What Does Genesis 23:11 Mean?
No, my lord, hear me. The field I give to you, and the cave that is in it I give to you. Before the eyes of the sons of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead.THE KEY
The repeated verb “give” makes burial space a public transfer, giving grief a place in the world of the living.
THE MEANING
Grief has a physical need: the dead require a place, and care can meet that need by making space. Here the offer is spoken before witnesses, giving mourning a visible place in the shared world.
THE ROOT
נָתַן
natan
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
To give, put, or place.
“give” in this verse is natan. The verb appears three times, so the offer is more than a passing courtesy: the field and cave are explicitly placed in Abraham’s hands before witnesses. Its branches carry both the act of giving and the gift itself.
ALSO GROWS
natan: To give or set something in place.
נָתַן
The repeated verb makes the burial place a clearly stated transfer.
mattanah: A gift or thing given.
מַתָּנָה
This branch shows how the same root names both giving and what is given.
קְבֹר
qevor
GROWS FROM
קבר
q-b-r
To bury; to place in a grave.
The same root names the act of burial and the grave itself. English separates “bury” from “grave,” while Hebrew keeps the action and its resting place within one word family.
ALSO GROWS
qeber: A grave or tomb.
קֶבֶר
The verb “bury” in this verse leads directly to the place named by its root-family.
qevurah: Burial or the act of burying.
קְבוּרָה
This branch keeps the act of laying the dead to rest close to the grave where they are laid.
THE PATTERN
The living make grief concrete by giving the dead a place and carrying them there.
For his sons lifted 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 holding of a grave of Ephron the Hittite, facing Mamre.So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews' day of preparation, for the tomb was near at hand.And reverent men carried Stephen to his burial, and beat their breasts over him in great mourning.THE THREAD
And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre, which is Hebron in the land of Canaan.The same root, קבר (q-b-r), appears in both verses: here burial is offered, and in 23:19 Sarah is buried in the cave. The repeated root binds the promised place to its use.
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