Genesis 23 – Study
For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.
Passage: Genesis 23:1-20
1 Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old. 2 She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her.
3 Then Abraham rose from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites. He said, 4 ‘I am a foreigner and stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so that I can bury my dead.’
5 The Hittites replied to Abraham, 6 ‘Sir, listen to us. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb for burying your dead.’
7 Then Abraham rose and bowed down before the people of the land, the Hittites. 8 He said to them, ‘If you are willing to let me bury my dead, then listen to me and intercede with Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf 9 so that he will sell me the cave of Machpelah, which belongs to him and is at the end of his field. Ask him to sell it to me for the full price as a burial site among you.’
10 Ephron the Hittite was sitting among his people and he replied to Abraham in the hearing of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city. 11 ‘No, my lord,’ he said. ‘Listen to me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the presence of my people. Bury your dead.’
12 Again Abraham bowed down before the people of the land 13 and he said to Ephron in their hearing, ‘Listen to me, if you will. I will pay the price of the field. Accept it from me so that I can bury my dead there.’
14 Ephron 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.’
16 Abraham 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 weight current among the merchants.
17 So Ephron’s field in Machpelah near Mamre – both the field and the cave in it, and all the trees within the borders of the field – was legally made over 18 to Abraham as his property in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of the city. 19 Afterwards Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre (which is at Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 20 So the field and the cave in it were legally made over to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site.
A. Find Out:
- How old was Sarah when she died? v.1
- What did Abraham ask of the Hittites? v.4
- How did they reply the first time? v.6
- How did they reply the second time? v.11
- How did they reply the third time? v.14,15
- Where was Sarah buried? v.19
B. Think:
- What did Abraham basically want?
- How did the Hittites want to honor Abraham?
- What did Abraham insist on?
C. Comment:
It is obviously drawing near the end of Abraham’s story and Sarah has just died. Abraham now wants to bury her and he wants to actually buy land so that there is no question in the future that this plot is his. He does not want other people, perhaps, doing anything with this plot where Sarah is buried. It is as he goes about buying the land that we start to see something of the man he has become as we watch the way he is treated by the Hittites, whose land this is.
First of all they call him a “mighty prince among us”, v.6. He is seen as a great man in their eyes, no mere wandering nomad. Next they insist on giving him the land, they want to honor him. It is only when he persists in asking to be allowed to pay for it that they give in and take gold for it. It is as if they say, “Well let it not become a point of dispute between us”.
We see therefore, the man Abraham has come to be. He is now highly esteemed and respected, rich and able to bargain graciously with leaders. He has come a long way from the time when he was a nomad from Mesopotamia who was afraid of everyone. God has done a lot of changing in Abraham, and He has succeeded with His man, He has changed into a mighty leader, a man of faith, respected by all.
D. Application?
- Do we deal with other people as graciously as Abraham?
- Integrity breeds respect.