Genesis Chapter 23: Death of Sarah

This chapter deals with the death of Abraham’s wife Sarah and the process which Abraham took to acquire property for her burial.  Sarah lived for 127 years before she died.  Abraham appeared shaken up by Sarah’s death and wanted to bury her “out of his sight”.  I can understand that he did not want his wife’s grave too close.  So Abraham talked to the sons of Heth to get a cave to use as a burial site. (cave of Machpelah)

Now this cave was at the end of the field, and Abraham only wanted the part of the land with the cave to bury his wife.  Ephron, (owner of the field) wanted to give Abraham the entire field and not separate the property.  Based on the scripture, Abraham paid the “commercial standard” which I believe is full price for the land.  Abraham had the land deeded over to him and he buried his wife.

In this chapter,  the people had a reverence for Abraham.  They called him a “mighty prince among us” and they offered him the best burial sites.  Abraham was also respectful in offering to pay full price for only using part of the field.  Even as a commercial real estate broker, I liked the fact that Abraham did not “wheel and deal” for the property.  The commentary states that Abraham was taken advantage us in this deal because the purchase price (400 shekels of silver) was an exorbitant amount of money.  The way I see it, Abraham wanted the land to honor his wife and God gave him the means to acquire it.  Abraham acquired his wealth through God’s blessings, it’s all HIS money anyway!