Sarah's Burial

From Beersheba the clan moved on to Hebron, to the site of the former camp that we have already encountered under the oaks. It was there that Sarah died. The fifth-century scribe says little about the funeral rites on this occasion. Nevertheless, with the help of various details scattered about in other chapters of the Scriptures, it is possible to reconstitute the various phases of that day.

Directly Sarah had breathed her last they closed her eyes as tradition required (Bereshith 46:4); this was done to prevent the soul of the dead person leaving the body and going to prowl dangerously among the living. This action, which as a modern custom is a matter of reverence and devotion, can certainly be explained as a precautionary measure going back to the known origins of humanity; it is to be found in most funeral rites.

Then Abraham tenderly kissed his dead wife. Next, according to custom, the body of the dead woman was dressed in her finest clothes. Abraham, we are told, went in to mourn and grieve for her. In other words the lamentations began (YermeYah 22:18; Koheleth 12:5). To carry out this necessary and noisy function the mourning women were already at their post.

You, there! Call the mourning women! Let them come! Send for those who are best at it! Let them come! Let them lose no time in raising the lament for us! Let our eyes rain tears, our eyelids run in weeping! (YermeYah 9:16-17.)

In the tent the widower remains prostrate before the funeral bier, though this does not prevent his receiving, in deep silence, the visit of relations and friends. To show his sorrow from time to time he may throw himself on the ground (Job 1:20).

Directly death was observed to have taken place Abraham hastened to tear his clothes. The intention was to render oneself unrecognizable to the spirit of the dead wife, for at once after death it might attach itself to objects still in its memory. Moreover, for greater safety the funeral rite required that as soon as possible the tunic should be changed for the coarse garment known as the saq, made from woven goats' hair. It was a kind of loincloth which men and women tied round their waist at times of great sorrow, whether personal or national (Yoel 1: 8; YermeYah 49: 3). As a rule this hair garment was worn next to the skin with or without clothes over it. It was kept on during the night, when it took the place of a blanket. At a later period people were satisfied to wear the saq over the tunic, which was much less uncomfortable.

For the same purpose of setting a barrier between the dead person and the living it was customary to veil the face, and even to roll on the ground, to scatter ashes over the head and to shave off beard and hair. In addition, care was taken to place the hand in front of the mouth and nose so that the soul of the dead person could not penetrate the living body. And to prevent the spirit of the dead recognizing a living person it was custom to disfigure oneself by cuts on the face, though this practice was later forbidden by the Law (Deut. 14:1).

All these customs seem to us like the remote echo of an age-old tradition, or the atavistic memory of a very ancient time in which, among the primitive Semites, the spirits of the dead were regarded as harmful, or at least somewhat dangerous, against which a man had to defend himself by certain precautions. But with time and spiritual progress some of these rites had gradually changed and, well before Abraham's time, they had been transformed into a propitiatory ceremonial.

The climate of the Near East, especially in summer, did not allow of a body being kept for very long in the tent. Generally, within eight hours after decease, the corpse was solemnly taken to its last resting place. It was urgently necessary, therefore, to bury Sarah. Abraham at once set about finding a suitable place for his wife's tomb.

Among all the Semites the burning of bodies was regarded as a profanation. Unlike what was later the rule among the Greeks and the Romans cremation was forbidden among the Hebrews just as it still is nowadays among the Arabs. And so Abraham sought a suitable place for burial. The nomad shepherds, wandering from one pasture to another, did not own any land at all, so that in the circumstances it was necessary to acquire as soon as possible a corner of a field, a piece of ground to be used as a grave, and indeed a family grave. Abraham had already noticed a cave in the neighbourhood of Hebron, a cave known as Machpelah. But why a cave? In the limestone massif, which forms almost the whole of the mountain region of Judaea, underground rivers had hollowed out numerous caverns, which bore every sign of being suitable for transformation into funeral vaults where, in time to come, the dead of the same family could find a resting place.

For Sarah's funeral the whole of the little village of Hebron, and all the farmers of the neighbourhood, had gathered at the gate of Hebron a short distance from the tents of the Hebrew clan. These peasant owners of the fields are called in the Scriptures the 'sons of Heth', that is, the Hittites. This is probably an anachronism, for it is known nowadays that in Abraham's time the Hittites did not yet constitute an ethnic group in the south of Palestine. It is probable that the small tribe here designated was formed of the Hurrites, a non-Semitic people.

Abraham went towards the group of landed proprietors standing before the gate of Hebron and spoke to them in typically oriental style: 'I am a stranger and settler among you,' he said. 'Let me own a burial-plot among you, so that I may take my dead wife and bury her.' The sons of Heth answered Abraham, 'Listen, my Master, you are YAHWEH's prince amongst us; bury your dead in the best of our tombs; not one of us would refuse you his tomb and keep you from burying your dead' (Bereshith 23:4-6). So polite an answer hardly satisfied Abraham. Since the land of Canaan, by the promise of YAHWEH, was in process of becoming Abraham's own, the patriarch felt obliged to show proof of his taking possession; he felt it absolutely necessary to establish somewhere in the Promised land (and why not in Hebron?) a holy place where his descendants would be able to gather together during their earthly existence, but also and more especially after their death. In short he felt it important to obtain a valid title of ownership to that part of the land where he had camped for so long.

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