#Genesis 23

Abraham buys a burial site.

Why does Abraham basically negotiate against himself for the entire chapter? The Hittites are giving him the land to bury Sarah, but he insists on paying in full. Three times they do this dance.

It’s not just that Abraham is bad at haggling. It’s that he knows that a piece of land purchased will be his, and his family’s, forever. Land given can be taken away. This will be the family tomb, where Sarah, Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, Leah, and Jacob are to be buried (Gen 49:31).

And while J has Abraham build altars to mark his territory, and E has the patriarchs setting up trees and pillars and altars all over, P has the ancestors purchase a burial plot - because nothing says “this is our family’s land” more than ancestral graves.

Graves going back generations are the ultimate proof of possession; care for the graves of one’s ancestors is the sign of continuous residence, and a guarantee that those ancestors will help preserve one’s possession of the land in question.

The funniest moment in this chapter comes, of course, when Ephron is ostensibly refusing to take Abraham’s money, but also lets slip how much money it would take: “What’s four hundred shekels between friends?” Ephron knows what’s up.

This text is somewhat meta: it’s not just Abraham ensuring possession of this land in the world of the story. The story itself, in its unnecessary detail, is like a narrative claim on the land for the reader. It’s a written record of an oral contract, proof of ownership.

The irony is that once Israel gets trapped in Egypt, and we shift from the ancestral stories to the Exodus, all the claims about that site simply vanish. It will never be mentioned again; its existence is meaningless for Israel’s claims to the land when they return.