Génesis 23

¹Sarah lived to the age of 127; those were the years of her life. ²She died at Kiriath-arba, the place now called Hebron, in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and weep over her. ³Then Abraham rose from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites. ⁴“I am a foreigner living among you as a settler. Grant me a piece of land of my own for a grave here, so that I can carry my dead away and bury her.” ⁵The Hittites replied to Abraham, ⁶“Listen to us, sir. You are a mighty prince living among us. Bury your dead in the best of our tombs. Not one of us will refuse you his tomb for burying your dead.”^{a 7}Then Abraham stood and bowed low before the people of the land, the Hittites. ⁸He said to them, “If you are willing for me to bury my dead, then listen to me: speak on my behalf to Ephron son of Zohar, ⁹and ask him to let me have the cave of Machpelah that belongs to him, at the edge of his field. Let him sell it to me for its full price, here in your presence, as a burial place I can own.” ¹⁰Ephron himself was sitting there among the Hittites, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham so that all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city could hear. ¹¹“No, sir, listen to me. I am giving you the field, and the cave in it as well. Here, with my own people as witnesses, I make it yours. Go and bury your dead.” ¹²Abraham bowed again before the people of the land, ¹³and said to Ephron, while they all listened, “Please, if you will only hear me out: I am paying the price of the field. Accept the money from me, so that I can bury my dead there.” ¹⁴Ephron answered Abraham, ¹⁵“Sir, hear me. Land worth about 10 pounds of silver, what is that between friends like you and me? Go and bury your dead.” ¹⁶Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the silver he had named in front of the Hittites: about 10 pounds of silver, by the standard weight the traders used. ¹⁷So Ephron’s field in Machpelah, east of Mamre, passed into Abraham’s hands: the field with its cave and every tree within its boundaries, ¹⁸as his purchased property, with the Hittites, all who had come to the city gate, as witnesses. ¹⁹After this Abraham laid his wife Sarah to rest in the cave in the field of Machpelah, east of Mamre (that is, Hebron), in the land of Canaan. ²⁰So the field and its cave were transferred from the Hittites to Abraham as a burial place of his own.