Bible Strands
Genesis 23:4
“I am a foreigner and an outsider among you. Give me a burial site among you so that I can bury my dead.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Abraham rises from beside his deceased wife Sarah and speaks directly to the Hittites, requesting legal permission to purchase a plot for her interment. He frames the request by declaring his non-native status in the land.
The words — The text employs גֵּר (ger), literally “sojourner,” and תּוֹשָׁב (to.shav), literally “resident alien,” to describe Abraham’s legal standing among the local population. These terms function as technical designations for temporary settlement rather than permanent citizenship.
The thread — The same sojourner designation appears in 1 Chronicles 29:15 and Hebrews 11:9 to describe the transient status of Israel and the patriarchs. Genesis 17:8 immediately contrasts this temporary dwelling with the promise of eternal land possession for his descendants.
Why it lands — The verse establishes that spiritual promise does not override civil property law or burial customs. It requires readers to honor legal boundaries and secure written agreements when claiming rights in a foreign land.
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
I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.
Cross-references
- 1 Chronicles 29:15 For we are foreigners and strangers in Your presence, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.
- Hebrews 11:9 By faith he dwelt in the promised land as a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
- Genesis 17:8 And to you and your descendants I will give the land where you are residing—all the land of Canaan—as an eternal possession; and I will be their God.”
- Psalms 119:19 I am a stranger on the earth; do not hide Your commandments from me.
- Genesis 49:30 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.
- Leviticus 25:23 The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me.
- Psalms 39:12 Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping. For I am a foreigner dwelling with You, a stranger like all my fathers.
- Acts 7:5 He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised to give possession of the land to Abraham and his descendants, even though he did not yet have a child.
- Hebrews 11:13 All these people died in faith, without having received the things they were promised. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
- 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.”