Genesis 23
23
1And the life of Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years: these were the years of the life of Sarah. 2And Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (the same is Hebron), in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. 3And Abraham rose up from before his dead, and spake unto the children of Heth, saying, 4I 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. 5And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, 6Hear 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. 7And Abraham rose up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. 8And 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, 9that 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. 10Now 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, 11Nay, 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. 12And Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land. 13And 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. 14And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, 15My 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. 16And 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.
17So 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 18unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city. 19And 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. 20And 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.
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Genesis 23: ASV
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Genesis 23
23
Sarah died and Abraham bought some land to bury her body
1Sarah lived a long time. She lived until she was 127 years old. 2Then she died in the town called Hebron, in the country called Canaan. Another name for that town is Kiriath Arba. Abraham was very sad, and he sat next to Sarah’s body and cried.
3After that, Abraham got up and left the place where Sarah’s body was, and he went to the town gate to talk to the people that owned that country. They were from the Heth tribe. 4Abraham said to them, “This is your land, and I am just camping here. I need to bury my wife’s body. Can I buy some of your land to use for a grave?”#Hebrews 11:9, 13; Acts 7:16
5The Heth people said to Abraham, 6“Sir, we know that you are a great leader for your people, and we respect you a lot. We want you to use one of our best graves to bury your wife. Yes, you can pick any grave you want, and we will let you use it to bury your wife.”
7Then Abraham got down on his knees in front of the Heth people, to show them respect. 8-9He said to them, “Thank you for saying that you will help me bury my wife. There is a cave in your country that I want to use for a grave. You know the man called Efron, the son of Zohar. He’s one of you Heth people. He has some land in the place called Makpelah, and there’s a cave in the rock at one end of that land. I want to put my wife’s body in that cave. Can you ask Efron if I can buy that cave? I want to pay him the full price for it. And you can all watch me buy that cave from him. Then it will belong to me, and I can put my wife’s body there.”
10Efron was sitting there with the other Heth people at the town gate. He talked to Abraham so that everyone could hear him. 11He said, “Sir, I will give you that cave, and I will give you the land around it too. I’m telling you straight in front of all my people, I will give you that cave and that land, so that you can bury your wife.”
12Then Abraham got down on his knees again in front of the Heth people, to show them respect. 13He talked to Efron so that everyone could hear him. He said, “Thank you. All right, I will buy that cave and that land from you. Tell me the right price for it, and I will pay you. Then that land will belong to me, and I can bury my wife there. Do you agree?”
14Then Efron said to Abraham, 15“Sir, the right price for that land is just 4 kilograms of silver money, but let’s not talk about money all day. The most important thing is that you can bury your wife.” 16And all the Heth people heard Efron say that price.
So Abraham agreed, and he got out his silver money. He weighed that money properly, and he gave 4 kilograms of it to Efron.
17-18Then that land, and the cave, and all the trees on that land, they belonged to Abraham. That land was in the place called Makpelah, to the east of the place called Mamreh. All the Heth people that were at the town gate, they saw Abraham buy Efron’s land, so they knew that it belonged to Abraham.
19After that, Abraham put Sarah’s body in the cave in that land. It was in the place called Makpelah, to the east of the place called Mamreh, in the country called Canaan. Another name for Mamreh is Hebron.
20That is how Abraham bought some land and a cave from the Heth people, to use for a grave.
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