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23
Sarah died and Abraham bought some land to bury her body
1 Sarah lived a long time. She lived until she was 127 years old. 2 Then she died in the town called Hebron, in the country called Canaan. Another name for that town is Kiriath Arba. Abraham was very sad, and he sat next to Sarah’s body and cried.
3 After that, Abraham got up and left the place where Sarah’s body was, and he went to the town gate to talk to the people that owned that country. They were from the Heth tribe. 4 Abraham said to them, “This is your land, and I am just camping here. I need to bury my wife’s body. Can I buy some of your land to use for a grave?”*Hebrews 11:9, 13; Acts 7:16
5 The Heth people said to Abraham, 6 “Sir, we know that you are a great leader for your people, and we respect you a lot. We want you to use one of our best graves to bury your wife. Yes, you can pick any grave you want, and we will let you use it to bury your wife.”
7 Then Abraham got down on his knees in front of the Heth people, to show them respect. 8-9 He said to them, “Thank you for saying that you will help me bury my wife. There is a cave in your country that I want to use for a grave. You know the man called Efron, the son of Zohar. He’s one of you Heth people. He has some land in the place called Makpelah, and there’s a cave in the rock at one end of that land. I want to put my wife’s body in that cave. Can you ask Efron if I can buy that cave? I want to pay him the full price for it. And you can all watch me buy that cave from him. Then it will belong to me, and I can put my wife’s body there.”
10 Efron was sitting there with the other Heth people at the town gate. He talked to Abraham so that everyone could hear him. 11 He said, “Sir, I will give you that cave, and I will give you the land around it too. I’m telling you straight in front of all my people, I will give you that cave and that land, so that you can bury your wife.”
12 Then Abraham got down on his knees again in front of the Heth people, to show them respect. 13 He talked to Efron so that everyone could hear him. He said, “Thank you. All right, I will buy that cave and that land from you. Tell me the right price for it, and I will pay you. Then that land will belong to me, and I can bury my wife there. Do you agree?”
14 Then Efron said to Abraham, 15 “Sir, the right price for that land is just 4 kilograms of silver money, but let’s not talk about money all day. The most important thing is that you can bury your wife.” 16 And all the Heth people heard Efron say that price.
So Abraham agreed, and he got out his silver money. He weighed that money properly, and he gave 4 kilograms of it to Efron.
17-18 Then that land, and the cave, and all the trees on that land, they belonged to Abraham. That land was in the place called Makpelah, to the east of the place called Mamreh. All the Heth people that were at the town gate, they saw Abraham buy Efron’s land, so they knew that it belonged to Abraham.
19 After that, Abraham put Sarah’s body in the cave in that land. It was in the place called Makpelah, to the east of the place called Mamreh, in the country called Canaan. Another name for Mamreh is Hebron.
20 That is how Abraham bought some land and a cave from the Heth people, to use for a grave.

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*23:4 Hebrews 11:9, 13; Acts 7:16

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