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Sarah's Burial

¹ Now Sarah lived 127 years; these were all the years of her life. ² Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron^(a)) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.

³ Then Abraham got up from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites:^{[a] 4} "I am a foreign resident among you.^(b) Give me a burial site among you so that I can bury my dead."^[b](c)

⁵ The Hittites replied to Abraham,^{[c] 6} "Listen to us, lord.^[d] You are God's chosen one^[e] among us. Bury your dead in our finest burial place.^[f] None of us will withhold from you his burial place for burying your dead."

⁷ Then Abraham rose and bowed down to the Hittites, the people of the land. ⁸ He said to them, "If you are willing for me to bury my dead, listen to me and ask Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf ⁹ to give me the cave of Machpelah that belongs to him; it is at the end of his field. Let him give it to me in your presence, for the full price, as a burial place."

¹⁰ Ephron was sitting among the Hittites. So in the presence^[g] of all the Hittites who came to the gate of his city,^(d) Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham: ¹¹ "No, my lord. 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^[h] of my people. Bury your dead."

¹² Abraham bowed down to the people of the land ¹³ and said to Ephron in the presence^[i] of the people of the land, "Please listen to me. Let me pay the price of the field. Accept it from me, and let me bury my dead there."

¹⁴ Ephron answered Abraham and said to him, ¹⁵ "My lord, listen to me. Land worth 400 shekels of silver^(e)—what is that between you and me? Bury your dead." ¹⁶ Abraham agreed with Ephron, and Abraham weighed out to Ephron the silver that he had agreed to in the presence^[j] of the Hittites: 400 shekels of silver at the current commercial rate.^{(f) 17} So Ephron's field^(g) at Machpelah near Mamre—the field with its cave and all the trees anywhere within the boundaries of the field—became ¹⁸ Abraham's possession in the presence of all the Hittites who came to the gate of his city. ¹⁹ After this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field at Machpelah near Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. ²⁰ The field with its cave passed from the Hittites to Abraham^(h) as a burial place.