Hebrew Folk Tales and Legends

Isaac said to his son, Jacob, “It's time for you to get married, but you may not marry one of the local Canaanite women.  Son, go to your grandfather's house at Haran in Mesopotamia and pick out for yourself one of the daughters of Laban, your uncle, to marry, and may you have lots of children to be your descendants.  With Lord Yahweh's help, may your sons win control of the land where we are now aliens and outsiders.”   So Jacob, following his father's instructions, went to the country of his grandfather in Mesopotamia, seeking a wife from among his cousins, the daughters of his Uncle Laban.   Esau heard that his brother had gone to Mesopotamia to hunt for a wife because none of the local Canaanite women were acceptable to his father, so just to annoy his father Esau visited Ishmael (who was the son of Abraham with his Egyptian slave girl), and arranged for one of Ishmael's daughters to be his newest wife, to add to those he already had. Meanwhile Jacob was...

Sarah was quite old when she died at Hebron. Abraham was sad and he cried for a while over her body—but then he got up from beside his dead wife and said to his neighbors the Hittites, "I am a stranger and a foreigner residing among you; please, I need some of your land for a burial place, so that I can bury Sarah someplace where I cannot see her grave." The Hittites answered Abraham, "Listen, my lord; foreigner or not, you are an important person living among us. You can bury Sarah wherever you want.   None of us will withhold from you any of our land for burying your dead wife." Abraham bowed in gratitude to the Hittites, and said, "If you are willing that I bury my dead Sarah where I cannot see her grave, please ask your countryman Ephron if he will provide me with the cave of Machpelah, which he owns, which is at the far end of his property.   I promise in your presence that I will pay full price for the land.” Ephron the Hittite had been sitting amon...