Genesis 23:1-20

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 23:1-2

We have here, 1. Sarah's age, Gen. 23:1. Almost forty years before, she had called herself old, Gen. 18:12. Old people will die never the sooner, but may die the better, for reckoning themselves old. 2. Her death, Gen. 23:2. The longest liver must die at last. Abraham and Sarah had lived comfortably together many years; but death parts those whom nothing else could part. The special friends and favourites of Heaven are not exempted from the stroke of death. She died in the land of Canaan,... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 23:3-15

Here is, I. The humble request which Abraham made to his neighbours, the Hittites, for a burying-place among them, Gen. 23:3, 4. It was strange he had this to do now; but we are to impute it rather to God's providence than to his improvidence, as appears Acts 7:5; where it is said, God gave him no inheritance in Canaan. It were well if all those who take care to provide burying-places for their bodies after death were as careful to provide a resting-place for their souls. Observe here, 1. The... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 23:16-20

We have here the conclusion of the treaty between Abraham and Ephron about the burying-place. The bargain was publicly made before all the neighbours, in the presence and audience of the sons of Heth, Gen. 23:16, 17. Note, Prudence, as well as justice, directs us to be fair, and open, and above-board, in our dealings. Fraudulent contracts hate the light, and choose to be clandestine; but those that design honestly in their bargains care not who are witnesses to them. Our law countenances sales... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 23:1

And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old ,.... This following immediately upon the account of the offering up of Isaac, led many of the Jewish writers to conclude, that Isaac was when thirty seven years of age, as he must be when Sarah his mother was one hundred and twenty seven, for he was born when she was ninety years of age; but this seems not to be observed on that account, but to give the sum of her age at her death, since it follows: these were the years of the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 23:2

And Sarah died in Kirjatharba ,.... Which was so called, either, as Jarchi says, from the four Anakims or giants that dwelt here, Joshua 15:13 ; or else, as the same writer observes, from the four couple buried here, Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah; but then it must be so called by anticipation; rather, as Aben Ezra thinks, it had its name from Arba, a great man among the Anakims, and the father of Anak, Joshua 14:15 ; though some take it to be a... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 23:3

And Abraham stood up from before his dead ,.... The corpse of Sarah, by which he sat pensive and mourning, perhaps upon the ground, as was the custom of mourners, Job 1:13 ; where having sat awhile, he rose up and went out of the tent, to provide for the funeral of his wife as became him: and spake unto the sons of Heth ; the descendants of Heth the son of Canaan, see Genesis 10:15 ; who were at this time the inhabitants and proprietors of that part of the land where Abraham now was:... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 23:4

I am a stranger and a sojourner with you ,.... Not a native of the place, only dwelt as a sojourner among them for a time; but had not so much as a foot of ground he could call his own, and consequently had no place to inter his dead: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you ; not that he desired it as a free gift, but that he might be allowed to make a purchase of a piece of ground to bury his dead in; so the Targum of Jonathan,"sell me a possession,' &c.; Genesis 23:9 ;... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 23:5

And the children of Heth answered Abraham ,.... In a very civil and respectful manner: saying unto him , as follows: read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 23:6

Hear us, my lord ,.... One of them spake in the name of the rest, who calls Abraham not "our lord", but "my lord"; addressing him very honourably, and desires he would hear what he had to say on the behalf of others with himself; "hear us", representing not the body of the common people, but the princes among them, the heads of their families: thou art a mighty prince amongst us ; though he was pleased to call himself a stranger and a sojourner, yet they had an high opinion of him, as... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 23:7

And Abraham stood up ,.... For, having made his speech to the children of Heth, he sat down waiting for an answer; or rather perhaps they obliged him to sit down, out of reverence to so great a personage; and when they had done speaking, he rose up: and bowed himself to the people of the land ; the principal of them, in token of the grateful sense he had of the honour they had done him, and of the great civility with which they had used him: even to the children of Heth ; this... read more

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