Genesis 23:18

_UNTO ABRAHAM FOR A POSSESSION IN THE PRESENCE OF THE CHILDREN OF HETH, BEFORE ALL THAT WENT IN AT THE GATE OF HIS CITY._ The field of Ephron was made sure unto Abraham for a possession. This is the earliest instance of a transference of property on record. There was no attorney, no parchment, no seal or signature attached to a deed, no register house in which to deposit it among the municipal archives of Hebron. It was entirely an oral transaction; yet the act of conveyancing was marked by a particularity of details and specifications-field, cave, ilexes, "in all the borders round about," - as minute as could be done in a modern legal document; and, being completed in the presence of known witnesses-probably the elders and magistrates-was considered, according to the notions and customs of patriarchal times, as binding as the strictest forms of written law could have made it. On the pa...

14-20 Prudence, as well as justice, directs us to be fair and open in our dealings; cheating bargains will not bear the light. Abraham, without fraud or delay, pays the money. He pays it at once in full, without keeping any part back; and by weight, current money with the merchant, without deceit. See how anciently money was used for the help of trade, and how honestly it should be paid when it is due. Though all the land of Canaan was Abraham by promise, yet the time of his possessing it not being come, what he had occasion for he bought and paid for. Dominion is not founded in grace. The saints' title to an eternal inheritance does not entitle them to the possessions of this world, nor justify them in doing wrong. Ephron honestly and fairly makes a good title to the land. As that which is bought, must be honestly paid for, so that which is sold, must be honestly delivered and secured....

- The Death of Sarah 2. ארבע קרית _qı̂ryat_-_'arba‛_, “Qirjath-arba‘, city of Arba.” ארבע _'arba‛_, “Arba‘, four.” 8. עפרון _‛__eprôn_, “‘Ephron, of the dust, or resembling a calf.” צחר _tshochar_, “Tsochar, whiteness.” 9. מכפלה _makpêlâh_, “Makpelah, doubled.” The death and burial of Sarah are here recorded. This occasions the purchase of the field of Makpelah, in the cave of which is her sepulchre. Genesis 23:1 Sarah is the only woman whose age is reco

EXPOSITION GENESIS 23:1 AND SARAH WAS AN HUNDRED AND SEVEN AND TWENTY YEARS OLD (literally, and _the lives of Sarah were an hundred and twenty and seven years_);_ _so that Isaac must have been thirty-seven, having been born in his mother's ninetieth year. Sarah, as the wife of Abraham and the mother of believers (Isaiah 51:2; 1 Peter 3:6), is the only woman whose age is mentioned in Scripture. THESE WERE THE YEARS OF THE LIFE OF SARAH—an emphatic repetition designed to impress the Israelitish mind with the importance of remembering the age of their ancestress....

UNTO ABRAHAM FOR A POSSESSION,.... To be enjoyed by him and his for ever, as his own property, being purchased by his money: IN THE PRESENCE OF THE CHILDREN OF HETH; they being witnesses of the bargain, and of the payment of the money by Abraham, and of the surrender of the field unto him, for his own use: BEFORE ALL THAT WENT IN AT THE GATES OF HIS CITY; not of Abraham's city, for he had none, but of Ephron's city, which was Hebron, see Genesis 23:10; these are either the same with the children of Heth, and so the clause is added by way of explanation, and including all the inhabitants of the place; or else different from them, they intending the princes of the people that composed the assembly Abraham addressed, and these the common people, the inhabitants of the place. Aben Ezra takes them to be the travellers that passed and repassed

CHAPTER 23 THE DEATH OF SARAH _ 1. Sarah dies (Genesis 23:1)_ 2. The grave obtained (Genesis 23:3) 3. The burial of Sarah (Genesis 23:19) We call the attention to the typical meaning of the death of Sarah. She is the type of the nation Israel and her death in this chapter signifies the death of Israel, nationally. This must be brought in connection with the previous chapter. There we learned that Isaac was upon the altar and taken from it. This is typical of the death and resurrection of the true Isaac, the Promised One, the Lord Jesus Christ. Immediately after, Sarah dies, the one from whom Isaac came. And so after the Lord Jesus Christ had died and was raised from the dead, the n

GENESIS 23. ABRAHAM PURCHASES THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH AS A BURYING-PLACE OF SARAH. This chapter belongs to P, as is shown by its legal precision and the wordiness of its style, by numerous characteristic expressions, and by the later references in P (Genesis 25:9 f., Genesis 49:29; Genesis 50:13). It shows how Abraham acquired property by purchase in Canaan, an earnest of ultimate _possession of_ the whole, and perhaps inculcates by his example the duty of acquiring a family grave, to which importance was attached. Gunkel thinks that the story is old, and its original form was designed to emphasize that the sanctuary at Machpeiah belonged, not to the Canaanites who claimed it, but to Israel, since Abraham had purchas

ABRAHAM. This is not the purchase referred to in Genesis 33:19 and Acts 7:16. Act 7:80 years between this purchase and Jacob's. See note on Acts 7:16. BEFORE ALL. Some Codices with Samaritan Pentateuch have "even before all"....

_all that went in at_ See note on Genesis 23:10. The necessary witnesses of the transaction. There is no document to be attested....

DISCOURSE: 38 ABRAHAM PURCHASING A BURYING-PLACE IN CANAAN Genesis 23:17. _And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the care which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders round about, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession, in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city._ THERE is something in a holy life which wonderfully conciliates the minds of men. At first indeed, like a strong influx of light, it offends their eyes; and the beholders, unable to bear the effulgence of its beams, turn away from it, or perhaps desire its utter extinction. But when it has shone for a long time before them, and they have had sufficient opportunity to contemplate its worth, they are constrained to acknowledge, that “the righteous is more excellent