I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.

GENESIS 23:4KJV
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Genesis 23:4 (KJV)

What does Genesis 23:4 mean?

Genesis 23:4 shows Abraham asking the local people for a permanent burial place for his wife, Sarah. Though he lives among them, he approaches them as someone from outside their community and asks them to let him obtain land for her burial.

Abraham speaks to the sons of Heth after mourning Sarah’s death. His phrase “out of my sight” describes the immediate need to lay her body to rest. His request turns his grief toward the practical matter of finding a place to bury her.

The Hebrew behind Genesis 23:4

  • “stranger” — גֵּר (ger): The word often refers to a person living among people who are not their own. Abraham describes himself as a resident among the sons of Heth, but not as one of them.
  • “possession” — אֲחֻזָּה (aḥuzzah): The word can mean property held as one’s own. Abraham is asking for a burial place he can possess, not merely permission to use a spot for the moment.
  • “sight” — פָּנִים (panim): The word often means “face” or “presence.” Here the phrase pictures removing Sarah’s body from Abraham’s presence for burial.

Why Genesis 23:4 matters

  • Abraham’s request concerns a particular piece of land, not a general invitation to live in the area. Later, he asks for the cave of Machpelah and offers to pay its full price (verse 9).
  • The people’s reply shows that Abraham’s outsider status does not mean they dismiss him. They call him “a mighty prince among us” and offer him a choice of their burial places (verse 6).
  • The request leads to a recorded purchase. Abraham weighs out silver for the field and cave, which are made over to him in the presence of witnesses (verses 16–18).

Where else these words appear

“sojourner” Hebrew H8453 · used in 13 verses

  • Exodus 12:45 A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof.
  • Leviticus 25:35 And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee.
  • Numbers 35:15 These six cities shall be a refuge, both for the children of Israel, and for the stranger, and for the sojourner among them: that every one that killeth any person unawares may flee thither.

“possession” Hebrew H272 · used in 58 verses

  • Genesis 17:8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
  • Leviticus 25:45 Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession.
  • Joshua 22:4 And now the LORD your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as he promised them: therefore now return ye, and get you unto your tents, and unto the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on the other side Jordan.

“buryingplace” Hebrew H6913 · used in 62 verses

  • Genesis 23:6 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.
  • 1 Kings 14:13 And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.
  • Job 17:1 My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.

“stranger” Hebrew H1616 · used in 83 verses

  • Genesis 15:13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;
  • Leviticus 25:47 And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger's family:
  • Deuteronomy 27:19 Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, Amen.