Portion 5 of 54 · Genesis
חַיֵּי שָׂרָה
Chayei Sarah
A grave is bought, a wife is found at a well, and one generation quietly hands over to the next.
Start by reading it
Genesis 23:1–25:18
3 chapters. About 12 minutes at an unhurried pace.
Paired reading from the prophets: 1 Kings 1:1–31
What happens
- 01
Sarah dies. Abraham buys a field and a cave to bury her, refusing to take it as a gift.
- 02
He sends his servant back to his own family to find a wife for Isaac.
- 03
The servant asks for a sign, and Rebekah waters ten camels before he has finished praying.
- 04
Abraham dies old and full of years. Isaac and Ishmael bury him together.
The thing most people walk past
The sign the servant asks for
He does not ask for beauty or lineage. He asks for someone who will water a stranger's animals unasked — a test of kindness done when nobody is owed anything. That is the standard the story sets for character.
One verse to carry
And when she had done giving him drink, she said: ‘I will draw for thy camels also, until they have done drinking..
Rivkah — Rebekah — enters the Bible doing more than she was asked for a stranger. This house is named for that moment.
A question to sit with
Isaac and Ishmael, sent apart by their parents, stand at the same graveside. What does the text leave unsaid there?
There is no answer key. This is the part you take with you.