Genesis 23:7

Then Abraham got down on his knees in front of the Heth people, to show them respect.

Plain English Version

In The King James Version

And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth.

In Context

6“Sir, we know that you are a great leader for your people, and we respect you a lot. We want you to use one of our best graves to bury your wife. Yes, you can pick any grave you want, and we will let you use it to bury your wife.”

8He said to them, “Thank you for saying that you will help me bury my wife. There is a cave in your country that I want to use for a grave. You know the man called Efron, the son of Zohar. He’s one of you Heth people. He has some land in the place called Makpelah, and there’s a cave in the rock at one end of that land. I want to put my wife’s body in that cave. Can you ask Efron if I can buy that cave? I want to pay him the full price for it. And you can all watch me buy that cave from him. Then it will belong to me, and I can put my wife’s body there.”

Read all of Genesis 23

Cross References

Genesis 18:2and he looked up and saw 3 men standing nearby. He got up quickly, and he ran to meet them, and he got down on his knees and put his face near the ground to show them respect.

Genesis 23:12Then Abraham got down on his knees again in front of the Heth people, to show them respect.

Matthew Henry on Genesis 23:4-16

The Cave of Machpelah. ( b. c. 1857.) 3 And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, 4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. 5 And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, 6 Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead. 7 And… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Genesis 23:7