Genesis Chapter 23

1 Sarah lived longer than she was supposed to.

2 She died somewhere in Canaan.  Her death didn’t really bother Abraham much.  He went to where her body was lying, and there he nudged her with his foot to make sure she was finally dead.

3 Then Abraham called over one of his friends, he said;

4 “I suppose I have to bury her now, she was my wife afterall.”

5 The man replied to Abraham

6 “I have a cousin with a great piece of property.  Fit for a King, or perhaps a Queen yes?  I’m sure price is no object, he would be happy to sell it to you, and maybe a small finders fee for me yes?  It has a lovely view of the ocean, it is dark, but dry and has a big lovely white stone to seal it with.”

7 Then Abraham rubbed his chin considering the proposal

8 He said to them; “Well I suppose she was my Queen, but maybe something less scenic?  What about Zoltan’s son Ephron?”

9 “Doesn’t he have that cave in the middle of the swamp?  You think he’d sell it to me?”

10 Ephron was there at the time.

11 He replied to Abraham; “I’m saving that for my Mother-in-law.”

12 Abraham cursed and turned back to the first guy.

13 “Ok, what is this place going to cost me?”

14 The first guy replied;

15 “I’m not sure if it’s for sale any longer, good caves are hard to come by these days.”

16 Abraham restrained himself from strangling the man through sheer force of will.  “But just a few minutes ago you were trying to sell it to me.”  The man shrugged, “A lot can happen in a few minutes.”  Abraham called up his slaves with his silver getting the impression this was going to be quite costly.

17  In the end Abraham paid the price with a hefty finders fee.

18 He wasn’t happy about it, but he didn’t want to look bad in front of the others.

19 Then Abraham buried his wife in the cave he had bought

20 And locked her in with a giant stone, he didn’t want her coming back.  Then he did a little happy dance and ran off to have some guilt free fun with his male slaves.

Commentary:

Isn’t much to say here, nothing really happened.  I commend the guy that milked Abraham for everything he was worth – its too bad he didn’t have a friend in the crowd offering to bid higher and higher for the property, after all those gifts Abraham couldn’t have been as broke as he made out.