The Death and Burial of Sarah
1 Sarah lived 127 years. This was the length of Sarah’s life. 2 Sarah died in Kiriath Arba (also called Hebron), in the land of Canaan. Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. 3 Abraham rose up from before his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites, saying, 4 “I am a stranger and a foreigner living among you, but sell me a plot of burial property among you, that I may bury my dead out of sight.”
5 The Hittites answered Abraham, saying to him, 6 “Hear us, my lord. You are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the best of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb. Bury your dead.”
7 Abraham rose up and bowed to the people of the land, to the Hittites. 8 He talked with them, saying, “If you agree that I should bury my dead out of sight, hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, 9 that he may sell me the cave of Machpelah, which he has, which is in the end of his field. For the full price let him sell it to me among you as a possession of burial property.”
10 Now Ephron was sitting in the midst of the Hittites. Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying, 11 “No, my lord, hear me. I am giving you the field, and I am giving you the cave that is in it. In the presence of my people and their descendants I am giving it to you. Bury your dead.”
12 Abraham bowed down before the people of the land. 13 He spoke to Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, “But if you will, please hear me. I will pay the price of the field. Take it from me, and I will bury my dead there.”
14 Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, 15 “My lord, listen to me. What is a piece of land, worth 400 pieces of silver, between me and you? Therefore bury your dead.”
16 Abraham listened to Ephron. Abraham weighed out for Ephron, the silver which he had named in the hearing of the Hittites, 400 pieces of silver, according to the current merchants’ standard.
17 So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all of its borders, were deeded 18 to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites, before all who went in at the gate of his city.
19 After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre (that is, Hebron), in the land of Canaan. 20 The field, and the cave that is in it, were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a possession of burial property.