(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)
“These are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived: one hundred seventy-five years. Abraham gave up his spirit, and died at a good old age, an old man, and full of years, and was gathered to his people. Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is near Mamre, the field which Abraham purchased from the children of Heth. Abraham was buried there with Sarah, his wife.”
(Genesis 25:7-10)
Abraham lived a hundred and seventy-five years. So he got seventy-five years of good living after God restored him. Then he had had enough and let go of the Earth – he gave up his spirit by choice. He was ‘gathered to his people’, which is the first allusion in scripture of an afterlife. Of being taken up to God and living there – later Yahweh refers to Himself as the God of Abraham, Jacob, and Isaac (implying they were present-tense with Him and He was their God). Moses, Aaron, and David were all also mentioned as being gathered to their people upon death.
Shem, Noah’s son, was 600 years old at the time of Abraham’s death and lived another thirty-five years.
Ishmael obviously had some kind of contact with the family (furthering the idea that Hagar and Keturah are the same woman, but not proving it). Ishmael came and the half-brothers buried their father together.
Abraham joined his wife in the cave that he had purchased, the one piece of land in the whole of the land that belonged to him and his family. Abraham and his beloved wife Sarah were once again side by side.
The sage Rashi writes: ‘מאה שנה ושבעים שנה וחמש שנים A HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FIVE YEARS — (lit, a hundred years, and seventy years and five years) — at the age of one hundred years he was as strong as at seventy, and at the age of seventy he was as five — without sin. יצחק וישמעאל ISAAC AND ISHMAEL — From this we gather that Ishmael repented of his evil ways (cf.Bava Batra 16b) and yielded the precedence to Isaac. This is what is meant by the “good old age” mentioned in connection with Abraham (Genesis Rabbah 38:12).’
The sage Ramban writes: ‘OLD AND FULL OF YEARS. He witnessed the fulfillment of all the desires of his heart and was sated with all good things. In a similar sense is [the verse written in connection with Isaac’s life], and full of days, which means that his soul was sated with days, and he had no desire that the future days should bring something new. This is as it is said of David: And he died in a good old age, full of days, riches and honor. This is a story of the mercies of the Eternal towards the righteous ones, and of their attribute of goodness by virtue of which they do not desire luxuries, just as it is said of them, Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and not as it is said of other people, He that loveth money shall not be satisfied with money, and as the Rabbis have commented thereon: “No man leaves the world having amassed half of his desires. If he has a hundred, he desires two hundred. If he succeeds in acquiring two hundred, he desires to make of it four hundred, as it is said, He that loveth money shall not be satisfied with money.” In Bereshith Rabbah the Rabbis have said: “The Holy One, blessed be He, shows the righteous in this world the reward He is destined to give them in the Coming World, and their souls become full and they fall asleep.” The Sages were stirred by this and they explained the verse which says, and full of years, with this vision [of the reward that G-d shows the righteous before they die]. AND HIS SONS ISAAC AND ISHMAEL BURIED HIM. In the language of Bereshith Rabbah, “Here the son of the handmaid bestowed respect upon the son of the mistress” [since he yielded precedence to Isaac].’
The sage Rav Hirsch writes: ‘V. 8. Now it is characteristic that it never says האסף אל אבותיו but always האסף אל עמיו with the single exception in Judges 2,10 referring to the contemporary generation of Joshuah. Otherwise it always says שכוב עם אבותיו and האסף אל עמו. One is buried to parents, there the child comes to its father and mother. Up above, there are no “children”, there, all are one family, there, there is no “father and mother”. That relationship remains behind. Up above the soul finds only similar souls who had been breathed into outer casings down here by the One Father, and they, as soon as these casings fall off become “gathered up” to their related souls. In contrast to this we find הכרת הנפש מעמיה. Only such souls are accepted in that circle who, down here, have not been unfaithful to the mission they shared with the company of souls to which they belonged. Perhaps it is not unintentional that it says in Judges II. 10 that וגם כל הדור ההוא נאספו אל אבותיו to contrast it to the following generation, of which it says in V.12 ויעזבו את אלקי אבותם. The generation which was buried with Joshuah remained faithful to the traditions of its fathers, they could be gathered up above to the עמים who, on earth, had been אבותם. But not so the following generation who were unfaithful to the mission handed down to them by their fathers. V. 10. The title of acquisition is repeated again and again, because this was the only human guarantee the children had that their fathers recognized this land as their land, and therefore had bought their permanent resting-place there.’
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