Genesis 23
Abraham Buys Tomb for Sarah
Sarah lived to be 127 years old before she died in the city of Kiriath-arba, Canaan (also known as Hebron, which is 20 miles south of Jerusalem). When she passed away, Abraham was mourning and told the Hittites (Heth’s descendants),
“I’m a foreigner here, so could you please give me a burial site so I can bury my deceased?”
They replied,
“Sir, you are like a god in our midst, so please go ahead and bury your dead in our best graves. None of us will withhold our grave sites from you.”
So Abraham bowed to them and said,
“Thank you. Could you ask Zohar’s son, Ephron, if he would let me have Machpela’s cave? It’s the cave at the end of that field he owns. I’ll publicly buy it from him for the full price.”
Ephron was sitting there and publicly responded,
“No, please sir, I’ll give you the whole field along with the caves. I give it to you right now in front of all these witnesses. Please, go ahead and bury your dead.”
Abraham bowed to all of them and publically told Ephron,
“Please, sir, I want to pay you full price for it. Please accept payment so I can bury my dead there.”
Ephron said,
“My superior, a plot of land is worth about 10 pounds of silver. That’s nothing to you and me, so please, don’t worry about it and just go ahead and bury your dead there.”
Abraham heard Ephron, but weighed out 10 pounds of silver and gave it to him.
So Ephron’s plot of land was officially purchased by Abraham along with all the caves, trees, and everything else within its borders. It was located in Machpelah, facing Mamre (which is where Abraham lived). The transaction was completed publicly in front of Heth’s descendants who were regulars at the town square.
After that, Abraham buried Sarah in there, and he was the official owner of that plot of land.