Bible Strands
Genesis 23:19
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.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator records Abraham’s action immediately after the Hittites formally transfer legal title to the field at the city gate.
The words — The verb קָבַר (kaVar) literally means "he buried," while the temporal marker אַחֲרֵי (achaRei) indicates the sequence following the completed transaction.
The thread — The cave becomes a family tomb where Isaac and Ishmael later bury Abraham (Genesis 25:9) and where Jacob returns to his patriarchal lineage (Genesis 35:27). This physical interment also mirrors the broader scriptural pattern of human mortality and return to the ground (Genesis 3:19).
Why it lands — The text establishes Abraham’s legal ownership of Canaan through the purchase of a burial plot, grounding the patriarchal promise in tangible property. It requires the reader to recognize that covenant fulfillment begins with securing a permanent resting place for the dead.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan.
Cross-references
- Genesis 3:19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground—because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
- Genesis 25:9 His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite.
- Genesis 35:27 Jacob returned to his father Isaac at Mamre, near Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.
- Genesis 47:30 but when I lie down with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me with them.” Joseph answered, “I will do as you have requested.”
- Genesis 49:29 Then Jacob instructed them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite.
- Genesis 50:13 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.
- Genesis 50:25 And Joseph made the sons of Israel take an oath and said, “God will surely attend to you, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.”
- Job 30:23 Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.
- Ecclesiastes 6:3 A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.
- Ecclesiastes 12:5 when men fear the heights and dangers of the road, when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper loses its spring, and the caper berry shrivels—for then man goes to his eternal home and mourners walk the streets.