³ he went to the Hittites and said, ^4 (A) “I live as a foreigner in your land, and I don't own any property where I can bury my wife. Please let me buy a piece of land.”

^5-6 “Sir,” they answered, “you are an important man. Choose the best place to bury your wife. None of us would refuse you a resting place for your dead.”

⁷ Abraham bowed down ⁸ and replied, “If you are willing to let me bury my wife here, please ask Zohar's son Ephron ⁹ to sell me Machpelah Cave at the end of his field. I'll pay what it's worth, and all of you can be witnesses.”

¹⁰ Ephron was sitting there near the city gate, when Abraham made this request, and he answered, ¹¹ “Sir, the whole field, including the cave, is yours. With my own people as witnesses, I freely give it to you as a burial place for your dead.”

¹² Once again, Abraham bowed down ¹³ and said to Ephron, “In front of these witnesses, I offer you the full price, so I can bury my wife. Please accept my offer.”

^14-15 “But sir,” the man replied, “the property is worth only 400 pieces of silver. Why should we haggle over such a small amount? Take the land. It's yours.”

^16-18 Abraham accepted Ephron's offer and paid him the 400 pieces of silver in front of everyone at the city gate. That's how Abraham came to own Ephron's property east of Mamre,^[a] which included the field with all of its trees, as well as Machpelah Cave at the end of the field.

^19 (A) The land where he camped was owned by the descendants of Hamor, the father of Shechem. So Jacob paid them 100 pieces of silver^[a] for the property,

^7-9 When Joseph left Goshen with his brothers, his relatives, and his father's relatives to bury Jacob, many of the king's highest officials and even his military chariots and cavalry went along. The Israelites left behind only their children, their cattle, and their sheep and goats.

¹⁰ After crossing the Jordan River, Joseph stopped at Atad's threshing place, where they all mourned and wept seven days for Jacob. ¹¹ The Canaanites saw this and said, “The Egyptians are in great sorrow.” Then they named the place “Egypt in Sorrow.”^[a]

¹² So Jacob's sons did just as their father had instructed. ^13 (A) They took him to Mamre in Canaan and buried him in Machpelah Cave, the burial place Abraham had bought from Ephron the Hittite.

^32 (A) When the people of Israel left Egypt, they brought the bones of Joseph along with them. They took the bones to the town of Shechem and buried them in the field that Jacob had bought for 100 pieces of silver^[a] from Hamor, the founder of Shechem. The town and the field both^[b] became part of the land belonging to the descendants of Joseph.