Chapter 23
1Now Sarah lived to be 127 years old.
2[She] died in Kiriath-arba (that is Hebron) in the land of Canaan and Abraham went out to mourn for [her] and to weep.
3Then Abraham got up from beside his dead wife and said to the Hittites,
4“I [am] a foreigner and an outsider among you. Give me a burial site among you so that I can buy my dead.”
5The Hittites replied to Abraham,
6“Listen to us sir. You are God’s chosen one among us. Bury your dead in the finest of our tombs. None of us will withhold his tomb for burying your dead.”
7Then Abraham rose and bowed down before the people of the land, the Hittites.
8“If you are willing for me to bury my dead,” he said to them, “listen to me and approach on my behalf Ephron, son of Zohar,
9to sell me the cave of Machpelah that belongs to him; it is at the end of his field. Let him sell it to me for full price in your presence so that [I may have] a burial site.”
10Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth. So in the presence of all Hittites who had come to the gate of this city, Ephron the Hittite answered,
11“No my lord. Listen to me, I give you the field and I give you the cave that is in it; in the presence of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead.”
12Again Abraham bowed down before the people of the land
13and said to Ephron in their presence, “If you will please listen to me, I will pay you the price of the field. Accept it from me so that I may bury my dead there.”
14Ephron answered Abraham,
15“Listen to me my lord. The land [is worth] four hundred shekels of silver but what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.”
16Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out [for him] the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver according to the standard of the merchants.
17So Ephron’s field at Machpelah near Mamre, the cave that [was] in it and all the trees of the field within the boundaries were deeded over
18to Abraham’s possession in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city.
19After this Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field at Machpelah near Mamre (that is in the land of Hebron).
20So the field and its cave were deeded to Abraham as a burial site by the Hittites.