Death and Burial of Sarah – 1859

Hands OutWow, that’d be tough to kill your own kid, even for You.  

I guess You always have a good reason when You ask us to do something.  Only a fool would think they were smarter and wiser than You, like Satan did (Is 14:12-24) or like the Catholics and democrats do.

“And Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah. 

And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. 

And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying,

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

And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him,

Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchers bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulcher, but that thou mayest bury thy dead” (Gen 23:1-6).

Abraham purchased Machpelah, and the field and trees around it.  He bought it to bury Sarah, and other family members. 

1. Caves of Machpelah
People Believe This is the Caves of Machpelah

The Cave of Machpelah is the world’s most ancient Jewish site and the second holiest place for the Je

wish people, after Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The cave and the adjoining field were purchased—at full market price—by Abraham some 3700 years ago. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah are all later buried in the same Cave of Machpelah.

These are considered the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish people. The only one who is missing is Rachel, who was buried near Bethlehem where she died in childbirth.

The double cave, a mystery of thousands of years, was uncovered several years ago beneath the massive building, revealing artifacts from the Early Israelite Period (some 30 centuries ago).

The structure was built during the Second Temple Period (about two thousand years ago) by Herod, King of Judea, providing a place for gatherings and Jewish prayers at the graves of the Patriarchs. This uniquely impressive building is the only one that stands intact and still fulfills its original function after thousands of years.

Foreign conquerors and invaders used the site for their own purposes, depending on their religious orientation: the Byzantines and Crusaders transformed it into a church and the Muslims rendered it a mosque.

About 700 years ago, the Muslim Mamelukes conquered Hebron, declared the structure a mosque and forbade entry to Jews, who were not allowed past the seventh step on a staircase outside the building.

Upon the liberation of Hebron in 1967, the Chief Rabbi of the Israel Defense Forces, the late Major-General Rabbi Shlomo Goren, was the first Jew to enter the Cave of Machpelah. Since then, Jews have been struggling to regain their prayer rights at the site, still run by the Muslim Waqf (Religious Trust) that took control during the Arab conquest.

Many restrictions are imposed on Jewish prayers and customs at the Tomb of the Patriarchs despite the site’s significance, primacy and sanctity in Jewish heritage and history. Over 300,000 people visit Ma’arat HaMachpelah annually. The structure is divided into three rooms: Ohel Avraham, Ohel Yitzhak, and Ohel Ya’akov. Presently Jews have no access to Ohel Yitzhak, the largest room, with the exception of 10 days a year.

Abraham was well known, they called him a mighty price.

Today, a Mahomdan sanctuary covers the cave and is enclosed by a quadrangular building that’s 200 feet long, 150 feet wide, and 56 feet high. 

Pilasters divide the walls that are five feet apart and two and a half feet wide.  The walls are made of stone, the smallest being 38 feet long and must date back to the times of King David or King Solomon.

Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Leah, Jacob, and maybe Joseph are all buried there. 

Today, the Muslims rule it and won’t allow any Christian or Jew in.

Who exactly was Abraham is unknown.  It’s known, as the Bible even says, that he was born in Ur and it was a powerful, wealthy, and sophisticated city. 

Not a place where Nomads hung out and lived in tents.  Cyrus Godon, a scholar of New East culture and a leading expert on ancient languages, after studying textural materials discovered at 1 Ras Shamara in Syria, came with the conclusion that Abraham was a powerful patriarch, as well as a merchant prince.

Due to the findings noted above and other tablets found it’s obvious that Abraham was educated. 

Found on these tablets were: mathematical tables and problems; grammar exercises; lists of names of trees, animals, stones, minerals, villages, and cities; literary compositions, proverbs, fables, and essays, to name a few. 

It’s known what the pupils studied, but the professor’s lectures are lost.  Yet, women didn’t learn how to read or write. 

There’s no evidence that they were involved in education at all.

1 In 1928, Brahim, a Syrian farmer, while plowing his field struck a slab of stone and found out that what he had hit was a huge underground vault that contained vases, jugs, tablets, gold, silver, and pieces of ivory.

 

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