Genesis 23:9

_THAT HE MAY GIVE ME THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH, WHICH HE HATH, 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 BURYINGPLACE AMONGST YOU._ Machpelah - signifies double. [The Hebrew text has _ MAKPEELAAH_ (H4375); the Septuagint, to speelaion to dipoun, the double cave.] It was probably a cave hewn out of the solid rock, and divided into two parts, as was usual in the graves of the rich. WHICH IS IN THE END OF HIS FIELD. In patriarchal times the pastures on the mountains, and throughout the country at large, were an open common, occupied by a number of independent tribes; while the lands in the neighbourhood of towns, being cultivated, were divided into small portions, or separate fields, which became the exclusive possession of certain proprietors. Though fences, such as are raised in this country, are entirely unknown in the East...

1-13 The longest life must shortly come to a close. Blessed be God that there is a world where sin, death, vanity, and vexation cannot enter. Blessed be his name, that even death cannot part believers from union with Christ. Those whom we most love, yea, even our own bodies, which we so care for, must soon become loathsome lumps of clays, and be buried out of sight. How loose then should we be to all earthly attachments and adornments! Let us seek rather that our souls be adorned with heavenly graces. Abraham rendered honour and respect to the princes of Heth, although of the ungodly Canaanites. The religion of the Bible enjoins to pay due respect to all in authority, without flattering their persons, or countenancing their crimes if they are unworthy characters. And the noble generosity of these Canaanites shames and condemns the closeness, selfishness, and ill-humour of many that call...

- 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....

THAT HE MAY, GIVE ME THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH, WHICH HE HATH, WHICH [IS] IN THE END OF HIS FIELD,.... The Targum of Jonathan renders it, "the double cave", and so do the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions; and, according to Aben Ezra and Ben Melech, it was so called because there was a cave within a cave in it; and, as Jarchi thinks, because it was a house and chamber over it y or, as he adds, because it was fit for couples, for two corpses to be laid in it; and the Jews say z, here Adam and Eve were buried, which made Abraham so desirous of having it for a buryingplace: but it seems rather to be the proper name of a place, and indeed of a tract of land, in which the field and the cave in the corner of it lay, and which all belonged to Ephron; for both the field and the cave in it are distinguished from Machpelah, in which they were, and that from them, Genesis 23:17; an

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

MONEY. Hebrew silver. BURYINGPLACE. What Jacob bought (Genesis 33:19; Genesis 33:20) was for an altar....

_the cave of Machpelah_ Machpelah is not the name of the cave, but of the locality; cf. 17, Genesis 49:30; Genesis 50:12. The old explanation that the cave was so called, because it was "a double cave," has therefore been questioned; but the LXX and the Lat. both render Machpelah as if it were the equivalent of "double," LXX τὸ σπήλαιον τὸ διπλοῦν, Vulg. _speluncam duplicem_. The name in the Hebrew always has the article, as an appellative or descriptive noun. The tradition of the cave being a double one is continuously maintained. Its correctness is indisputable. _in the end of his field_ Abraham here only asks for the cave at one end of the field of Machpelah. _for the full price_ Lit. "for full silver"; cf....

CAVE OF MACHPELAH— _Machpelah,_ in the Hebrew, signifies _double;_ and possibly the cave might be so called, either from having a double entrance, or from being _double,_ one cave within another, as was common: or might it not be called _double_ afterwards, from _Abraham_ and _Sarah's_ being both buried there? This cave, observe, was _at the end of the field:_ the ancients were wiser than to have their burying-places in the midst of cities, much less in the midst of _temples!_ This was left for more modern and refined vanity and absurdity. The same custom of burying in the fields, gardens, &c. prevailed in our Saviour's time. See John 11:30; John 11:38. Matthew 27:7;...