Abraham: The Covenant

Abraham rose up from before his dead, and spoke to the children of Heth, saying,

“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.”

The 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.”

Abraham rose up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth.

He talked with them, saying, “If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me to 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 the full price let him give it to me among you for a possession of a burying-place.”

Now 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,

“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.”

Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land.

He 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.”

Ephron 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.”

Abraham listened to Ephron. Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in the audience of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the current merchants’ standard.

So 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

to Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city.

After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre (that is, Hebron), in the land of Canaan.

The field, and the cave that is in it, were deeded to Abraham for a possession of a burying place by the children of Heth.

Abraham was old, and well stricken in age. The LORD had blessed Abraham in all things.

Abraham said to his servant, the elder of his house, who ruled over all that he had, “Please put your hand under my thigh.

I will make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live.

But you shall go to my country, and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”

The servant said to him, “What if the woman isn’t willing to follow me to this land? Must I bring your son again to the land you came from?”

Abraham said to him, “Beware that you don’t bring my son there again.

The LORD, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house, and from the land of my birth, who spoke to me, and who swore to me, saying, ‘I will give this land to your seed.’ He will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there.