A location containing a field and a cave, near Hebron, bought from Ephron the Hittite and used as a burial place for Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah.
About Machpelah
Small field of trees and a cave with two chambers near Mamre in the district of Hebron, which was purchased by Abraham as a burial place for Sarah. The seller was Ephron, a Hittite, and the price was 400 shekels of silver (Gn 23:8–19). Later, Abraham (25:9), Isaac and Rebekah (49:30–31), and Jacob (50:13) were buried here.
The details of Abraham’s purchase of Machpelah, if compared with Hittite laws, support the trustworthiness of the story in Genesis 23. Attention is drawn to the number of the trees, the weighing of silver at the current buyer and seller valuation, and the witnesses at the city gate where the transaction was officially made known. All these details are in accordance with Hittite laws, which would have been forgotten after the time of the patriarchs. Coin was not a circulating medium before 700 BC. The implication that the shekel was a weight and not a coin in the time of Abraham also indicates an early date for the story of the purchase.
Key References
The field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites.”
to sell me the cave of Machpelah that belongs to him; it is at the end of his field. Let him sell it to me in your presence for full price, so that I may have a burial site.”
“If you are willing for me to bury my dead,” he said to them, “listen to me, and approach Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf
His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite.
The cave is in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, in the land of Canaan. This is the field Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.
All Scripture References (6)
Genesis (6)
to sell me the cave of Machpelah that belongs to him; it is at the end of his field. Let him sell it to me in your presence for full price, so that I may have a burial site.”
So Ephron’s field at Machpelah near Mamre, the cave that was in it, and all the trees within the boundaries of the field were deeded over
After this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field at Machpelah near Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan.
His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite.
The cave is in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, in the land of Canaan. This is the field Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.
They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave at Machpelah in the field near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.