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Venerdi, 29 marzo 2024 - Santi Simplicio e Costantino ( Letture di oggi)

Genesis 23


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1The length of Sarah's life was a hundred and twenty-seven years.2She died at Kiriath-Arba -- now Hebron -- in the land of Canaan, and Abraham proceeded to mournand bewail her.3Then rising from beside his dead, Abraham spoke to the Hittites,4'I am a stranger resident here,' he said. 'Let me have a burial site of my own here, so that I canremove my dead for burial.'5The Hittites replied to Abraham,6'Please listen to us, my lord, we regard you as a prince of God; bury your dead in the best of ourtombs; not one of us would refuse you his tomb for you to bury your dead.'7At this, Abraham rose and bowed low to the local people, the Hittites,8and pleaded with them as fol ows, 'If you consent to my removing my dead for burial, you must agreeto intercede for me with Ephron son of Zohar,9for him to let me have the cave he owns at Machpelah, which is on the edge of his field. Let him sel itto me in your presence at its ful price, for a burial site of my own.'10Now Ephron was sitting among the Hittites, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearingof the Hittites, of al the inhabitants of his town.11'No, my lord, listen to me,' he said. 'I give you the field and the cave in it; I make this gift in thepresence of my kinsmen. Bury your dead.'12Abraham bowed low to the local people13and, in the hearing of the local people, replied to Ephron as fol ows, 'Be good enough to listen to me.I shal pay the price of the field; accept it from me and I shal bury my dead there.'14Ephron replied to Abraham,15'Please listen to me, my lord. What is a plot of land for four hundred shekels of silver between meand you? Bury your dead.'16Abraham agreed to Ephron's terms, and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver he hadstipulated in the hearing of the Hittites, namely four hundred shekels of silver, according to the currentcommercial rate.17Thus Ephron's field at Machpelah, facing Mamre -- the field and the cave in it and al the treesanywhere within the boundaries of the field -- passed18into Abraham's possession in the sight of the Hittites, of al the inhabitants of his town.19And after this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre --now Hebron -- in the land of Canaan.20And so the field and the cave in it passed from the Hittites into Abraham's possession as a burial siteof his own.