In the previous study, we learned of Sarah’s death, and we left that study, as Abraham asked permission from the sons of Heth to negotiate the sale of a place to bury his wife. He decided he wanted the cave at the end of the field, called Machpelah, which is before or to the east of the Plains of Mamre, which is Hebron (Genesis 23:17, 19). As time would tell, all the patriarchs and their wives would be buried there in the cave, which some conclude is a double cave. Both Abraham and Sarah are buried there, as are Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah (Genesis 49:29-32; 50:13), but not Rachel. Jacob buried her in Bethlehem, after she died, while giving birth to Benjamin (Genesis 35:19).
It took Moses a whole chapter, twenty verses, to tell us that Sarah died and was buried. Why? Perhaps it was to formally express in the record that Abraham considered himself a pilgrim in the land, right up to the time of his own death. Lot became a citizen of Sodom, and he sat in one of its gates, as an elder and a judge of his community. Nothing like this is said of Abraham. In fact, he even had to asks permission of the city elders to bury Sarah, his wife, in their land (Genesis 23:8). Therefore, this negotiation is a testimony to the fact that Abraham was not considered a Canaanite (cp. Genesis 23:3-4), not even as an honorary citizen.
The gate of the city was so named, because it was the first place one came to as he passed through it into the city proper. Often a reference to the gate of the city was not understood as the door or the gate, but as a place where public business was conducted (cp. 1Kings 22:10; Nehemiah 8:1). A gate may also refer to a market, where items were bought and sold (2Kings 7:1), and it may also refer to a place, where judgment of crimes (cp. Deuteronomy 16:18; 21:19) and other legal matters (Deuteronomy 25:7; Ruth 4:1) were conducted. Abraham came to such a gate to buy the cave at the end of the field that Ephron, the Hittite, owned (Genesis 23:10). The sons of Heth were the descendants of Ham, and they became the Hittites, so the phrase “his city” means that Hebron was a Hittite city, and Ephron sat among the authorities of the city. In other words, Ephron was one of the city’s elders, and he determined that the field of Machpelah must be sold with the cave (Genesis 23:10-11).
Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms, vis-à-vis the field must go with the cave. He then asked Ephron to simply name the price of the field, and he would weigh out the silver and pay him (Genesis 23:12-13). Ephron put the price of the field at 400 shekels of silver, by weight, and Abraham weighed out the price of the land in verse-16. The coin (shekel), as mentioned elsewhere in scripture, was not meant here (Genesis 23:14-15). So, Abraham paid Ephron his asking price for the cave and the field, as witnessed by the city elders. Afterwards, Abraham buried Sarah, his wife (Genesis 23:16, 19).
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