Afterward Abraham buries his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre — which is at Hebron — in the land of Canaan. The burial is complete, the grief is honored, the transaction accomplished. The location — Hebron, in the land of Canaan — is the explicit grounding of the burial in the promised land. Abraham does not take Sarah back to Ur; he buries her in Canaan. The promised land is where the covenant family belongs, and the burial is the declaration that even in death they belong there. The application: where you bury your dead declares where your home is. Abraham buries Sarah in Canaan because Canaan is the promise, and the promise does not stop at death.

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