Genesis 23

Chap. XXIII. Ver. 1—20. Death and burial of Sarah.— Dr. Clarke remarks, that ‘Sarah is the only woman in the sacred writings whose age, death, and burial, are distinctly noted;” and, certainly, though not without her faults, she merited an honourable distinction, and is therefore enrolled also in the list of worthies in the Epistle to the Hebrews. “Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.” ((Hebrews 11:11).): ‘Abraham also discovers a suitable regard to the object of his affection: he came to her tent to mourn and weep for her; and afterwards he rises and addresses the sons of Heth, offering to purchase a sepulchre wherein to bury her.

In this treaty we may notice the courtesy of the children of Heth, though Canaanites, and the high respect with which they treat Abraham, as a prince among them, though he calls himself only “a stranger and sojourner.” ‘The treaty also appears to be conducted with great decorum, and with all the due forms of those early ages, and paid for on the spot. Dr. Clarke (and not without reason) compares this treaty with the celebrated one between William Penn and the American Indians, for the district of Pemarrara as conducted on similar principles, and with like [ceremony]. The bargain completed, Abraham buries his dead out of his sight, in the cave of the field of Machpelah, and leaves the [place] sufficiently ascertained as a family vault or cave.

Here also Abraham himself was buried; Isaac and his wife Rebekah; Jacob and his wife Leah, and perhaps others of the family, of whom we have no particular account. ((Genesis 25:9). xlix. 31. l. 13.) “The Patriarchs hereby (says Ainsworth) testifying their faith in the promises of God, for the inheritance of this land, and of life eternal signified thereby,” Henry also remarks on this circumstance, that the first spot of ground Abraham possessed in Canaan was a burying-place, and, indeed, the only spot: though the whole was assigned to him in reversion by “the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth.”

Notes on the verses

Chap. XXIII. Ver. 2. Came to mourn.—{For the convenience of feeding his numerous flocks, it is probable that Abraham had several places of temporary residence; and it is likely, that while he sojourned at Beersheba, as we find he did from ver. 19. of the preceding chapter, Sarah died at Hebron, which was 24 miles distant; and his ‘‘coming to mourn,” &c. signifies his coming from the former to the latter place. |—Bagster. Ver. 3. Stood up.—{From this it seems, that in Abraham’s time, persons when they mourned, sat on the ground, as it is certain they did in after ages. ((Isaiah 47:1).)—Bagster. Ver. 6. “A prince of God,” or of the Elohim. Ver. 6. 4 ‘teased prince. —Hebrew, ‘Ainsworth interprets the expression to mean, not only “a mighty,”

but “a holy Thien preferred and advanced of God.” So Abimelech acknowledged that God was with Abraham, (Genesis 21:22). Ver. 10. Dwelt among—(or sitting, as the word frequently denotes, among the children of Heth, at the gate of the city, where all public business was transacted. Ephron, though probably a chief man, might have been personally unknown to Abraham; but now he answers for himself, making a free tender of the field and cave to Abraham, in the presence of all the people which amounted to a legal conveyance of all the property to the Patriarch. ] — Bagster. Ver. 15. Four hundred shekels.—{Though the words ‘is worth” are not in the Text, yet they are clearly implied, and necessarily expressed, to adapt the Hebrew to the English idiom.

A shekel, according to the general opinion, was equal in value to about $0.55 of our money; but according to Dr. Prideaux, $0.66; 400 of which, according to the former estimate, would amount to about $222.22; and according to the latter, $266.66. In those early times, money was given in weight; for, it is said, (ver. 16.) that “‘Abraham WEIGHED,” wayishkal the silver; and hence, we find that it was a certain weight which afterwards passed as a current coin; for the word shekel is not only used to denote a piece of silver, but also to weigh. The practice of weighing money is general in Syria, Egypt, and throughout Turkey. No piece, however effaced, is refused there. |— Bagster. Ver. 19. Field of Machpelah.—The word signifies double, and the Vulgate takes it in the sense of a double cave; though others derive it from the Arabic, as signifying “enclosed, or walled up,”

to secure it from being plundered.—Calmet’s Dict. This appears to have been indeed a secluded spot, in the midst of a grove of trees; and ‘all the borders around,” were probably fences, to keep off cattle, &c. For the primitive modes of conveying and, see also (Ruth 4:7-10). (Jeremiah 32:7-14).

Chap. XXIV. Ver. 1. Well stricken in age.—The Hebrew phrase, as in the margin, is, “‘gone into days;” not unlike our expression, “much in years.” Ver. 2. Put thy hand under my thigh.—The same form was required of Joseph by his father Jacob, (Genesis 47:29). and seems to refer clearly to the covenant of circumcision, and to the promise that from his loins, or thigh, (the part circumcised,) a numerous posterity should arise.

See (Genesis 16:26). Ver. 4. Take a wife unto my son Isaac.—“A young person in Bengal is like Isaac; he has nothing to do in the choice of his wife. Parents employ others to seek wives for their sons.” —Ward’s Hindoos. So among the ancient Greeks, Achilles being offered his choice of the three daughters of Agamemnon, said his father Peleus would give him a wife. Ver. 7. Send his angel. See (Exodus 23:20), Ver. 11. He made his camels to kneel down.—Dr. Shaw thus describes the manner of his resting at night; ‘‘Our camels were made to kneel down in a circle about us, with their faces looking from us, and their respective loads, or saddles, placed behind them.”—Preface to ‘Travels. The time that women go out to draw water,”—Margin, that ‘women which draw water go out.”

Rauwolf, a German, who visited these countries two centuries and a half ago, stopping at Orfa, says, “This town is supposed by some to have been formerly called Haran, from which the holy patriarch, with Sarah and Lot, removed;” and mentions a well, still called Abraham’s well, where his servant first met Rebekah, and of which he drank. Niebuhr, however, places Haran two day’s journey S. S. W. from Orfa, where he found this well, and drank of it; so little certainty is there of the situation of these holy places. The circumstance, however, of young women being employed to water cattle, &c. is confirmed by the latter traveller. The same custom prevailed in ancient Greece. Homer represents Minerva meeting Ulysses, as the sun was going down, under the form of a Phecian virgin, carrying a pitcher of water, that being the time when the maidens were out to draw water.

Ver. 22. Ear-ring.—{Or, jewel for the forehead. (Exodus 32:2). 3. 19—23. (Ezekiel 16:11-12). From the word being in the singular number, it is not likely to have been an ear-ring; nor is it very probable that it was a ‘jewel for the forehead,” but rather, ‘a jewel for the nose, a nosering,” which is in universal use throughout all parts of Arabia and Persia, particularly among young women. It is very properly translated “an ornament for the nose,” by Symmachus; and Sir John Chardin informs us, that “it is a custom, in almost all the East, for the women to wear rings in their noses, in the left nostril, which is bored low down in the middle. These rings are of gold, and have commonly two pearls and one ruby between, placed in the ring.

I never saw a girl or young woman in Arabia or in all Persia, who did not wear a ring after this manner in her nostril.” To the same purpose Thevenot, D’Arvieux, Mandelslo, Paul Lucas, Niebuhr, and others. Bracelets—The word rendered “bracelet,” from a root which signifies “to join or couple together,” may imply whatever may clasp round the arms or legs; for rings and ornaments are worn round both by females. The small part of the leg and the whole arm, in India and Persia, from the shoulder to the wrist, are generally decorated in this way. As these were given Rebekah for ‘her hands,” it sufficiently distinguishes them from (Isaiah 3)similar ornaments for the ankles. —Bagster. Ten shekels weight of gold.— Taking the shekel of gold at $8.09, according to Dr.

Prideaux and the gold at $17.75 per oz., the total value of ten shekels and a half is $85. The weight of the ornaments thus put upon Rebekah appears extraordinary; but Chardin assures us that even heavier were worn by the women of the East when he was there. They are rather manacles than bracelets. Ver. 28. Her mother’s house.—[Some have conjectured from this, that her father Bethuel was dead; and the person called Bethuel, (ver. 50.) was a younger brother. This is possible; but, as Dr. A. Clarke remarks, the mother’s house might be mentioned were even the father alive; for in Asiatic countries, the women have apartments entirely separate from those of the men, in which their little children and grown-up daughters reside with them.

This was probably the case here; though, from the whole narrative, it is very probable that Bethuel was dead, as the whole business appears to be conducted by Rebekah’s brothers. }—Bagster. Ver. 32. Straw.—[Straw, by the eastern mode of threshing, was cut or shattered and reduced to a kind of chaff. With this, - Segomwey mixed with