The Death and Burial of Sarah
1. Now Sarah lived to be 127 years old; these were the years of her life.
2. And Sarah died in 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 got up from beside his dead wife and said to the Hittites,
4 .“I am a foreigner and stranger among you. Give me a burial site among you so that I can bury my dead.”
5. The Hittites replied to Abraham,
6. “Listen to us, sir. You are God’s chosen one among us. Bury your dead in the finest of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb for burying your dead.”
7. But Abraham rose and bowed to the people of the land, the Hittites.
8. And he said, “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. Now Ephron was sitting among the Hittites, 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, hear 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, “Please listen to me. I will pay you the price of the field. Accept it from me, so that I may 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. So 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 at Machpelah near Mamre—both the field and the cave within it, and all the trees within the borders of the field—was deeded
18. to Abraham as his property in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of the city.
19. Afterward Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah near Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan.
20. So the field and the cave within it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site.