Genesis · Pentateuch (Law)

Genesis 23

Sarah dies, and Abraham buys a burial place in Canaan.

c. 2029 BCKey verses Genesis 23:2, 23:4, 23:16, 23:19-20Read Genesis 23 in the ESVopens BibleGateway
Haran, about 1,250 ftAbram’s road from Haran into Canaan (Genesis 12:4-6), about 420 milesShechem, about 1,900 ft

23:4

“I am a sojourner and foreigner among you; give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”

Genesis 23:4, ESV

The chapter at a glance

  1. 1–2Sarah’s deathAbraham mourns and weeps
  2. 3–9The requestA sojourner asks for a grave
  3. 10–16Bargaining at the gateAbraham pays the full price publicly
  4. 17–20The deed and the burialThe first owned ground in Canaan is a tomb

The chapter in brief

Sarah dies at Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron, at 127 years, and Abraham mourns and weeps for her. He rises and asks the Hittites, the people of the land, for property for a burying place, calling himself “a sojourner and foreigner among you.” They honor him as “a prince of God among us” and offer him the choicest of their tombs, but Abraham asks for one particular place: the cave of Machpelah at the end of Ephron’s field, for the full price. In the hearing of all who go in at the city gate, Ephron offers the field and cave as a gift; Abraham insists on paying; Ephron names four hundred shekels of silver, “what is that between you and me?”; and Abraham weighs it out “according to the weights current among the merchants.” The field, the cave, and its trees are made over to Abraham as a possession, and he buries Sarah there.

The man to whom God promised the whole land owns, at the end of his life, one field and a grave. That is not failure; it is faith. Abraham buys his burial ground in the land of promise because he believes the promise outlasts death. Hebrews says the patriarchs “all died in faith, not having received the things promised” (Hebrews 11:13), and that they desired a better, heavenly country. Jesus Himself argued the resurrection from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: “He is not God of the dead, but of the living” (Matthew 22:32). The cave at Machpelah is a pledge laid down in hope, and that hope rests on the One who was laid in a tomb that belonged to another, and left it empty.

Points for discussion

vv. 1–2

Abraham wept

The man of faith grieves. Abraham “went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her,” and Scripture does not rebuke him. Faith does not forbid tears; it changes what they mean. Paul does not tell believers not to grieve, but not to grieve “as others do who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Sarah is the only matriarch whose age at death Genesis gives, a mark of honor for the woman through whom the promised son came (Hebrews 11:11). For a reader who has buried someone they love, this chapter gives permission to weep, and then shows a man rising from before his dead (v. 3) to act in hope.

vv. 3–9

A sojourner and foreigner

Abraham has lived in Canaan for decades, and still calls himself a resident alien (Hebrew ger vetoshav). The Hittites call him “a prince of God.” Both are true, and the tension is the life of faith: honored by God, and still waiting. Stephen preached that God gave Abraham “no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length” (Acts 7:5); this field is the exception that proves the point, since he had to buy it. Peter calls Christians “sojourners and exiles” (1 Peter 2:11), and Hebrews says the patriarchs “acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).

For discussion

In what ways should Christians feel at home in the world, and in what ways should they feel like sojourners? Compare Jeremiah 29:4-7 with Hebrews 11:13-16.

vv. 10–16

Bargaining at the gate

The negotiation follows the courtesies of its day. Ephron’s “I give you the field” (v. 11) is probably the polite opening of a sale, not a real gift, and “what is that between you and me?” (v. 15) names a price while seeming to dismiss it. Many readers judge four hundred shekels a steep sum. Abraham does not haggle. He pays in full, in public, with merchants’ weights, “in the hearing of the Hittites” (v. 16). A gift could be disputed later by Ephron’s heirs; a sale witnessed at the gate could not. Abraham wanted his claim beyond question, because the grave was for his descendants too (Genesis 49:29-31). Integrity here serves faith: he will not owe his foothold in the land to anyone’s favor but God’s.

vv. 17–20

The deed and the burial

The legal language is unusually full: the field, the cave, “all the trees that were in the field, throughout its whole area,” made over “as a possession” (vv. 17-18). Abraham, Isaac and Rebekah, Leah, and Jacob will all be buried here (Genesis 25:9-10; 49:31; 50:13). Generation after generation, the family lay its dead in the one piece of the promised land it owned, as if to say, “We are not done here.” That instinct is resurrection hope. The God who promised the land is the God of the living (Matthew 22:32), and the bodies laid in Machpelah wait for the day when “the dead in Christ will rise” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).

Threads across the chapter

  • Death and promise. Sarah’s death (vv. 1-2) and the first purchase of promised land (vv. 17-20) stand together, so that the grave becomes a down payment on the promise.

  • Stranger and prince. Abraham’s “sojourner and foreigner” (v. 4) and the Hittites’ “prince of God” (v. 6) run through the bargaining (vv. 10-16).

  • In the hearing of all. The repeated public witness at the gate (vv. 10, 13, 16, 18) makes Abraham’s claim secure.

Key words

23:4
גֵּר וְתוֹשָׁב ger vetoshav“Sojourner and foreigner”; a resident without rights of land, Abraham’s status in the land of promise
23:6
נְשִׂיא אֱלֹהִים nesi elohim“Prince of God”; may also be rendered “mighty prince,” the Hittites’ honor for Abraham
23:4, 9, 20
אֲחֻזָּה achuzzah“Property,” possession; the word for a lasting holding, used of the land promised in 17:8

Cross-references

Questions for your group

  1. 1

    Why might Genesis give a whole chapter to buying a grave, between the binding of Isaac and the search for his bride?

  2. 2

    What does Abraham’s insistence on paying the full price, publicly, tell us about how he understood God’s promise of the land?

  3. 3

    How does this chapter help us grieve as people “who have hope,” and what would grieving without hope look like?

  4. 4

    Where do we feel like sojourners, and where have we settled down so comfortably that we have forgotten we are waiting for a better country?

My notes