A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
Genesis 23
Genesis 23 is the twenty-third chapter of the book of Genesis and the chapter in which Sarah dies and Abraham buys the cave of Machpelah as a burial site. The 20-verse chapter is the only legal transaction Abraham completes in detail in the book and is the first piece of land in the promised land that he owns outright.
The chapter opens with Sarah's death. She lives to 127 and dies at Kiriath-arba, which is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. Abraham goes in to mourn and weep for her.
Then he rises and turns to negotiation. He speaks to the Hittites who live around him: "I am a foreigner and an outsider among you. Give me a burial site among you so that I can bury my dead." The Hittites answer that he is a prince of God among them, and that he may bury Sarah in any tomb he chooses.
Abraham bows and asks specifically for the cave of Machpelah, which belongs to Ephron the Hittite and lies at the end of Ephron's field. He asks Ephron to sell it to him for the full price, in the presence of all the people, as a burial site.
Ephron is sitting among the Hittites and answers in their hearing. "No, my lord. Listen to 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." Abraham bows again and answers that he will pay for the field. Ephron then names a price: "The land is worth four hundred shekels of silver, but what is that between you and me?"
Abraham weighs out the four hundred shekels of silver in the hearing of the Hittites, according to the standard of the merchants. The field at Machpelah near Mamre, the cave in it, and all the trees within its boundaries are deeded over to Abraham. He buries Sarah there.
The chapter closes with a formal note that the field and its cave were transferred from the Hittites to Abraham as a burial site.
Verse 1. Now Sarah lived to be 127 years old.
Verse 2. She died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went out to mourn and to weep for her.
Verse 3. Then Abraham got up from beside his dead wife and said to the Hittites,
Verse 4. “I am a foreigner and an outsider among you. Give me a burial site among you so that I can bury my dead.”
Verse 5. The Hittites replied to Abraham,
Verse 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 his tomb for burying your dead.”
Verse 7. Then Abraham rose and bowed down before the people of the land, the Hittites.
Verse 8. “If you are willing for me to bury my dead,” he said to them, “listen to me, and approach Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf
Verse 9. to sell me the cave of Machpelah that belongs to him; it is at the end of his field. Let him sell it to me in your presence for full price, so that I may have a burial site.”
Verse 10. Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth. So in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city, Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham,
Verse 11. “No, my lord. Listen to 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.”
Verse 12. Again Abraham bowed down before the people of the land
Verse 13. and said to Ephron in their presence, “If you will 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.”
Verse 14. Ephron answered Abraham,
Verse 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.”
Verse 16. 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 standard of the merchants.
Verse 17. So Ephron’s field at Machpelah near Mamre, the cave that was in it, and all the trees within the boundaries of the field were deeded over
Verse 18. to Abraham’s possession in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city.
Verse 19. After this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field at Machpelah near Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan.
Verse 20. So the field and its cave were deeded by the Hittites to Abraham as a burial site.
Last updated: