World English Bible · The patriarchs
Genesis 23
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1 lived one hundred twenty-seven years. This was the length of life. in (also called ), in the land of . came to mourn for , and to weep for her. rose up from before his and spoke to the children of , saying, "I am a and a living with you. Give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my out of my sight." 5The children of answered , saying to him, "Hear us, my . You are a prince of among us. Bury your in the best of our . None of us will withhold from you his . Bury your ." rose up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, to the children of . He talked with them, saying, "If you agree that I should bury my out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me to the son of , that he may sell me the cave of , which he has, which is in the end of his field. For the full price let him sell it to me among you as a possession for a ." Now was sitting in the middle of the children of . the answered in the hearing of the children of , even of all who went in at the of his city, saying, "No, my , hear me. I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the of the children of my people I give it to you. Bury your ." bowed himself down before the people of the land. He spoke to in the audience of the people of the land, saying, "But if you will, please hear me. I will give the price of the field. Take it from me, and I will bury my there." 14 answered , saying to him, "My , listen to me. What is a piece of land worth four hundred of silver between me and you? Therefore bury your ." listened to . weighed to the silver which he had named in the hearing of the children of , four hundred of silver, according to the current merchants' standard. So the field of , which was in , which was before , the field, the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all of its borders, were deeded to for a possession in the of the children of , before all who went in at the of his city. After this, buried his wife in the cave of the field of before (that is, ), in the land of . The field, and the cave that is in it, were deeded to by the children of as a possession for a .
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The world at this moment · The patriarchs, 2000 BC to 1600 BC ›
Abraham's family as herdsmen among settled Canaanite city-states, in a world where Egypt and Mesopotamia are the great powers and Canaan is the corridor between them.
- Mesopotamia
- Abraham's own century is Hammurabi's. The great empire of Ur has already fallen, and Babylon rises under a king who published a law code on a stone pillar for everyone to see. Reading Genesis alongside Hammurabi's laws is illuminating in both directions: some provisions are strikingly similar, and the places where Israel's later law diverges are the places worth stopping at.
- Egypt
- The Middle Kingdom, wealthy, bureaucratic, and organised around the Nile flood. Egyptian tomb paintings from this period show Semitic traders arriving with donkeys and striped cloaks, which is more or less the picture Genesis gives of a family going down to Egypt in a famine. Toward the end of the era the Hyksos, rulers of Semitic origin, take the delta.
- Anatolia and the Aegean
- Assyrian merchants run a long-distance trading colony at Kanesh in Anatolia, leaving thousands of clay letters about copper, tin, and debt. On Crete the Minoan palaces are at their height, with plumbing, frescoes, and a script nobody has yet read.
- Further afield
- The Indus Valley cities are in decline after centuries of grid-planned streets and drains. In China the Erlitou culture is building the first palace complexes. Stonehenge is standing and already old.
All of Genesis