase from the Hittites, and there proceeds to bury his dead. Although the land had been promised to Abraham and his seed, up to this time God had given him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on (Acts 7:5). Now, however, the sanctity of the desired burying-place demanded that it be his own. Abraham acquires proprietary rights in Canaan: the promise of the Land, Genesis 12:7, Genesis 13:15, Genesis 15:7, is beginning to be fulfilled (JB, 39). Abraham enters into negotiations with the sons of Heth, that is, the Hittites. The transaction was conducted with punctilious regard to all the necessary formalities, and these are recited in detail (UBG, 292). Abraham wanted to purchase a burying-place in Canaan, and to have the claims thereunto ascertained, that he and his nearest relatives might have their dust laid there apart from the heathen natives; and might have it as a pledge and earnest to confirm their faith in God's promise of their possession of the whole country in His due time, cf. Genesis 25:9, Genesis 47:29-30, Genesis 49:31, Genesis 50:13; Genesis 50:24-26 (SIBG, 249). The Sons of Heth were the Hittites. (The Hittite Empire was founded about 1800 B.C. by a Indo-European people who had settled in Canaan and throughout the Near East in city-states at a much earlier time. Hence the name is given to an ethnic group living in Canaan from patriarchal times and until after the Israelite occupation (cf. Joshua 1:4; Genesis 15:20, Deuteronomy 7:1, Judges 3:5). These were called the children of Heth (Genesis 23:5) after their eponymous ancestor Heth, a son of Canaan (Genesis 10:15). The center of the great Hittite empire was in what is now Turkey; their capital city was Hattusas (or Boghazkoi) located in the bend of the Halys River. The discovery of iron is reported to have occurred in this area, in the region of the Black Sea, during this period of Hittite hegemony.)

Abraham instituted the negotiations with the frank statement that he was a sojourner and a stranger in the land, that is, a kind of resident-alien (a settled sojourner, so to speak, a long-term resident, but one who lacked the usual privileges of a citizen, notably, the right to own land). (Cf. Genesis 12:10; Genesis 19:9; Genesis 20:1, etc.). The concession that the patriarch seeks is simply the acquiring of enough land to serve as a burial site. In the course of the entire transaction, he behaves, and is treated by the inhabitants, as a generous and powerful prince. Finally he strikes a bargain with Ephron the Hittite, in the presence of the entire populace. (It seems obvious that behind their generosity there lurked an aversion to the idea of a purchase Skinner, ICCG, 337). Courteously refusing the use of their sepulchres, and the offer of a burial-place for his own use as a gift, Abraham finally succeeds in buying for its full value of 400 shekels-' weight of silver (current money with the merchant) the Cave of Machpelah, close to the oak of Mamre, with the field and all the trees that were in the field, in which the Cave was located. Here Abraham buried Sarah (Genesis 23:19); here Abraham himself was buried later by Isaac and Ishmael (Genesis 25:9); here also were buried Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah (Genesis 35:27-29, Genesis 47:29-30, Genesis 49:31, Genesis 50:13).

(3) The Cave of Machpelah, Genesis 23:17-20. Literally, the cave of double. Some hold that it consisted of two stories; others that the name indicated that several couples were to be buried there; still others, that it was a double cave, one within the other, etc. Many interesting facts have been brought to light by recent archaeological findings which authenticate the details of the purchase of this burial-place. Wiseman writes (NBD, 765): Recent comparisons of the details of Abraham's purchase of Machpelah with Middle Assyrian and Hittite laws support the antiquity of Genesis 23. Thus M. R. Lehmann draws attention to the inclusion of the number of the trees, the weighing of silver at the current merchant valuation, and the use of witnesses at the city-gate where the transaction was proclaimed (Genesis 23:16-18). These accord with Hittite laws which fell into oblivion by c. 1200 B.C. The desire of Ephron to sell all the property rather than -the cave at the edge of the field-' (Genesis 23:9) may be linked with legal and feudal requirements of the time. At the present day in many of the outlying villages of Palestine, where primitive customs are still kept up, I have seen the elders sitting in the gates conducting public business. In ancient times the gate of a town or village was the place where the elders or judges sat, where cases were heard and adjudicated, and where all matters affecting the public welfare were discussed, Genesis 34:20, Deuteronomy 16:18, Ruth 4:1 (SIBG, 249). Hittite real estate transactions made specific reference to the trees on the property (HSB, 37). Verses 17, 18 are in the form of a legal contract. Specifications of the dimensions and boundaries of a piece of land, and of the buildings, trees, etc., upon it, are common in ancient contracts of sale at all periods (Skinner, ICCG, 338).

The modern site of this burial cave is in the famous sanctuary of Haram (Gunkel, Genesis, 273) at Hebron, under the great Mosque. It is one of the holiest shrines of Mohammedanism, and is venerated also by both Jews and Christians. Machpelah is mentioned in the Talmud. Entrance is forbidden Jews and Christians unless they can secure permission from the Moslem Supreme Council. Visitors who have been admitted to the mosque describe the cenotaphs of Abraham, Isaac, and their wives, as being covered with elaborately ornamented palls. The cenotaphs of Jacob and Leah are in a small adjacent structure. The tombs are said to be in the cave below the cenotaphs. Moslems claim that the tomb of Joseph is just outside the Cave of Machpelah, represented by a cenotaph West of the Mosque of the Women. But see Joshua 24:32 (HBD, 409). The whole enclosure, we are told, is jealously guarded by massive stone walls, probably of Herodian work, though the antiquity of the cave itself and its furnishings has not been verified by archaeological research (NBD, 765). The cave below has never been examined in modern times, but it is stated by its guardians to be double. There is no reason to doubt that the tradition as to the site has descended from biblical times; and it is quite probable that the name Makepelah is derived from the feature just referred to (Skinner, ICCG, 339).