Setting: Genesis 23:1-20, 25:1-11
My mother Sarah died when she was one hundred and twenty and seven years old. I like to think that she was innocent as a seven year old, beautiful as a twenty year old, and wise as a hundred year old, and so being one hundred and twenty and seven these qualities were hers in full measure.
She died with my father in Hebron, to which they had retired. For they had lived twenty five years in Hebron, and then twenty six years in Beersheba, in the land of the Philistines, and Abraham esteemed Hebron more highly than Beersheba, and though it fitting that he should return there so as to spend more of his life in Hebron than in Beersheba.
In those days the Kiriath Arba came to take on the meaning not just of four towns, but of four great men, for Abraham and Enau and Eschol and Mamre were pillars of wisdom and security in that area as long as they lived.
I was thirty seven when she died. I was living at Beer Lahai Roi, a place in which I felt the presence of Adonai every evening when I went to sleep, and every morning when I awoke. From there I would go out into the Negev, returning again when water was drying up. I learned that Sarah had died when I was at the well, and I made the journey north at once, five days by camel.
They say that when Abraham drew near to the body of Sarah to mourn and to weep for his princess he even cried out in grief.
When I arrived at the Kiriath Arba, my father spoke to the Hattites, saying “I am a stranger and a sojourner with you; give me a possession of a burying place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”
It seemed to me as though Abraham was saying to them, “I am a tenant in the land. But if you would have me, I would be a landlord.” And in a way this was absurd, for Abraham was already like a king among them, even if he technically did not own any land.
Abraham had done so much for the people of the Kiriath Arba, and they answered Abraham, saying to him, “Hear us, my lord: you are a mighty prince among us. In the choice of our sepulchers bury your dead; none of us shall withhold from you his sepulcher, that you may bury your dead.”
And Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the people of the land. Even to these children of Heth, Canaan, and Ham! And he communed with them, saying, “If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and intreat for me Ephron the son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he has, which is in the end of his field. For as much money as it is worth he shall give it me for a possession of a burying place among you."
Ephron the Hattite was there among them, and he answered Abraham in the hearing of the children of Heth, of all those who were there at the gate of the city: “No, my lord, hear me! The field I give to you, and the cave that is therein, I give it to you. In the presence of the sons of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead.”
Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land, and he spake to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, “Would you, I pray thee, hear me: I will give you money for the field. Take it from me, and I will bury my dead there.”
As Abraham and Ephron were both great men, I had imagined that Abraham might insist on paying for the field and the cave, and Ephron might insist on giving it to him free of charge, and this might even become a matter of dispute. But fortunately Ephron decided not to quarrel over the matter, for he said to Abraham, “My lord, listen to me; the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between me and you? Give money for the field if you must, but by all means, bury your dead where you choose.”
Abraham listened to Ephron; and he weighed out the silver, placing it in Ephron’s hands, according to the price that had been named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver.
In this way the field of Ephron, and the cave of Machpelah, which were positioned adjacent to the village of Mamre, and all of the healthy olive trees that were in the field, were transferred to Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of the city.
So Abraham buried Sarah in the cave.
After Sarah had died, Abraham found Hagar in the wilderness, and he wed her to himself as a proper wife. But he gave her a new name: Keturah, for he said that she was perfumed with mitzvot and good deeds.
She bore him many sons: Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. All these were the children of Keturah, who had been Hagar.
When it was time for us to divide the inheritance, my father gave to me the birthright, and his land and his herds, all that he had.
But to Ishmael and his brothers, he gave many costly gifts, and I did not wince when I saw the wealth that he sent out from our house with his sons, for if I have learned anything from my father in my entire life, I have learned that the way to greatness is through sacrifice; that these sacrifices must be given without hesitation or grief, but joyfully.
And he dismissed his sons, to sojourn eastward, away from the land of Canaan, which would be my inheritance forever.
She bore him many sons: Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. All these were the children of Keturah, who had been Hagar.
When it was time for us to divide the inheritance, my father gave to me the birthright, and his land and his herds, all that he had.
But to Ishmael and his brothers, he gave many costly gifts, and I did not wince when I saw the wealth that he sent out from our house with his sons, for if I have learned anything from my father in my entire life, I have learned that the way to greatness is through sacrifice; that these sacrifices must be given without hesitation or grief, but joyfully.
And he dismissed his sons, to sojourn eastward, away from the land of Canaan, which would be my inheritance forever.
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Abraham lived 38 more years after Sarah died, until he, too, went down to Sheol at the age of one hundred and seventy and five.
He gave up the ghost, and died at a good old age, an old man, full of years; and he was gathered to his people.
Ishmael came from the east, and I saw that he was a mighty man, with a wealthy house. There was peace between us, for he came only to pay homage to our father.
We buried him next to Sarah, in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hattite, which has remained in the possession of our family as a burial place.
After my father died, I understood as I never had before that the promise of El Elyon to bless all nations through our family now rested upon me. Elohim has blessed me greatly in every way.
I returned and dwelt by Beer Lahai Roi.
Abraham lived 38 more years after Sarah died, until he, too, went down to Sheol at the age of one hundred and seventy and five.
He gave up the ghost, and died at a good old age, an old man, full of years; and he was gathered to his people.
Ishmael came from the east, and I saw that he was a mighty man, with a wealthy house. There was peace between us, for he came only to pay homage to our father.
We buried him next to Sarah, in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hattite, which has remained in the possession of our family as a burial place.
After my father died, I understood as I never had before that the promise of El Elyon to bless all nations through our family now rested upon me. Elohim has blessed me greatly in every way.
I returned and dwelt by Beer Lahai Roi.
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