Place
Machpelah
The cave-tomb Abraham bought — the patriarchs' burial ground and their only owned foothold in the land.
Where it is
- Region
- Hebron
Machpelah in Scripture
6 verses name it — all of them- Genesis 23:9that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field; for the full price let him give it to me in the midst of you for a possession of a burying-place.
- Genesis 23:17So the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the border thereof round about, were made sure
- Genesis 23:19And 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.
- Genesis 25:9And Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre;
- Genesis 49:30in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place.
- Genesis 50:13for his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field, for a possession of a burying-place, of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.
The account
Abraham purchases the cave of Machpelah from Ephron to bury Sarah (Gen 23); it becomes the tomb of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their wives — the family's sole deeded possession in Canaan.