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Chapter 22
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Genesis, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
God, Humanity, and Creation
Mistrust, Disobedience, and Death
Covenants and Faith in God’s Promises
The Role of Women
Summary
Analysis
Sarah lives for 127 years and dies at Hebron in the land of Canaan. Abraham asks the Hittites, among whom he lives, to let him buy property for a burial place, and they agree, as Abraham is an honored prince. When Abraham seeks to buy a cave on the property of a man named Ephron, Ephron tries to give Abraham the land outright, but they ultimately agree on a price. Then Abraham buries Sarah in the cave of Machpelah, east of Mamre.
Sarah, the matriarch of what will become known as the people of Israel, dies and is buried in the land promised to her offspring. In the ancient world, burial in a place would have been seen as a way of laying claim to it; here, too, Abraham’s negotiation with Ephron shows a person of that land respecting Abraham’s right to bury his dead there.
Themes
