And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same [is] Hebron in the land of Canaan.
Ver. 19. And Abraham buried Sarah his wife.] The last office of love to bring the deceased saints honourably to their "long home," Ecc 12:5 to lay them in their last "bed," Isa 57:2 to put them into the grave, as into a haven and harbout, where they may rest from their labours, "till their change shall come." Job 14:14 This is to "deal kindly with the dead"; Rth 1:8 "to show mercy to them," 2Sa 2:5 especially when "the mourners go about the streets," Ecc 12:5 when there is a "great mourning made over them," as for Stephen, Act 8:2 and a "great burning for them," as for Asa, 2Ch 16:14 - of whom also it is further added, as an honour, that he was "buried in his own sepulchre, which he had dug for himself among the kings of Israel in the city of David, and laid in the bed that was filled with sweet odours," &c. Of Joram, Joas, and Ahaz, it is expressly noted in the Chronicles, that they were buried in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings of Judah. A worse place was thought good enough for them, unless they had been better. As of Tiberius the emperor it is storied, that he was so hated for his tyranny, that when he was dead, some of the people would have had him thrown into the river Tiber; a some, hanged up at such another place as Tyburn. Others also made prayer to mother Earth, to grant him, now dead, no place but among the wicked. b Contrarily when Dio died, the people of Syracuse would have gladly redeemed his life with their own blood; which because they could not, they buried him very honourably in an eminent place of their city. c Whereas anciently, as Lambinus well noteth, d kings and princes, in Homer and other poets, are not read to have been buried, but without the gates, somewhere in the fields and gardens; as the patriarchs also were, looking for the return of that everlasting spring.
a Scalae Gemoniae, [a place in Rome where condemned persons were cast down from a pair of stairs into the Tiber. - Ainsworth].
b Quidam etiam Terrain matrem orarent, &c. - Pareus.
c Cornel. Nepos in Vita Dionis.
d Dionys. Lambin. in Annot. ad locum.