THE LIFE OF. The word life (chayyim) is always encountered in the plural. We never find it in the singular. [A HUNDRED AND SEVEN AND TWENTY YEARS.] Hebrew usually first lists the larger numbers and then the smaller ones.¹. But we also find the opposite, an example being Scripture’s enumeration of Jacob’s years². Here Scripture lists the smaller numbers first. (Gen. 47:28).

footnotes: ¹ Verse 1 literally reads, And the life of Sarah was a hundred and twenty and seven years ² Gen. 47:28 literally reads, So the days of Jacob, the years of his life were seven years and forty and a hundred years

KIRIATH-ARBA. Arba was the name of one of the great men of the Anakim.³ (Josh. 14:15); even Kiriath-arba, which Arba was the father of Anak (Josh. 15:13). The identification of Arba with Abraham is homiletical,⁴ 14:6. as Abraham was not of that race. When Sarah died Abraham was elsewhere; hence Scripture states, and Abraham came.

footnotes: ³ Cf. Now the name of Hebron beforetime was Kiriath-arba, which Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim ⁴ Bereshit Rabbah

AND TO WEEP FOR HER. The word livkotah is to be rendered to weep for her. And bewail her father (Deut. 21:13)⁵ is made up of two words, livkot (to weep) and the object otah (her). This combination of pronoun and object can only be made with a transitive verb. However, livkotah is intransitive. The meaning of livkotah is thus to weep her, an impossible rendering. Hence I.E. comments that the meaning of our word is to weep for her. He points out that the same is true in Deut. 21:13 (Krinsky). is similar.

footnotes: ⁵ Livkotah

BEFORE HIS DEAD. This alludes to the body.⁶) is in the masculine. However, Sarah was a woman. Thus Scripture should have used the feminine (metato). I.E. explains that dead refers to the body, guf, which is a masculine word (Cherez). [SAYING.] The explanation of this term is found elsewhere in this commentary.⁷

footnotes: ⁶ His dead (meto ⁷ Ex. 19:3, or perhaps in his comments on verse 17 (Weiser).

I AM A STRANGER. When the word stranger (ger) stands by itself, it refers to a transient stranger.

And a sojourner (ve-toshav) means a resident stranger.⁸) is coupled with stranger (ger) it means a resident stranger (Krinsky). Cherez disagrees. He thinks I.E. is only commenting on the word sojourner (toshav). Abraham said to them, “I am a sojourner among you. We are all mortal, I do not have a possession (achuzah) i.e., an inherited or bought piece of land⁹ (to hold). One holds on to land by inheritance or acquisition. Achuzah thus means a holding, the idea being a piece of property with a title. for use as a burial plot.”

footnotes: ⁸ In other words, when sojourner (toshav ⁹ It comes from the root alef, chet, zayin

MY LORD. Not our lord.¹⁰. Since they apparently all spoke we would expect the use of the term our lord. One man spoke. He employed the term my lord because it is impolite to include others when one is speaking as a subordinate.¹¹ does not mean they all spoke in unison. One man spoke on behalf of all. Had they all spoken, Scripture would have read adonenu. It should be noted that the entire verse, with the exception of adoni, is in the plural.

footnotes: ¹⁰ Scripture states, And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying…Hear us, my lord ¹¹ In other words, And the children of Heth answered

A MIGHTY PRINCE. Because thou art a prophet. The term elohim (mighty) is used in the sense of great.¹² (translated by J.P.S. as mighty) usually means God.

footnotes: ¹² The word elohim

SHALL WITHHOLD. Yikhleh means shall withhold.¹³ means to finish (see Gen. 2:1). The root caf, lamed, alef means to withhold (see Gen. 8:2; Ps. 40:12). Yikhleh is spelled with a heh in our verse. Hence I.E. points out that caf, lamed, heh can also mean to withhold. It can be spelled either with a heh or an alef.¹⁴

footnotes: ¹³ The root caf, lamed, heh ¹⁴ Rashi makes the same point.

[AND BOWED DOWN.] I have given the grammatical explanation of this word in The Book of Foundation.¹⁵ Those who say that Abraham bowed down to God speak nonsense.¹⁶ Scripture explicitly states that Abraham bowed to the children of Heth. Bowing means a bending of the head.¹⁷ It is a way of showing reverence. Moses also bowed before his father-in-law.¹⁸

footnotes: ¹⁵ See I.E.’s comments on Gen. 2:17 and the notes thereto. ¹⁶ They are troubled by Abraham bowing before another human being. ¹⁷ Abraham did not prostrate himself. The latter is done in prayer and only before God. He merely bowed his head as a sign of respect. ¹⁸ Ex. 18:7.

THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. A cave within a cave.

FOR THE FULL PRICE. The opposite of male (full) is chaser (lacking).¹⁹ (the full price). The word male means full. The opposite of full is empty (rek). I.E. points out that in our case this does not apply. One cannot say, kesef rek (empty money). However, one can say, chaser kesef (money is lacking). Hence male in our verse means the full amount and it is the opposite of chaser, rather than of rek (Filwarg). Thus kesef male means the full price.

footnotes: ¹⁹ Our verse reads, kesef male

NAY. Not so, my lord, only hear me.²⁰, could conceivably be taken to mean: My lord should not hear me, hence I.E.’s comment (Filwarg).

footnotes: ²⁰ Nay, my lord, hear me

BEFORE THE PEOPLE OF THE LAND. Abraham bowed before Ephron in the presence of the people of the land in order to honor him.

BUT IF THOU WILT, I PRAY THEE, HEAR ME. If you will do this²¹ is short for thou wilt do this, i.e., give me the field. The verse should be interpreted as follows: But if thou wilt give me the field, I pray thee, hear me, I will give the price of the field; take it of me. I pray thee, hear me. Or it may mean, if you will do this, I pray thee, when I will give the price of the field, take it of me.²² (lu) is connected to I will give rather than to hear me as it is in the first explanation. The verse should be interpreted as follows: But if thou wilt give me the field, hear me, I pray thee, when I give the price of the field, take it of me (Cherez).

footnotes: ²¹ According to I.E. if thou wilt ²² According to this interpretation I pray thee

CURRENT MONEY WITH THE MERCHANT. Merchants accept only the best currency.

WERE MADE SURE. The field was made sure and passed permanently into Abraham’s possession. This verse and the one that preceded it are to be read as one verse. Similarly the verse opening with I am a stranger and a sojourner (v. 4) and the verse which precedes it are to be read as one verse. The ten pairs of verses that Saadiah Gaon listed as being in reality one verse are in fact not to be read as one verse.²³

footnotes: ²³ Saadiah Gaon lists 10 pairs of Biblical verses that are to be interpreted as one verse. I.E. disagrees with him. Saadiah’s 10 pairs of verses are enumerated by Krinsky.

[IN THE PRESENCE OF THE CHILDREN OF HETH.] The local inhabitants.

[BEFORE ALL THAT WENT IN AT THE GATE OF HIS CITY.] Those who happened to be passing by.

AND AFTER THIS, ABRAHAM BURIED SARAH HIS WIFE. After the burial of Sarah the field was made sure as a burial ground possession belonging to Abraham and his descendants.²⁴ Scripture tells of the purchase of the field of Machpelah to teach us of the superiority of the land of Israel over all countries, both for the living and the dead. Moreover, it informs us that God’s word to Abraham that he would possess the land as an inheritance was fulfilled.²⁵

footnotes: ²⁴ I.E. points out that verse 20 does not repeat verse 17. The latter states that the field was made sure as a possession, the former that it was made sure as a burial ground for Abraham and his descendants (Filwarg). ²⁵ Abraham now began to take actual possession of the land of Israel (Filwarg).