Genesis · WEB
Genesis
23
Bible textSynthetic voice (AI)
Genesis is not in WEB-C, so this chapter is shown from WEB (World English Bible (Protestant canon)).
Sarah lived one hundred twenty-seven years. This was the length of Sarah’s life. Sarah died in Kiriath Arba (also called Hebron), in the land of Canaan. Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. See also: Genesis 23:19Genesis 13:181 Chronicles 6:57Abraham rose up from before his dead and spoke to the children of Heth, saying, See also: Genesis 10:15Genesis 27:46Genesis 23:7“I am a stranger and a foreigner living with you. Give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” See also: Hebrews 11:91 Chronicles 29:15Genesis 17:8The children of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, “Hear us, my lord. You are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the best of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb. Bury your dead.” See also: Genesis 24:35Genesis 14:14Exodus 32:22Abraham rose up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, to the children of Heth. See also: Hebrews 12:14Genesis 18:2Genesis 19:1He talked with them, saying, “If you agree that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, See also: Luke 7:3-4Hebrews 7:261 Kings 2:17that he may sell me the cave of Machpelah, which he has, which is in the end of his field. For the full price let him sell it to me among you as a possession for a burial place.” See also: Romans 12:17Romans 13:8Now Ephron was sitting in the middle of the children of Heth. Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the children of Heth, even of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying, See also: Genesis 34:24Genesis 34:20Genesis 23:18“No, my lord, hear me. I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the presence of the children of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead.” See also: Luke 19:24Isaiah 32:8Genesis 23:6Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land. See also: Genesis 18:2Genesis 19:1Genesis 23:7He spoke to Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, “But if you will, please hear me. I will give the price of the field. Take it from me, and I will bury my dead there.” See also: Romans 13:8Acts 20:35Genesis 14:22-23Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, “My lord, listen to me. What is a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver between me and you? Therefore bury your dead.” See also: Ezekiel 45:12Exodus 30:15Exodus 30:13Abraham listened to Ephron. Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in the hearing of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the current merchants’ standard. See also: Zechariah 11:12Jeremiah 32:91 Thessalonians 4:6So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all of its borders, were deeded See also: Genesis 50:13Genesis 25:9Genesis 23:20to Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city. See also: Genesis 34:20Jeremiah 32:12Ruth 4:1After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre (that is, Hebron), in the land of Canaan. See also: Ecclesiastes 12:5Genesis 47:30Job 30:23The field, and the cave that is in it, were deeded to Abraham by the children of Heth as a possession for a burial place. See also: Ruth 4:7-10Jeremiah 32:10-142 Kings 21:18
See also: Cross references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), derived in part from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
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Notes · Haydock (1859, public domain)6 notes
Notes in English 19th-century Catholic commentary by Fr. George Leo Haydock, shown as published.
These notes keep the polemics of their time: some speak harshly of the Jewish people or of other Christians. The Church teaches otherwise today. The Jewish people may not be blamed for the death of Christ (Nostra Aetate 4; Catechism 597–598), and Christians of other communities are our brothers and sisters in the Lord (Unitatis Redintegratio 3). Christian unity
Genesis 23:1
Ver. 1. Sara. She is the only woman whose age the Scripture specifies; a distinction which her exalted dignity and faith deserved. Gal. iv. 23. Heb. xi. 11. She was a figure of the Christian Church. C.
↑ 1Genesis 23:2
Ver. 2. City. Heb. Cariath arbah, Jos. xiv. 15. --- Which is Hebron. Serarius thinks it took its name from the society (cherber) between Abraham and the princes of the city. Hebron the son of Caleb possessed it afterwards. --- Came from Bersabee, (G. xxi . 19.) or to the place where the corpse lay, at Arbee, which signifies four; as Adam, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with their four wives, reposed there. C. --- And weep. In the middle of this word, in the printed Hebrew, there is left a small c; whence the Rabbins ridiculously infer, that Abraham wept but a short time. But the retaining of greater, less, suspended and inverted letters in the Hebrew Bible, can be attributed to no other cause than a scrupulous veneration even for the faults of transcribers. Kennicott
↑ 2Genesis 23:3
Ver. 3. Obsequies, or solemn mourning, accompanied with prayer. Acts viii. 2. Matt. xi . The Jews are still accustomed to say, when they bury their dead, "Ye fathers, who sleep in Hebron, open to him the gates of Eden;" herein agreeing with the Catholic doctrine, as they did in the days of Judas the Machabee. H.
↑ 3Genesis 23:6
Ver. 6. Prince of God, powerful and holy, and worthy of respect. H. --- A great prince. See Acts vii. 5. where S. Stephen says, that God did not give Abraham a foot of land, meaning as an inheritance; and that Abraham bought this double cave, for a sepulchre, of the sons of Hemor, the son of Sichem; (C.) from which latter he seems to derive the name of the place, which is here called Hebron. H. --- Nothing is more common, than for men and places to have two names; though some think, the name of Abraham has been inserted in the Acts by a mistake of the copyists, when Jacob was meant. See G. xxxii .
19. C.
↑ 6Genesis 23:7
Ver. 7. Bowed down to the people. Adoravit, literally, adored.
But this word here, as well as in many other places in the Latin Scriptures, is used to signify only an inferior honour and reverence paid to men, expressed by a bowing down of the body.
↑ 7Genesis 23:16
Ver. 16. Sicles. About £50. H. --- It was no simony to buy land for a sepulchre, as it was not blessed. M. --- Current money, was such as passed among merchants, though probably not yet coined in any part of the world; and therefore we find, that Abraham and others weigh the pieces of silver or gold. In this manner were bargains concluded before witnesses, who in those days supplied the want of writings and lawyers. C.
↑ 16License: Notes by Fr. George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), from the Douay-Rheims Bible with Haydock's commentary (first ed. Thomas Haydock, Manchester/Dublin, 1811–1814; New York: Edward Dunigan & Brother, 1859); New Testament notes compiled with Fr. Benedict Rayment. Public domain. Digital text: "The Haydock Bible", Internet Archive (archive.org/details/TheHaydockBible), uploaded 2011 under the Public Domain Mark. · Credits and licenses