Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron, et appendit Abraham (continued)
COMMENTARY ON GENESIS
17. And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was be-
17. Et confirmatus est ager Ephron, qui erat in spelunca duplici, qui erat coram Mamre: ager et spelunca, quae erat in eo, et omnis arbor, quae erat in agro, quae erat in omni termino ejus per circuitum: fore Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders round about, were made sure
18. Unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city.
18. Ipsi Abraham in possessionem, in oculis filiorum Heth, omnium ingredientum portam civitatis ejus.
19. And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan.
19. Et postea sepelivit Abraham Sarah uxorem suam in spelunca agri duplici coram Mamre: haec est Hebron in terra Chenaan.
20. And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a buryingplace by the sons of Heth.
20. Et confirmatus est ager, et spelunca que erat in eo, ipsi Abraham in haereditatem sepulchri a filiis Heth.
1. And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old450 It is remarkable that Moses, who relates the death of Sarah in a single word, uses so many in describing her burial: but we shall soon see that the latter record is not superfluous. Why he so briefly alludes to her death, I know not, except that he leaves more to be reflected upon by his readers than he expresses. The holy fathers saw that they in common with reprobates, were subject to death. Nevertheless, they were not deterred, While painfully leading a life full of suffering, from advancing with intrepidity towards the goal. Whence it follows, that they, being animated by the hope of a better life, did not give way to fatigue. Moses says that Sarah lived a hundred and twenty-seven years, and since he repeats the word years after each of the numbers, the Jews feign that this was done because she had been as beautiful in her hundredth, as in her twentieth year, and as modest in the flower of her age, as when she was seven years old. This is their custom; while 450Literally, "The lives of Sarah were a hundred years, and twenty years, and seven years."