What Does Genesis 23:6 Mean?
Hear us, my lord. You are a lifted one of God among us. In the choicest of our graves bury your dead. None of us will hold back his grave from you, so that you may 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
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.THE KEY
The “prince” is literally one lifted up, yet his honor becomes tangible when others open their graves to his dead.
THE MEANING
When death leaves you needing a place for someone you love, this verse gives that need room in another’s ground. The people around you recognize you as one of stature and make their graves available so your dead can be buried.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that being a stranger leaves you nowhere to lay your dead is undone by a community that opens its own burial places to you.
THE ROOT
נְשִׂיא
nasi
GROWS FROM
נָשָׂא
נָשָׂא (nasa) means to lift, carry, or bear.
“lifted one” in this verse is nasi. The title נְשִׂיא (nasi, prince or chief) grows from נָשָׂא (nasa, lift or carry), so it pictures someone raised up among others. Here that standing is answered with a place for his dead.
ALSO GROWS
nasa: To lift, carry, or bear.
נָשָׂא
The root verb makes the image inside “prince” visible: he is one lifted up among the people.
massa: A burden or load.
מַשָּׂא
The same root can name what is carried, joining being lifted up with bearing weight.
קְבֹר
qevor
GROWS FROM
קָבַר
קָבַר (qabar) means to bury.
“graves” in this verse is qevor. The Hebrew repeats the קבר (q-b-r) root in both “sepulchres” and “bury.” English gives us separate words for the place and the act; Hebrew holds them together as one movement from grave to burial.
ALSO GROWS
qeber: A grave or tomb.
קֶבֶר
This is the kind of place the people offer when they say Abraham may bury his dead.
qevurah: Burial.
קְבוּרָה
The shared root binds the offered grave to the act of laying the dead there.
יִכְלֶה
yikhleh
GROWS FROM
כָּלָא
כָּלָא (kala) means to restrain, shut in, or hold back.
“hold back” in this verse is yikhleh. The word translated “withhold” carries the sense of restraining or shutting away. The offer is framed as an opening: no one closes access to a grave against you.
ALSO GROWS
kala: To restrain or hold back.
כָּלָא
This is the root verb behind the refusal to hold back a burial place.
kele: A prison or confinement.
כֶּלֶא
This related word for confinement sharpens the contrast with a grave made available.
THE PATTERN
Hospitality gives a stranger a concrete place within what another person can offer.
Hear us, my lord. You are a lifted one of God among us. In the choicest of our graves bury your dead. None of us will hold back his grave from you, so that you may bury your dead.He executes judgment for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him bread and a cloak.Do not let slip the opening of your home to strangers, for by it some have sheltered messengers without knowing it.THE THREAD
I am a stranger, one who has sat down among you. Give me a holding of a grave among you, that I may bury my dead from before my face.This verse names Abraham as a stranger asking for a burial place; the reply offers him access to the community’s graves. The Hebrew repeats the קבר (qabar, bury) root in “buryingplace” and “bury,” binding the place to the act of laying the dead down.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us