Abraham Buys the Cave of Machpelah

Sarah dies at the age of one hundred and twenty-seven in Kiriath-arba, which is Hebron. Abraham comes to mourn and weep for her. Then he speaks to the sons of Heth: “I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace.” The Hittites honor him: “thou art a mighty prince among us,” and let him choose among their sepulchres. But Abraham wants to buy the cave of Machpelah, at the end of Ephron’s field, for its full price. In front of everyone, Ephron makes a show of giving it to him, then slips in the price: “the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee?” Abraham weighs out the sum at once. The field and the cave become his property, and he buries Sarah there, facing Mamre. It is his first possession in the promised land; Abraham himself, Isaac, Rebekah, Leah, and Jacob will rest there too.