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Chapter 23

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The Death Of Sarah (ch. 23:1 - 20)

In verses 1 and 2 we note that Sarah lived until she was one hundred and twenty seven and then she died in Hebron.  Hebron is north of Beersheba where we last saw Abraham living. It was in the land of Canaan where God wanted Abraham in the first place.  For some reason then, Abraham must have finally returned to the land where God first told him to go.  He had done quite a lot of traveling in his day, travelling that I am not convinced was the will of God.  His travels might be compared to the wandering in the desert that his descendents did in the desert years later.  Christians often do the same.  We wander from place to place in our spiritual walk with the Lord, wasting much time as we wander.  Sometimes I think we do more wandering than anything else.

Sarah died in Hebron.  Hebron is about 19 miles south of Jerusalem and 15 miles west of the Dead Sea.    

In verses 3 and 4 we see that Abraham goes and speaks with the Hittites.  He tells the Hittites that he is an alien in their land so he asked them if he could buy some land from them in order to bury his wife.  How ironic.  Abraham was an alien in the land that God had promised him.  I can only conclude that he was an alien because he left Canaan years earlier because of a famine.  He could not trust God to keep him and his family in the land that God had promised him.  Once again, in many circles Christians are aliens in the Kingdom of  God.  We're clearly aliens in the world, and that should be the case.  We're often more alien in God's kingdom that we are in the kingdoms of men.

Verse 6 tells us that the Hittites recognized Abraham to be important and special.  They called him a "prince" who was among them.  They were willing to just give him some property.   They told him just to go and pick out any burial tomb of his choice.  Once again, Abraham was blessed.

Abraham knew of a place that he would like to use as a burial plot for his family.  In verse 7 we see that Abraham "bowed down" before the Hittites.  Again, this is a cultural gesture to show his appreciation.  It seems to me that Abraham, since chapter 22 when he came close to sacrificing Isaac, and now with the death of Sarah, has mellowed out.  I think that he has now become the man of God that God declared him to be.

In verses 8 and 9 Abraham asked if he could buy a tomb, or a cave in a certain field,  in Machpelah that was owned by Ephron.  Note here that Abraham is thinking in terms of the cave, or tomb only, not the whole field.  This changes in the next few verses. The tomb was offered as a free gift, but as we will learn later, Abraham paid for it.  The culture of the day was to offer such land for free, but the underlying thinking of the free offer was understood that money would be exchanged.  It seems to be a matter of politeness to begin the negotiation.

This tomb became the burial place for Abraham, as well as for Isaac and many more of Abraham's descendents.

 In verses 10 and 11 Ephron tells Abraham that he will give him the land, not sell it.  It might be noted that the word "give" here could easily be translated as "sell" that might add to some confusion, but the NIV translated the Hebrew into the English word "give".  My suggestion is that they did this because of the context in which the word is found.  The context states that Abraham was willing to buy the land, Ephron said he'd give it, and Abraham insists on buying it, which he did, and which was probably expected by Ephron.

Abraham, in verses 12 and 13 insists that he buy the land.  He bowed down again and made this appeal, which was eventually accepted.

At this point we need to understand a bit about Hittite law. If Abraham were to own just the cave for a burial place, he would not have to pay taxes.  Yet, if he owned the field as well, then he would have to pay taxes.   He really only wanted to buy the land in the first place, but buy now he is willing to buy the whole field.  Ephron, as we will see, said the land was worth 400 shekels.  Some commentaries suggest that this was way too much for this portion of land at the time.  They suggest that Abraham was being taken advantage of by Ephron in his time of sorrow.    

After Ephron told Abraham the value of the whole field, not just the cave, he said, "what is that between you and me".  That is to say, "what's 400 shekels between friends." If the price of the field was too much money as some of the commentators suggest, then what Ephron says here is a bit sinister.  They weren't really the friends as Ephron is suggesting they were. He knew Abraham was rich and could afford it high price of the land, and he knew that he could easily get the money in Abraham's time of need.       

In verses 14 and 15 Ephron tells Abraham that the land was worth four hundred shekels.  In verse 16 Abraham weighs out the four hundred shekels.  Shekels is not a monetary value.  It is a measurement of weight, like pounds.   Four hundred shekels is roughly ten pounds or four point five kilograms.

In verses 17 and 18 we see a legal exchange of property.  The NIV uses the word "deeded", which suggests the legal aspect to this transaction.   We see that this took place at the gate of the city.  In those days, the gate of cities was were the city elders would sit during the day.  You might call it "city hall" in terms that we would think of today.   City elders would sit at the gate and do city business as well as advise  people on matters of concern.

Verse 19 states the fact that Abraham buried Sarah.  Verse 20 states again that the land was deeded to be a burial ground, suggesting that deeds in those days had the same  usage as they do in our modern world .