John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 23:9
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 F25 So in T. Bab. Erubin, fol. 53. 1. or, as he adds, because it was fit for couples, for two corpses to... read more
John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 23:8
And he communed with them ,.... Entered into a discourse and conversation with them upon the above subject: saying, if it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight ; that is, in some place belonging to them, otherwise they could have no objection to the burying of his wife anywhere else: if now what they had said were not spoken in a complaisant way, but it was their real mind and will, and they were sincere and hearty in it, and very desirous of obliging him with a place... read more