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94-452: The parashah is made up of 5,314 Hebrew letters, 1,402 Hebrew words, 105 verses , and 171 lines in a Torah Scroll ( סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה ‎, Sefer Torah ). Jews read it on the fifth Sabbath after Simchat Torah , generally in November, or on rare occasion in late October. In traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings, or עליות ‎, aliyot . In

188-584: A few short lines or of one or more sentences. In the King James Version (KJV) Esther 8:9 is the longest verse and John 11:35 is the shortest. Sometimes a sentence spans more than one verse, as in the case of Ephesians 2:8 – 9 , and sometimes there is more than one sentence in a single verse, as in the case of Genesis 1:2 . The Jewish divisions of the Hebrew text differ at various points from those used by Christians . For instance, Jewish tradition regards

282-417: A great banquet. He told Sarah to prepare cakes for them, but when Sarah was kneading, she perceived that the manner of women was upon her, so Abraham did not serve his visitors any of the cakes. Rather, Abraham ran to fetch a calf, but the calf fled from him and went into the cave of Machpelah. Abraham chased in after the calf and found Adam and Eve lying there upon their beds. Lights were kindled above them, and

376-448: A midrash taught that the city had four names—Eshcol, Mamre, Kiriat-arba, and Hebron. midrash taught that it was called Kiriat-arba because four righteous men dwelt there—Aner, Eshcol, Mamre, and Abraham; four righteous men were circumcised there—Abraham, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; four righteous men were buried there— Adam , Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and four matriarchs were buried there— Eve , Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah. A midrash deduced from

470-535: A mountain, built an altar, placed wood upon it, tied him down on it, and took a knife to slaughter him, and had God not told him not to lay a hand on him, Abraham would have slaughtered him. As soon as he finished speaking, Sarah's soul departed. Similarly, reading Genesis 23:2, "And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah," the Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer reported that Abraham came from Mount Moriah to find that Sarah had died. When Abraham set out from Mount Moriah in peace,

564-607: A new line, while "closed" sections never start at the beginning of a new line. Another division of the biblical books found in the Masoretic Text is the division into sedarim . This division is not thematic, but is almost entirely based upon the quantity of text. For the Torah , this division reflects the triennial cycle of reading that was practiced by the Jews of the Land of Israel. During

658-566: A perpetual possession, as 1 Chronicles 21:25 reports, "So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight." The Gemara deduced from the use of the term "take" in Genesis 23:13 that "taking" means by monetary exchange. And thus the Gemara deduced that money effects betrothal by noting the common use of "take" in Genesis 23:13 and in Deuteronomy 22:13, in the words, "If any man take

752-495: A person has the obligation to bury a body, it is as if the corpse lay before the person. Genesis 23:3 says: "And Abraham rose up from before his dead," indicating that he departed from the presence of Sarah's body. And then Genesis 23:4 says: "that I may bury my dead out of my sight," showing that Abraham still spoke as if Sarah's corpse were lying before him. (And this status affects a person's obligation to perform other commandments.) Similarly, Rabbi Joḥanan taught that we learn from

846-429: A priest forever after the manner of Melchizedek." And he attained kingship, as Genesis 23:6 says, "You are a mighty prince among us." Rav and Samuel differed as to its meaning of "Machpelah"—meaning "double cave"—in Genesis 23:9. One held that the cave consisted of two chambers one within the other, and the other held that it consisted of a lower and upper chamber. According to one, the term "double cave" meant that it

940-479: A single ethnic group. However, this idea was rejected by another rabbi in Genesis Rabbah, as well as by traditional commentators such as Ibn Ezra , Nahmanides , and Rashbam . The Book of Jubilees also supports the conclusion that Keturah and Hagar were two different people, by stating that Abraham waited until after Hagar's death before marrying Keturah. According to modern scholar Richard Elliott Friedman ,

1034-606: A small space. These two letters begin the Hebrew words open ( p atuach ) and closed ( s atum ), and are, themselves, open in shape (פ) and closed (ס). The earliest known copies of the Book of Isaiah from the Dead Sea Scrolls used parashot divisions, although they differ slightly from the Masoretic divisions. The Hebrew Bible was also divided into some larger sections. In Israel,

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1128-416: A sweet scent was upon them. Abraham consequently sought to get the cave as a burial possession. He spoke to the sons of Jebus to purchase the cave from them. The men did not accept his request at first. He began to bow down and prostrate himself to them, as Genesis 23:12 reports, "And Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land." They told Abraham that they knew that in the future God would give all

1222-582: A traditional belief that Keturah was the same person as Hagar , although this idea cannot be found in the biblical text. However, Hagar was Sarah's Egyptian maidservant. Keturah is mentioned in two passages of the Hebrew Bible : in the Book of Genesis and in the First Book of Chronicles . Additionally, she is mentioned in Antiquities of the Jews by the 1st-century Romano-Jewish historian Josephus , in

1316-414: A wife." Contrasting the behavior of Abraham and Epron, Rabbi Eleazar taught that the righteous promise little and perform much, whereas the wicked promise much and do not perform even little. The Gemara deduced the behavior of the wicked from Ephron, who in Genesis 23:15 said, "The land is worth 400 shekels of silver," but Genesis 23:16 reports, "And Abraham hearkened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron

1410-552: Is none like him in the earth . . . ." Rabbi Berekiah and Rabbi Ḥelbo taught in the name of Rabbi Samuel bar Naḥman that the Vale of Siddim (mentioned in Genesis 14:3 in connection with the battle between the four kings and the five kings ) was called the Valley of Shaveh (which means "as one") because there all the peoples of the world agreed as one, felled cedars, erected a large dais for Abraham, set him on top, and praised him, saying (in

1504-646: Is often given credit for first dividing the Latin Vulgate into chapters in the real sense, but it is the arrangement of his contemporary and fellow cardinal Stephen Langton who in 1205 created the chapter divisions which are used today. They were then inserted into Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in the 16th century. Robert Estienne (Robert Stephanus) was the first to number the verses within each chapter, his verse numbers entering printed editions in 1551 (New Testament) and 1553 (Hebrew Bible). The division of

1598-434: Is referred to in Genesis as "another wife" of Abraham ( Hebrew : אִשָּה ‎ , romanized :  'išāh , lit.   'woman, wife' ). In First Chronicles, she is called Abraham's "concubine" ( Hebrew : פִּילֶגֶשׁ ‎ , romanized :  pilegeš , lit.   'concubine' ). According to one opinion in the midrashic work Genesis Rabbah, Keturah and Hagar are names for

1692-507: The Aleppo codex ), an "open" section may also be represented by a blank line, and a "closed" section by a new line that is slightly indented (the preceding line may also not be full). These latter conventions are no longer used in Torah scrolls and printed Hebrew Bibles. In this system, the one rule differentiating "open" and "closed" sections is that "open" sections must always start at the beginning of

1786-454: The East Roman (Byzantine) era, the church also introduced a concept roughly similar to chapter divisions, called kephalaia (singular kephalaion , literally meaning heading ). This system, which was in place no later than the 5th century, is not identical to the present chapters. Unlike the modern chapters, which tend to be of roughly similar length, the distance from one kephalaion mark to

1880-475: The Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible , Parashat Chayei Sarah has three "open portion" ( פתוחה ‎, petuchah ) divisions (roughly equivalent to paragraphs, often abbreviated with the Hebrew letter פ ‎ ( peh )). Parashat Chayei Sarah has one "closed portion" ( סתומה ‎, setumah ) division (abbreviated with the Hebrew letter ס ‎ ( samekh )) within the "open portion" division of

1974-690: The Talmud , the Midrash , the Targum on the Torah, the Genesis Rabbah , and various other writings of Jewish theologians and philosophers . Louis Feldman has said "Josephus records evidence of the prolific non-Jewish polymath Alexander Polyhistor , who in turn cites the historian Cleodemus Malchus , who states that two of the sons of Abraham by Keturah joined Heracles ' campaign in Africa, and that Heracles, without doubt

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2068-402: The Torah (its first five books) were divided into 154 sections so that they could be read through aloud in weekly worship over the course of three years. In Babylonia, it was divided into 53 or 54 sections ( Parashat ha-Shavua ) so it could be read through in one year. The New Testament was divided into topical sections known as kephalaia by the fourth century. Eusebius of Caesarea divided

2162-558: The ascriptions to many Psalms as independent verses or as parts of the subsequent verses, whereas established Christian practice treats each Psalm ascription as independent and unnumbered, resulting in 116 more verses in Jewish versions than in the Christian texts. Some chapter divisions also occur in different places, e.g. Hebrew Bibles have 1 Chronicles 5:27–41 where Christian translations have 1 Chronicles 6:1–15 . Early manuscripts of

2256-457: The colon (:) of English and Latin orthography. With the advent of the printing press and the translation of the Hebrew Bible into English, versifications were made that correspond predominantly with the existing Hebrew sentence breaks, with a few isolated exceptions. Most attribute these to Rabbi Isaac Nathan ben Kalonymus 's work for the first Hebrew Bible concordance around 1440. The first person to divide New Testament chapters into verses

2350-530: The ketoret (meaning "incense" in Hebrew). Keturah bore Abraham six sons: Zimran , Jokshan , Medan , Midian , Ishbak , and Shuah . Genesis and First Chronicles also list seven of her grandsons (Sheba, Dedan , Ephah, Epher , Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah). Genesis records that Abraham gave them gifts and sent them to the East, while making Isaac son of Sarah his primary heir. Keturah's sons were said to have represented

2444-622: The Bible Chapter and verse divisions did not appear in the original texts of Jewish or Christian bibles; such divisions form part of the paratext of the Bible . Since the early 13th century, most copies and editions of the Bible have presented all but the shortest of the scriptural books with divisions into chapters , generally a page or so in length. Since the mid-16th century, editors have further subdivided each chapter into verses – each consisting of

2538-496: The Bible have eliminated numbering of chapters and verses. Biblica published such a version of the NIV in 2007 and 2011. In 2014, Crossway published the ESV Reader's Bible and Bibliotheca published a modified ASV. Projects such as Icthus also exist which strip chapter and verse numbers from existing translations. The number of words can vary depending upon aspects such as whether

2632-400: The Bible in the early 13th century. It is the system of Archbishop Langton on which the modern chapter divisions are based. While chapter divisions have become nearly universal, editions of the Bible have sometimes been published without them. Such editions, which typically use thematic or literary criteria to divide the biblical books instead, include John Locke's Paraphrase and Notes on

2726-483: The Bible into chapters and verses has received criticism from some traditionalists and modern scholars. Critics state that the text is often divided in an incoherent way, or at inappropriate rhetorical points, and that it encourages citing passages out of context. Nevertheless, the chapter and verse numbers have become indispensable as technical references for both Bible study and theological discussion among everyone from scholars to laypeople. Several modern publications of

2820-718: The Epistles of St. Paul (1707), Alexander Campbell's The Sacred Writings (1826), Daniel Berkeley Updike's fourteen-volume The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha, Richard Moulton's The Modern Reader's Bible (1907), Ernest Sutherland Bates's The Bible Designed to Be Read as Living Literature (1936), The Books of the Bible (2007) from the International Bible Society ( Biblica ), Adam Lewis Greene's five-volume Bibliotheca (2014), and

2914-670: The Hebrew alphabet in Psalm 119, the superscriptions listed in some of the Psalms, and the subscripts traditionally found at the end of the Pauline epistles, are included. Except where stated, the following apply to the King James Version of the Bible in its modern 66-book Protestant form including the New Testament and the protocanonical Old Testament, not the deuterocanonical books . (Prophecy) Keturah Keturah ( Hebrew : קְטוּרָה , Qəṭūrā , possibly meaning "incense"; Arabic : قطورة )

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3008-526: The Hittite in Genesis 23:16). Rabbi Ḥaninah taught that every time the Torah refers to silver coin ( שֶׁקֶל כֶּסֶף ‎, shekel kesef ) without any qualification, it means a sela ( shekel ), except for the silver coin that Genesis 23:16 cites in the transaction with Ephron. For although Genesis 23:16 mentions the coinage without qualification, it means centenaria (worth 100 shekels each), because Genesis 23:16 says: "400 shekels of silver current money with

3102-463: The Hittites to intercede for him with Ephron, son of Zohar, to sell Abraham the cave of Machpelah at full price. Before the Hittites at the town gate, Ephron offered to give Abraham the field and the cave that was in it, but Abraham insisted on paying the price of the land. Ephron named the value of the land at 400 shekels of silver, and Abraham accepted Ephron's terms, gave him the silver, and purchased

3196-622: The Matriarchs were prophets. Rabbi Abba bar Kahana interpreted the words, "The sun rises, and the sun sets," in Ecclesiastes 1:5 to teach that before God causes the sun of one righteous person to set, God causes the sun of another righteous person to rise. Thus, a midrash taught that before God allowed Sarah's sun to set, God caused Rebekah's sun to rise. Thus Genesis 22:20–23 first says, "Behold, Milcah, she also has borne children . . . and Bethuel begot Rebekah," and after that, Genesis 23:1 says, "and

3290-481: The anger of Sammael (the Satan) was kindled, for he saw that his desire to frustrate Abraham's offering had not been realized. So Sammael told Sarah that Abraham had killed Isaac and offered him as a burnt offering upon the altar. Sarah began to weep and to cry aloud three times, corresponding to the three sustained notes (of the shofar ), and she gave forth three howlings corresponding to the three disconnected short notes (of

3384-409: The biblical texts did not contain the chapter and verse divisions in the numbered form familiar to modern readers. In antiquity Hebrew texts were divided into paragraphs ( parashot ) that were identified by two letters of the Hebrew alphabet . Peh (פ‎) indicated an "open" paragraph that began on a new line, while Samekh (ס‎) indicated a "closed" paragraph that began on the same line after

3478-514: The binding of Isaac, and (8) buying the land to bury Sarah. Josephus reported that Rebekah told Abraham's servant, "my father was Bethuel, but he is dead; and Laban is my brother; and, together with my mother, takes care of all our family affairs, and is the guardian of my virginity." The parashah is discussed in these rabbinic sources from the era of the Mishnah and the Talmud : A midrash noted that Genesis 23:1 recorded that "the life of Sarah

3572-419: The burial site for Abraham himself (as reported in Genesis 25:8–10) and thereafter Isaac, Rebekah, Leah , and Jacob (as reported in Genesis 49:29–31). The story of Abraham's servant's mission to get a wife for Isaac is told twice, once by the narrator in Genesis 24:1–27, and then a second time by Abraham's servant in Genesis 24:34–48. Isaac Abrabanel and other commentators noted a number of differences between

3666-402: The camels had finished drinking, the servant took a gold nose ring and two gold bands for her arms and asked her whose daughter she was and whether there was room in her father's house for him to spend the night. She identified herself and told him that there was plenty of straw and feed and room at her home for him to spend the night. The servant bowed low to God. The third reading ends here. In

3760-399: The cave of Machpelah with Sarah. After Abraham's death, God blessed Isaac and he settled near Beer-lahai-roi. The sixth reading and the second open portion end here. In the seventh reading, Ishmael had 12 sons, who became chieftains of 12 tribes. In the maftir ( מפטיר ‎) reading that concludes the parashah, Ishmael lived 137 years and then died. Ishmael's progeny dwelt in lands all

3854-681: The city of Shechem in Genesis 33:18–19; the 50 shekels of silver that King David paid Araunah the Jebusite for Araunah's threshing floor, oxen, and wood in 2 Samuel 24:18–24 (but 1 Chronicles 21:24 reports cost 600 shekels of gold ); and the 17 shekels of silver that Jeremiah paid his cousin Hanamel for his field in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin in Jeremiah 32:7–9. The cave of Machpelah in which Genesis 23:18 reports Abraham buried Sarah later became

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3948-451: The city until he had removed all those images upon which Abraham's covenant was written. So David told his men that whoever would remove those images would be the chief. Joab the son of Zeruiah did so and became the chief, as 1 Chronicles 11:6 reports, "And Joab the son of Zeruiah went up first and was made chief." Thereafter, David bought the city of the Jebusites for Israel with a deed for

4042-409: The consent of the Jebusites and then bought the cave of Machpelah as a perpetual possession, as Genesis 23:16 reports, "And Abraham hearkened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the hearing of the children of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant." The Jebusites made images of copper inscribed with Abraham's covenant and set them up in

4136-545: The daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor." And he said: "Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master; as for me, the Lord has led me to the house of my master's brethren.' Abraham's servant's meeting (on behalf of Isaac) of Rebekah at the well in Genesis 24:11–27 is the Torah's first of several meetings at watering holes that lead to marriage. Also of

4230-450: The face of the need to buy land to bury his wife in Genesis 23:3–16 showed faith comparable to that of Job . Job 1:6–7 begins: "Now one day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came among them. And the Lord said to Satan: 'From where do you come?' Then Satan answered. . . ." The Gemara taught that Satan then told God: "Sovereign of the Universe, I have traversed

4324-424: The family, and (7) a subsequent marriage. The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these early nonrabbinic sources: The Book of Jubilees reported that Abraham endured ten trials and was found faithful and patient in spirit. Jubilees listed eight of the trials: (1) leaving his country, (2) the famine, (3) the wealth of kings, (4) his wife taken from him, (5) circumcision, (6) Hagar and Ishmael driven away, (7)

4418-416: The feet of the servant and his party. But the servant would not eat before he had told his tale. The servant told how God had greatly blessed Abraham with sheep and cattle, silver and gold, male and female slaves, camels and asses, and a son and sole heir. The servant told how Abraham made him swear to go to Abraham's kindred to get Isaac a wife and that God would send an angel to make his errand successful. And

4512-419: The fourth reading, the servant blessed God for steadfast faithfulness to Abraham. Rebekah ran and told everything to her mother's household. Rebekah's brother Laban ran out to the servant at the spring, and when he saw the nose-ring and the bands on Rebekah's arms, and when he heard his sister tell the story, Laban invited the servant to their house, had the camels unloaded and fed, and had water brought to bathe

4606-448: The gospels into parts that he listed in tables or canons . Neither of these systems corresponds with modern chapter divisions. (See fuller discussions below.) Chapter divisions, with titles, are also found in the 9th-century Tours manuscript Paris Bibliothèque Nationale MS Lat. 3, the so-called Bible of Rorigo. Cardinal archbishop Stephen Langton and Cardinal Hugo de Sancto Caro developed different schemas for systematic division of

4700-407: The greatest Greek hero of them all, married the daughter of one of them." According to Doctor of Anthropology Paula M. McNutt, it is generally recognized that there is nothing specific in the biblical traditions recorded in Genesis, including those regarding Abraham and his family, that can be definitively related to known history in or around Canaan in the early second millennium B.C.E. Keturah

4794-506: The herd," doing much more than he offered. Rabbi Judan the son of Rabbi Simon cited Abraham's purchase of the cave at Machpelah as one of three places where Scripture reports purchases in the Land of Israel, thus providing a defense against the nations of the world who might taunt the Jews, saying that the Israelites had stolen the Land. The three instances are: the cave of Machpelah, of which Genesis 23:16 reports, "And Abraham weighed to Ephron

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4888-485: The identification of Keturah with Hagar has "no basis ... in the text". Genesis Rabbah interprets the name Keturah in accordance with the opinion that she was identical to Hagar: the name was said to be related to the Aramaic ketur (knot) to imply that she was "bound" and did not have sexual relations with anyone else from the time she left Abraham until her return. The name Keturah was alternatively said to be derived from

4982-449: The king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land; who spoke to David, saying, ‘You shall not come in here.'" Although the Israelites were numerous, they were unable to capture the city because of the force of the sign of Abraham's covenant. David saw this and turned back, as 2 Samuel 5:9 reports, "And David dwelt in the stronghold" (not in the city). David's men told him that he would not be able to enter

5076-399: The land to Abraham and his descendants. Thus, they asked Abraham to make a covenant with them that Abraham's descendants would not take possession of the cities of the Jebusites, and they would sell him the cave of Machpelah as a perpetual possession. So Abraham made a covenant with them with an oath that the Israelites would not take possession of the city of the Jebusites ( Jerusalem ) without

5170-469: The land. The first reading ends here. In the second reading, Abraham thus established his title to the land through purchase, and he buried Sarah in the cave. Abraham was old and instructed his senior servant to put his hand under Abraham's thigh and swear by God that he would not take a wife for Isaac from the Canaanites , but would go to the land of Abraham's birth to get Isaac a wife. The servant asked if

5264-415: The latter is the shorter text. In the manuscripts, the kephalaia with their numbers, their standard titles ( titloi ) and their page numbers would be listed at the beginning of each biblical book; in the book's main body, they would be marked only with arrow-shaped or asterisk-like symbols in the margin, not in the text itself. The titles usually referred to the first event or the first theological point of

5358-491: The lifetime of Sarah was a hundred years . . . ." Once while lecturing, Rabbi Akiva asked why Esther deserved to reign over 127 provinces (as indicated by Esther 1:1). Rabbi Akiva taught that the reason was this: Let Esther, the descendant of Sarah, who lived 127 years (as Genesis 23:1 reports), come and reign over 127 provinces. Noting that Genesis 23:2 reports that "Sarah died in Kiriat-arba ," literally, "city of four,"

5452-487: The long first open portion end here with the end of chapter 24. In the sixth reading, in chapter 25, Abraham took another wife, named Keturah , who bore him Zimran , Jokshan , Medan , Midian , Ishbak, and Shuah. Abraham willed all that he owned to Isaac, but to his sons, by concubines, he gave gifts while he was still living, and he sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the East. Abraham lived 175 years and died old and contented. Isaac and Ishmael buried him in

5546-468: The merchant" (implying that wherever there were merchants, these shekels had to be accepted as such), and there is a place where they call centenaria "shekels." Rav Judah said in the name of Rav that Genesis 23:17, which says, "So the field of Efron which was in Machpelah . . . and all the trees that were in the field that were in the border thereof," indicates that Abraham in buying the field acquired all

5640-548: The next varied greatly in length both within a book and from one book to the next. For example, the Sermon on the Mount , comprising three chapters in the modern system, has but one kephalaion mark, while the single modern chapter 8 of the Gospel of Matthew has several, one per miracle. Moreover, there were far fewer kephalaia in the Gospel of John than in the Gospel of Mark , even though

5734-455: The one whom God had decreed for Isaac. He had scarcely finished speaking when Rebekah , the beautiful virgin daughter of Abraham's nephew Bethuel , came out with her jar on her shoulder, went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up. The servant ran toward her and asked to sip a little water from her jar, and she quickly let him drink, and when he had drunk his fill, she offered to draw water for his camels until they finished drinking. When

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5828-451: The one whom You have appointed for Your servant, even for Isaac; and thereby shall I know that You have shown kindness to my master." and she shall say to me: ‘Both you drink, and I will also draw for your camels'; let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master's son. And the maiden was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her; and she went down to the fountain, and filled her pitcher, and came up. And

5922-449: The same type scene are the meeting of Jacob and Rachel at the well in Genesis 29:1–12 and the meeting of Moses and Zipporah at the well in Exodus 2:15–21. Each involves (1) a trip to a distant land, (2) a stop at a well, (3) a young woman coming to the well to draw water, (4) a heroic drawing of water, (5) the young woman going home to report to her family, (6) the visiting man brought to

6016-411: The same person, whom Abraham remarried after initially expelling. This opinion was adopted and popularized by 11th-century scholar Rashi . Possible justifications for this opinion include the fact that Keturah is referred to 1 Chronicles 1:32 as Abraham's concubine (in the singular), and several other verses which suggest that the descendants of Hagar and Keturah lived in the same territory or formed

6110-546: The second reading. The long first open portion spans the first five readings. The second open portion coincides with the sixth reading. The third open portion coincides with the seventh reading. In the first reading, Sarah lived 127 years and died in Hebron , and Abraham mourned for her. Abraham asked the Hittites to sell him a burial site, and the Hittites invited him to bury his dead in the choicest of their burial places. Abraham asked

6204-465: The section only, and some kephalaia are manifestly incomplete if one stops reading at the point where the next kephalaion begins (for example, the combined accounts of the miracles of the Daughter of Jairus and of the healing of the woman with a haemorrhage gets two marked kephalaia , one titled of the daughter of the synagogue ruler at the beginning when the ruler approaches Jesus and one titled of

6298-436: The servant and his party ate, drank, and spent the night. The following day, the servant asked to leave to return to Abraham, but Laban and her mother requested that Rebekah remain for a period of time. The servant persisted, so they called Rebekah to ask her, and she agreed to go. So they blessed Rebekah—wishing that her children be thousands of myriads and seize the gates of their foes—and they sent off Rebekah and her nurse with

6392-505: The servant put his hand under Abraham's thigh and swore to him as Abraham had asked. The second reading ends here. In the third reading, the servant took Abraham's bounty and ten of Abraham's camels and traveled to Aram-Naharaim , the city of Nahor . He made the camels kneel by the well outside the city at evening, when women come out to draw water. The servant asked God to grant that the maiden whom he would ask to draw water for him and who replied by also offering to water his camels might be

6486-481: The servant ran to meet her, and said: "Give me to drink, I pray, a little water of your pitcher." And when she had done giving him drink, she said: "I will draw for your camels also, until they have done drinking." And she hastened, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again to the well to draw, and drew for all his camels. and said: "Whose daughter are you? tell me, I pray. Is there room in your father's house for us to lodge in?" And she said to him: "I am

6580-436: The servant told how he met Rebekah at the well. The servant then asked whether or not they meant to treat Abraham with true kindness, and Laban and Bethuel answered that God and Rebekah had decreed the matter could go and be Isaac's wife. The servant bowed low to God. The fourth reading ends here. In the fifth reading, the servant brought out silver, gold, and garments for Rebekah and presents for her brother and her mother. Then

6674-628: The servant. Isaac had just come back from the vicinity of Beer-lahai-roi to his home in the Negeb and was out walking in the field toward evening when he looked up and saw camels approaching. Raising her eyes, Rebekah saw Isaac, alighted from the camel, and asked the servant who the man was. The servant said that Isaac was his master, so she covered herself with her veil. The servant told Isaac everything that had happened, and Isaac brought her into Sarah's tent and took her as his wife. Isaac loved Rebekah and found comfort after his mother's death. The fifth reading and

6768-455: The shofar), and her soul fled, and she died. The Gemara deduced from the use of the verb "came" in the account of Genesis 23:2, "And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her," that Abraham delayed Sarah's funeral until he could travel to where her body lay. The Gemara further taught that Sarah would have been pleased that Abraham delayed her funeral so that he could eulogize her. Rav Ashi deduced from Genesis 23:3 that as long as

6862-453: The silver"; Joseph's Tomb , of which Genesis 33:19 reports, "And he bought the parcel of ground"; and the Temple , of which 1 Chronicles 21:25 reports, "So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels of gold." The Mishnah attributed to Abraham a good eye (a magnanimous spirit in financial matters, based, for example, on Abraham's generous and ungrudging nature in his dealings with Ephron

6956-420: The silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, 400 shekels of silver, current money with the merchant," indicating that Ephron refused to accept anything but centenaria (which are more valuable than ordinary shekels). And the Gemara deduced the behavior of the righteous from Abraham, who in Genesis 18:5 offered, "And I will fetch a morsel of bread," but Genesis 18:7 reports, "And Abraham ran to

7050-462: The six-volume ESV Reader's Bible (2016) from Crossway Books . Since at least 916 the Tanakh has contained an extensive system of multiple levels of section, paragraph, and phrasal divisions that were indicated in Masoretic vocalization and cantillation markings . One of the most frequent of these was a special type of punctuation, the sof passuq , symbol for a period or sentence break, resembling

7144-414: The small trees that were identified by their surrounding boundary. But the purchase did not include those large, distinctive trees that did not require a surrounding boundary for people to know to whom they belonged. And Rav Mesharsheya deduced from Genesis 23:17 that one who buys a field also gains title to the border strips and the trees on these strips surrounding the field. Chapters and verses of

7238-520: The streets of the city. When the Israelites later came to the land, they wished to enter the city of the Jebusites (as reported in Joshua 25:8 and Judges 1:8), but they were unable to enter because of the sign of Abraham's covenant, as Judges 1:21 reports, "And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who inhabited Jerusalem." When David reigned, he wanted to enter the city of the Jebusites, but they did not allow him, as 2 Samuel 5:6 reports, "And

7332-576: The two recountings. As Told by the Narrator As Told by Abraham's Servant And Sarah my master's wife bore a son to my master when she was old; and to him has he given all that he has. And he said: "O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, send me, I pray, good speed this day, and show kindness to my master Abraham. So let it come to pass, that the maiden to whom I shall say: ‘Let down your pitcher, I pray, that I may drink'; and she shall say: ‘Drink, and I will give your camels drink also'; let her be

7426-428: The verses, or passukim ( MH spelling; now pronounced pesukim by all speakers). According to Talmudic tradition, the division of the text into verses is of ancient origin. In Masoretic versions of the Bible, the end of a verse, or sof passuk , is indicated by a small mark in its final word called a silluq (which means "stop"). Less formally, verse endings are usually also indicated by two vertical dots following

7520-439: The way from Havilah , near Egypt , to Asshur . The seventh reading, the third open portion, and the parashah end here. Jews who read the Torah according to the triennial cycle of Torah reading read the parashah according to the following schedule: The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these Biblical sources: Kiriath-arba, mentioned in Genesis 23:2, literally means “village of Arba.” Joshua 14:15 explains that Arba

7614-452: The whole world and found none so faithful as Your servant Abraham. For You said to him, ‘Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for to you will I give it,' and even so, when he was unable to find any place in which to bury Sarah until he bought one for 400 shekels of silver, he did not complain against Your ways." Only then did God say to Satan the words of Job 1:8, "Have you considered my servant Job? For there

7708-457: The woman did not consent to follow him to Canaan, should he take Isaac back to the land from which Abraham came? Abraham told him on no account to take Isaac back there, for God—who took Abraham from there and promised Abraham the land of Canaan for his offspring—would send an angel before the servant and allow him successfully to get a wife for Isaac from there, and if the woman did not consent to follow him, he would then be clear of his oath. So

7802-439: The woman with the flow of blood where the woman enters the picture – well before the ruler's daughter is healed and the storyline of the previous kephalaion is thus properly concluded). Thus the kephalaia marks are rather more like a system of bookmarks or links into a continuous text, helping a reader to quickly find one of several well-known episodes, than like a true system of chapter divisions. Cardinal Hugo de Sancto Caro

7896-566: The word with a silluq . The Masoretic Text also contains sections, or portions, called parashot or parashiyot . The end of a parashah is usually indicated by a space within a line (a "closed" section) or a new line beginning (an "open" section). The division of the text reflected in the parashot is usually thematic. Unlike chapters, the parashot are not numbered, but some of them have special titles. In early manuscripts (most importantly in Tiberian Masoretic manuscripts, such as

7990-488: The words "Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her" in Genesis 23:2 that Abraham came directly from Mount Moriah and the binding of Isaac . The midrash told that at the very moment in Genesis 22:11–12 that the angel of the Lord stayed Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, the Satan appeared to Sarah in the guise of Isaac. When Sarah saw him, she asked what Abraham had done to him. He told Sarah that Abraham had taken him to

8084-571: The words of Genesis 23:6,) "Hear us, my lord: you are a prince of God among us." They told Abraham that he was king over them and a god to them. But Abraham replied that the world did not lack its King, and the world did not lack its God. A midrash taught that Abraham said (with the words of Genesis 22:1 and 22:11), "'Here I am'—ready for priesthood, ready for kingship" (ready to serve God in whatever role God chose), and Abraham attained both priesthood and kingship. He attained priesthood, as Psalm 110:4 says, "The Lord has sworn, and will not repent: 'You are

8178-551: The words, "And Abraham rose up from before his dead and spoke," in Genesis 23:3 that one whose dead lies before him is exempt from reciting the Shema (as the verse implies that until Sarah's burial, Abraham did nothing but make arrangements for it). The Gemara expanded on the conversation between God and Satan in Job 1:6–8 to teach that Abraham's patience in receiving the Promised Land even in

8272-514: Was a hundred and seven and twenty years" rather than "one-hundred-twenty-seven years," and deduced that as the righteous are whole and unblemished by sin, so are their years reported whole in the Bible. Thus the midrash taught that at the age of 20, Sarah was as at the age of 7 in beauty, and at the age of 100, she was as at the age of 20 in sin (the age below which Providence does not punish for sin). Rabbi Haggai said in Rabbi Isaac's name that all of

8366-551: Was a wife and a concubine of the Biblical patriarch Abraham . According to the Book of Genesis , Abraham married Keturah after the death of his first wife, Sarah . Abraham and Keturah had six sons. According to Jewish tradition, she was a descendant of Noah 's son Japheth . One modern commentator on the Hebrew Bible has called Keturah "the most ignored significant person in the Torah ". The medieval Jewish commentator Rashi , and some previous rabbinical commentators, related

8460-515: Was the Geneva Bible published shortly afterwards by Sir Rowland Hill in 1560. These verse divisions soon gained acceptance as a standard way to notate verses, and have since been used in nearly all English Bibles and the vast majority of those in other languages. The Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible notes several different kinds of subdivisions within the biblical books: Most important are

8554-579: Was the Italian Dominican biblical scholar Santes Pagnino (1470–1541), but his system was never widely adopted. His verse divisions in the New Testament were far longer than those known today. The Parisian printer Robert Estienne created another numbering in his 1551 edition of the Greek New Testament, which was also used in his 1553 publication of the Bible in French. Estienne's system of division

8648-407: Was the burial place of multiple couples—Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah. Similarly, Rabbi Jehudah taught that the three Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob made covenants with the people of the Land of Israel. In Abraham's case, this is how it happened: When the three angels visited him (as reported in Genesis 18), Abraham ran to meet them and prepare for them

8742-543: Was the great man among the Anakites . Similarly, Joshua 15:13 reports that Arba was the father of Anak, and Joshua 21:11 tells that Arba was the father of the Anokites. The 400 shekels of silver that Abraham paid Ephron the Hittite to buy the cave of Machpelah and adjoining land in Genesis 23:14–16 far exceeds the 100 pieces of silver that Jacob paid the children of Hamor for the parcel of ground where he had spread his tent outside

8836-484: Was widely adopted, and it is this system which is found in almost all modern Bibles. Estienne produced a 1555 Vulgate that is the first Bible to include the verse numbers integrated into the text. Before this work, they were printed in the margins. The first English New Testament to use the verse divisions was a 1557 translation by William Whittingham (c. 1524–1579). The first Bible in English to use both chapters and verses

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