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Genesis 23:1

in Genesis 23

Now Sarah lived to be 127 years old.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

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

KJV

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

This verse in Genesis 23

Commentary

9 notes on this verse

A commentator

John Calvin

1509–1564

Commentaries (1554)

And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old It is remarkable that Moses, who relates the death of Sarah in a single word, uses so many in describing her burial: but we shall soon see that the latter record is not superfluous.

This site's exposition

Sarah lived to be 127 years old

Sarah lived to be 127 years old, the only woman in Scripture whose years are counted at her death. Calvin notes that Moses gives the death in one word and then spends a whole chapter on the field and the cave, and Gill reports an old Jewish reading that word of the binding of Isaac killed her. Genesis gives no cause.

The record, by era

The Reformation1 voice

A commentator

John Calvin

1509–1564

Commentaries (1554)

proposed

And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old It is remarkable that Moses, who relates the death of Sarah in a single word, uses so many in describing her burial: but we shall soon see that the latter record is not superfluous.

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

John Gill

1697–1771

Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)

proposed

And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old,....
And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old,....

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old, &c.--Sarah is the only woman in Scripture whose age, death, and burial are mentioned, probably to do honor to the venerable mother of the Hebrew people.

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old, &c.--Sarah is the only woman in Scripture whose age, death, and burial are mentioned, probably to do honor to the venerable mother of the Hebrew people.
2 more voices on this verse

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

And Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years old - It is worthy of remark that Sarah is the only woman in the sacred writings whose age, death, and burial are distinctly noted. And she has been deemed worthy of higher honor, for St. Paul, Gal 4:22, Gal 4:23, makes her a type of the Church of Christ; and her faith in the accomplishment of God’s promise, that she should have a son, when all natural probabilities were against it, is particularly celebrated in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Heb 11:11. Sarah was about ninety-one years old when Isaac was born, and she lived thirty-six years after, and saw him grown up to man’s estate. With Sarah the promise of the incarnation of Christ commenced, though a comparatively obscure prophecy of it had been delivered to Eve, Gen 3:15; and with Mary it terminated, having had its exact completion. Thus God put more honor upon these two women than upon all the daughters of Eve besides. Sarah’s conception of Isaac was supernatural; she had passed the age and circumstances in which it was possible, naturally speaking, to have a child; therefore she laughed when the promise was given, knowing that the thing was impossible, because it had ceased to be with her after the manner of women. God allows this natural impossibility, and grants that the thing must be the effect of Divine interposition; and therefore asks, Is any thing too hard for God? The physical impossibility was in creased in the case of Mary, she having no connection with man; but the same power interposed as in the case of Sarah: and we find that when all aptitude for natural procreation was gone, Sarah received strength to conceive seed, and bore a son, from whom, in a direct line, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, was to descend; and through this same power we find a virgin conceiving and bearing a son against all natural impossibilities.
- The Death of Sarah 2. ארבע קרית qı̂ryat-'arba‛, “Qirjath-arba‘, city of Arba.” ארבע 'arba‛, “Arba‘, four.” 8. עפרון ‛eprôn, “‘Ephron, of the dust, or resembling a calf.” צחר tshochar, “Tsochar, whiteness.” 9. מכפלה makpêlâh, “Makpelah, doubled.” The death and burial of Sarah are here recorded. This occasions the purchase of the field of Makpelah, in the cave of which is her sepulchre. Gen 23:1-2 Sarah is the only woman whose age is recorded in Scripture.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

A HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS Rashi comments: “The reason the word ‘years’ is written at every term is that it informs you that each term must be interpreted by itself.
Ramban: Spain, 1194–1270 · Ramban on Genesis 23:1:1, via Sefaria, Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

12 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיִּהְיוּ֙and they were

    vaiyihyuH19613559 times

  • חַיֵּ֣י[the] life of

    chaiyeiH2416498 times

  • שָׂרָ֔הSarah

    sarahH828338 times

  • מֵאָ֥הone hundred

    meahH3967581 times

  • שָׁנָ֛הyear[s]

    shanahH8141877 times

  • וְעֶשְׂרִ֥יםand twenty

    veesrimH6242315 times

  • שָׁנָ֖הyear[s]

    shanahH8141877 times

  • וְשֶׁ֣בַעand seven

    vesheva'H7651394 times

  • שָׁנִ֑יםyears

    shanimH8141877 times

  • שְׁנֵ֖י[the] years of

    sheneiH8141877 times

  • חַיֵּ֥י[the] life of

    chaiyeiH2416498 times

  • שָׂרָֽה׃Sarah

    sarahH828338 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

5 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Genesis 17:17

    Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at the age of ninety?”

    it leads to

    • Genesis 21:6

      Then Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears of this will laugh with me.”

    • Genesis 18:12

      So she laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

    • Genesis 17:3

      Then Abram fell facedown, and God said to him,

    • John 8:56

      Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad.”

    • Romans 4:19–20

      Without weakening in his faith, he acknowledged the decrepitness of his body (since he was about a hundred years old) and the lifelessness of Sarah’s womb.

Where this verse is studied

On this page

About Genesis

The Burial of Sarah — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
The Burial of Sarah — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).