The field which … the Hittites: see 23.16.

There Abraham was buried, with Sarah his wife: There refers to the cave of Machpelah. We may say, for example, “In that cave,” “That is the cave where.” The passive may have to be expressed as active; for example, “Abraham’s sons buried him.” With Sarah his wife may need to be expressed as “where Sarah had also been buried” or “where Abraham had buried his wife Sarah.” Another way of expressing this whole sentence is “The body of Abraham and the body of Sarah were both there in that cave.”

Since there is a good deal of repetition of information in verses 9 and 10, some translators find it easier to combine the two verses. One example of the way verses 9-10 may be translated is:

• Isaac and Ishmael, the two sons of that old man, put his body in the cave that he had bought a long time before near Mamre. In that cave that old man had buried his wife Sarah before. They called that cave Machpelah Cave…, and that was where the two sons buried that old man’s body.

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .