Genesis 23:3-6

"And Abraham rose up from before his dead, and spake unto the children of Heth, saying, I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, Hear us, my lord; thou art a prince of God among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; and none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead."

"Spake unto the children of Heth ..." "These were descended from Heth, one of the sons of Canaan, that group as a whole being called the Hittites."[11] Francisco, however, alleged that, "These Hittites are of uncertain origin; we can only be sure that the were not Canaanites."[12] The view of Whitelaw is preferable, because it harmonizes with Genesis 10:15, which has this: "And Canaan begat Heth." It is most reasonable that the sons of Heth in this passage refer to the descendants of the Heth who was the son of Canaan.

"I am a stranger and a sojourner ..." By this, Abraham pointed out that he was a "resident alien"[13] without any legal rights to own property. The expression "stranger and sojourner" is an idiomatic expression for "resident alien."

Abraham's reason for bringing the matter of the purchase of a burying-place to the attention of his neighbors in Hebron was founded in the custom invariably followed in those times of using a mediator, or go-between, in any kind of a commercial transaction.

"This is the first mention of a grave in the Bible."[14] The disposal of dead bodies by the rite of honorable entombment has been a characteristic of the Jews of all ages, according to the Roman historian, Tacitus. And indeed, civilized men, generally, all over the earth have preferred burial to cremation as a method of disposing of bodies of the dead.

The children of Heth responded in a most friendly manner to Abraham's proposal, offering him the choice of any of their sepulchres, but Abraham could not bury Sarah in a borrowed grave belonging to a Canaanite!

"Thou art a prince of God among us ..." The righteous nobility of Abraham shines in such a compliment. The heathen populations knew that he was God's man. And moved with sympathy for him, they offered him their burying-places. Kline commented that: "The fact that the Abrahamic community was God's protectorate was commonly known; and this community was sizeable and its leader wealthy."[15]