Genesis 23:4

Summary

Genesis 23:4 records Abraham's request to the sons of Heth: he identifies his legal status among them and asks for a burial plot to bury his dead. The verse combines a self-description with an imperative request and a purpose clause.

Key words

• ger ("a sojourner", H1616) — masculine singular noun, paired with the next word to form a double designation of Abraham's status.
• toshav ("a resident alien", H8453A) — masculine singular noun, joined to ger by the conjunction ve ("and", H9002), reinforcing that Abraham has no native land-rights among the Hittites.
• tenu ("give", H5414G) — qal imperative, masculine plural, directly commanding the listeners (the sons of Heth) to act.
• achuzzat ("a possession of", H0272) — feminine singular noun in construct state, meaning it must be followed by another noun to complete its sense ("possession of a burial site").
• eqberah ("let me bury", H6912) — qal form functioning with volitional/purpose force, linked by ve ("so", H9002) to the preceding imperative, expressing the goal of the request.

What the text says

The verse opens with a nominal clause lacking a finite verb: ger-ve-toshav anokhi immakhem — "a sojourner and a resident alien [am] I with you." The pronoun anokhi ("I", H0595) supplies the subject, and the predicate is formed by the two juxtaposed nouns ger and toshav, both describing a status of residence without ownership rights. The preposition imma ("with", H5973A) plus the suffix khem ("your", H9036) locates this status specifically among the addressees, repeated later in the verse (immakhem) to frame the request.

The second clause shifts to direct address with the imperative tenu ("give"), followed by li ("to me", built from H9005 + H9030) marking the beneficiary. The object requested is achuzzat-kever — a construct chain where achuzzat ("possession of", H0272) governs kever ("a burial site", H6913), producing "a possession of a burial site" rather than two separate nouns.

The final clause, introduced by ve ("so"), uses eqberah ("let me bury", H6912) to state the purpose of the request — burying meti ("my dead", built from H4191 + H9020), literally "the one who died, mine." The phrase millefanai ("from before me", H9006 + H9005 + H6440H + H9020) closes the verse, using the construct noun fanai ("before me") to indicate removal of the corpse from Abraham's immediate presence.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew closing phrase millefanai ("from before me") is rendered by the LXX as ἐκεῖ ("there"), a spatial term differing from the Hebrew's personal-presence idiom. The Vulgate omits this phrase entirely, ending simply with "ut sepeliam mortuum meum" ("that I may bury my dead"), without an equivalent to millefanai.