³ Then he left the side of his deceased wife and addressed the Hittites:^{[a] 4} “Although I am a resident alien^[b] among you, sell me from your holdings a burial place, that I may bury my deceased wife.”^{(A) 5} The Hittites answered Abraham: “Please, ⁶ sir, listen to us! You are a mighty leader among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our burial sites. None of us would deny you his burial ground for the burial of your dead.” ⁷ Abraham, however, proceeded to bow low before the people of the land, the Hittites, ⁸ and said to them: “If you will allow me room for burial of my dead, listen to me! Intercede for me with Ephron, son of Zohar, ⁹ so that he will sell me the cave of Machpelah that he owns; it is at the edge of his field. Let him sell it to me in your presence at its full price for a burial place.”

¹⁰ Now Ephron was sitting with the Hittites. So Ephron the Hittite replied to Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, all who entered the gate of his city: ¹¹ “Please, sir, listen to me! I give you both the field and the cave in it; in the presence of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead!” ¹² But Abraham, after bowing low before the people of the land, ¹³ addressed Ephron in the hearing of these men: “If only you would please listen to me! I will pay you the price of the field. Accept it from me, that I may bury my dead there.” ¹⁴ Ephron replied to Abraham, “Please, ¹⁵ sir, listen to me! A piece of land worth four hundred shekels^[c] of silver—what is that between you and me? Bury your dead!” ^16 (B)Abraham accepted Ephron’s terms; he weighed out to him the silver that Ephron had stipulated in the hearing of the Hittites, four hundred shekels of silver at the current market value.^[d]

^17 (C)Thus Ephron’s field in Machpelah, facing Mamre, together with its cave and all the trees anywhere within its limits, was conveyed ¹⁸ to Abraham by purchase in the presence of the Hittites, all who entered the gate of Ephron’s city. ¹⁹ After this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre—now Hebron—in the land of Canaan. ²⁰ Thus the field with its cave was transferred from the Hittites to Abraham as a burial place.

¹⁹ The plot of ground on which he had pitched his tent he bought for a hundred pieces of money^[a] from the descendants of Hamor, the father of Shechem.^(A)

²⁹ Then he gave them this charge: “Since I am about to be gathered to my people, bury me with my ancestors in the cave that lies in the field of Ephron the Hittite, ³⁰ the cave in the field of Machpelah, facing on Mamre, in the land of Canaan, the field that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite for a burial ground.^(A)

¹³ They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, facing on Mamre, the field that Abraham had bought for a burial ground from Ephron the Hittite.^(A)

^32 (A)The bones of Joseph,^[a] which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried in Shechem in the plot of ground Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor, father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of money. This was a heritage of the descendants of Joseph.