Comentario sobre Génesis 23:6

לא יכלה means will not withhold, just as (Psalms 40:12) “Thou wilt not withhold (תכלא) Thy mercies”, and (Genesis 8:2) “And the rain was restrained (ויכלא).

נשיא אלוהים, “a prince of G’d,” neither stranger or resident stranger as Avraham had described himself.

במבחר קברנו קבור, “do not wait until the formalities of the purchase have been completed, but go ahead and bury Sarah.” This corresponds to a statement by our sages in Moed Katan 22 על כל המתים כולן מדחה מטתו, “it behooves us to bury all the dead with dispatch, without undue delay.”

שמענו אדוני, "listen to us my lord;" they meant: "please listen to our suggestion to select the best of our burial grounds and go ahead and bury your dead one. You do not have to ask permission from any individual to give you his plot without a fair equivalent." The reason for all this is that "not one of us would refuse you even the plot he had selected for his own burial." They said so in order to expedite Sarah's burial.

שמענו אדני, this was said by their spokesman speaking on behalf of all of them. This is why he addressed Avraham as adoni in the singular mode, whereas the words following are all in the plural mode.

Will not withhold as in, “You will not withhold (לא תכלא) ...” Although the word in our verse ends with a ה, and the word cited by Rashi ends with an א, they still mean the same: “will not withhold.” [Rashi is saying that] our verse does not mean “destruction” (כליון), as in “Destruction (כלה) shall come upon them” (18:21), or “For destruction (כלה) and annihilation” (Yeshayahu 10:23), although those words indeed end with a ה like the word in this verse (יכלה). This is because this verse would not be understandable if יכלה meant “destruction.”

נשיא אלוהים, “a prince of G-d;” they answered his first statement first when he had described his status as either that of a stranger or resident, by saying that he was much more than that. They considered him as if G-d Himself had sent him. As far as his second request was concerned that he needed to acquire ancestral rights to any burial plot so as to safeguard it to being ploughed over in the future by its previous owner, every one of them would be willing to deed to him the plot that he had already chosen for himself his own future burial plot. He should meanwhile proceed to bury his dead and they would it consider an honour to have Sarah buried in a plot that had once belonged to one of them. איש את קברו, even if Avraham, by chance would select a plot that one of them had already earmarked as his own future burial ground.

(2) IN THE CHOICEST OF OUR BURIAL PLACES. In the place where we bury the chiefs of the land, and here is a grave already prepared.

נשיא אלוהים, G’d has given you an elevated position, and we consider your status as such among us.

The expression אדני simply means "my lord," and does not represent a name of G'd.

במבחר קברנו, they possessed many caves within which to bury the dead, and each family had such a cave reserved for interring its dead. Every corpse was buried in an individual coffin, the overall description of such a place being the word קבר, tomb. This is why the spokesman spoke of

איש ממנו את קברו, he considered not the individual grave but the family’s burial grounds. They intended that Avraham should ask one of them to share their family plots with him.

The words לא יכלה in verse 6 mean that no one would withhold his burial plots from Avraham if the latter chose to use it. We come across this verb in a similar usage in Samuel I 25,33 אשר כליתני היום הזה מבא בדמים, ”for preventing me from seeking redress in blood.”