[And He Walks With Me] Genesis 23

1-20        This is the first biblical death that receives an extended treatment. As such, it provides us with the first detailed view of the grief and burial processes.

3        See note on 10:15-19 for background on the Hittites.

4        Despite having lived in the region for many years, Abraham was still an alien residing among you because he did not own any property. As such, he had no legal rights or status in the area despite the positive relationship he had built with the residents.

A burial property in Abraham’s time was not like a plot in a modern cemetery. Typically, bodies were interred in a cave, natural or man-made. Inside the cave, bodies were laid out on a shelf and allowed to decompose until only bones remained. The bones would then be moved to the back of the cave or placed in a container of some sort to make room for additional people. In this way, the same cave was used for multiple family members across multiple generations, giving rise to the phrase “gathered to one’s ancestors” as a euphemism for death.^[48]

5-6        The Hethites’ generous response to Abraham’s request demonstrates the positive relationship between God’s people and the neighbors. This relationship was no doubt influenced by the events of Genesis 14, in which Abraham liberated Sodom and the other four cities, along with Lot, from the four kings. However, Abraham had a positive relationship with the neighbors even before that. This stands in stark contrast to the antagonistic posture adopted by many modern Christians toward their unbelieving neighbors. Antagonism should not be the default position of God’s people toward others. We are to be a source of blessing to them!

7-9        Abraham insisted on paying the full price for the cave of Machpelah even though the Hethites were willing to give him whatever plot he desired free of charge. This resolve was key to maintaining the amicable relationship between them. It was also important to Abraham to honor his wife in this way. If he did not rightly own the place where she was buried, then he may have lost the right to bury himself and subsequent generations of his family there.

15        Four hundred shekels of silver was a substantial sum of money. A shekel was equal to .4 ounce (11.34 gram). Therefore, this equated to approximately 10 pounds of silver. Considering the typical person earned 10 shekels of silver per year, this represented 40 years of income for normal people. Some scholars have suggested this price was exorbitant, inflated by Ephron in order to take advantage of Abraham’s state. However, without additional details, it is difficult to determine whether this was the case. For instance, the text does not reveal the size of the property. We also know that Omri paid 6,000 shekels of silver for the site where he would build the city of Samaria (1 Kings 16:24), and David paid 600 shekels of gold for the temple site.^[49]

17-20        Ephron’s field at Machpelah near Mamre became the first property Abraham and his family owned in the Promised Land. He did not take it by force but by consensual purchase. This is significant because it means that he was not a hostile invader. It is also significant because, with the purchase of this land, he was no longer an alien residing among you as in vs 4.

[48] Keener and Zondervan 2016, Genesis 23:3

[49] Keener and Zondervan 2016, Genesis 23;15