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Sarah lived one hundred twenty-seven years. This was the length of Sarah’s life.
Verse 1. Sara. She is the only woman whose age the Scripture specifies; a distinction which her exalted dignity and faith deserved. Galatians 4:23. Hebrews 11:11. She was a figure of the Christian Church. Calmet.
Sarah died in Kiriath Arba (also called Hebron), in the land of Canaan. Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.
Verse 2. City. Hebrew Cariath arbah, Joshua 14:15.—Which is Hebron. Serarius thinks it took its name from the society (cherber) between Abraham and the princes of the city. Hebron the son of Caleb possessed it afterwards.—Came from Bersabee, (G. 22:19) or to the place where the corpse lay, at Arbee, which signifies four; as Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with their four wives, reposed there. Calmet.—And weep. In the middle of this word, in the printed Hebrew, there is left a small c; whence the Rabbins ridiculously infer, that Abraham wept but a short time. But the retaining of greater, less, suspended and inverted letters in the Hebrew Bible, can be attributed to no other cause than a scrupulous veneration even for the faults of transcribers. Kennicott
Abraham rose up from before his dead and spoke to the children of Heth, saying,
Verse 3. Obsequies, or solemn mourning, accompanied with prayer. Acts 8:2. Matthew 12. The Jews are still accustomed to say, when they bury their dead, “Ye fathers, who sleep in Hebron, open to him the gates of Eden;” herein agreeing with the Catholic doctrine, as they did in the days of Judas the Machabee. Bible.
“I am a stranger and a foreigner living with you. Give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”
The children of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him,
“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.”
Verse 6. Prince of God, powerful and holy, and worthy of respect. Bible.—A great prince. See Acts 7:5 where S. Stephen says, that God did not give Abraham a foot of land, meaning as an inheritance; and that Abraham bought this double cave, for a sepulchre, of the sons of Hemor, the son of Sichem; ( Calmet.) from which latter he seems to derive the name of the place, which is here called Hebron. Bible.—Nothing is more common, than for men and places to have two names; though some think, the name of Abraham has been inserted in the Acts by a mistake of the copyists, when Jacob was meant. See G. 33:19. Calmet.
Abraham rose up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, to the children of Heth.
Verse 7. Bowed down to the people. Adoravit, literally, adored. But this word here, as well as in many other places in the Latin Scriptures, is used to signify only an inferior honour and reverence paid to men, expressed by a bowing down of the body.
He talked with them, saying, “If you agree that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar,
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 for a burial place.”
Now Ephron was sitting in the middle of the children of Heth. Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the children of Heth, even of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying,
“No, my lord, hear me. I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the presence of the children of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead.”
Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land.
He spoke to Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, “But if you will, please hear me. I will give the price of the field. Take it from me, and I will bury my dead there.”
Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him,
“My lord, listen to me. What is a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver between me and you? Therefore bury your dead.”
A shekel is about 10 grams, so 400 shekels would be about 4 kg. or 8.8 pounds.
Abraham listened to Ephron. Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in the hearing of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the current merchants’ standard.
Verse 16. Sicles. About £50. Bible.—It was no simony to buy land for a sepulchre, as it was not blessed. Menochius.—Current money, was such as passed among merchants, though probably not yet coined in any part of the world; and therefore we find, that Abraham and others weigh the pieces of silver or gold. In this manner were bargains concluded before witnesses, who in those days supplied the want of writings and lawyers. Calmet.
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
to Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city.
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.
The field, and the cave that is in it, were deeded to Abraham by the children of Heth as a possession for a burial place.