Genesis 23:12-20

12 Abraham bowed respectfully before the assembled council

13 and answered Ephron: "Please allow me - I want to pay the price of the land; take my money so that I can go ahead and bury my wife."

14 Then Ephron answered Abraham

15 "If you insist, master. What's four hundred silver shekels between us? Now go ahead and bury your wife."

16 Abraham accepted Ephron's offer and paid out the sum that Ephron had named before the town council of Hittites - four hundred silver shekels at the current exchange rate.

17 That's how Ephron's field next to Mamre - the field, its cave, and all the trees within its borders -

18 became Abraham's property. The town council of Hittites witnessed the transaction.

19 Abraham then proceeded to bury his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah that is next to Mamre, present-day Hebron, in the land of Canaan

20 The field and its cave went from the Hittites into Abraham's possession as a burial plot.

Genesis 23:12-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 23

This chapter treats of the age, death, and funeral of Sarah, and the place of her interment: of her age, Ge 23:1; of her death, Ge 23:2; of the motion Abraham made to the sons of Heth, to obtain a burial place among them, Ge 23:3,4; of the answer of them to him, giving him leave to bury in any of their sepulchres, Ge 23:5,6; of a second motion of his to them, to use their interest with Ephron the Hittite, to let him have the cave of Machpelah for the above purpose, Ge 23:7-9; of Ephron's consent unto it, Ge 23:10,11; of the purchase Abraham made of it for four hundred shekels of silver, Ge 23:12-16; and of its being secured unto him, which he interred Sarah his wife, Ge 23:17-20.