22:3 In the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, the king sent the scribe Shaphan son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, to the Lord’s temple with these orders: ¹ 

23:5 The sons of Heth answered Abraham, ⁶  23:6 “Listen, sir, ⁷  you are a mighty prince ⁸  among us! You may bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb to prevent you ⁹  from burying your dead.”

23:7 Abraham got up and bowed down to the local people, ¹⁰  the sons of Heth. 23:8 Then he said to them, “If you agree ¹¹  that I may bury my dead, ¹²  then hear me out. ¹³  Ask ¹⁴  Ephron the son of Zohar 23:9 if he will sell ¹⁵  me the cave of Machpelah that belongs to him; it is at the end of his field. Let him sell it to me publicly ¹⁶  for the full price, ¹⁷  so that I may own it as a burial site.”

23:10 (Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth.) Ephron the Hethite ¹⁸  replied to Abraham in the hearing ¹⁹  of the sons of Heth – before all who entered the gate ²⁰  of his city – 23:11 “No, my lord! Hear me out. I sell ²¹  you both the field and the cave that is in it. ²²  In the presence of my people ²³  I sell it to you. Bury your dead.”

23:12 Abraham bowed before the local people 23:13 and said to Ephron in their hearing, “Hear me, if you will. I pay ²⁴  to you the price ²⁵  of the field. Take it from me so that I may ²⁶  bury my dead there.”

23:14 Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, 23:15 “Hear me, my lord. The land is worth ²⁷  400 pieces of silver, ²⁸  but what is that between me and you? So bury your dead.”

23:16 So Abraham agreed to Ephron’s price ²⁹  and weighed ³⁰  out for him ³¹  the price ³²  that Ephron had quoted ³³  in the hearing of the sons of Heth – 400 pieces of silver, according to the standard measurement at the time. ³⁴ 

23:17 So Abraham secured ³⁵  Ephron’s field in Machpelah, next to Mamre, including the field, the cave that was in it, and all the trees that were in the field and all around its border, 23:18 as his property in the presence of the sons of Heth before all who entered the gate of Ephron’s city. ³⁶ 

23:19 After this Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah next to Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 23:20 So Abraham secured the field and the cave that was in it as a burial site ³⁷  from the sons of Heth.