Genesis 23.12-20-Abraham Closes Deal with Ephron for Burial Plot
Thursday March 30, 2006
Genesis: Genesis 23:12-20-Abraham Closes Deal with Ephron for Burial Plot
Lesson # 125
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 23:1.
This evening we will conclude our study of Genesis 23 by noting Genesis 23:12-20.
Genesis 23:1, “Now Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years; these were the years of the life of Sarah.”
Genesis 23:2, “Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan; and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.”
Genesis 23:3-4, “Then Abraham rose from before his dead, and spoke to the sons of Heth, saying, ‘I am a stranger and a sojourner among you; give me a burial site among you that I may bury my dead out of my sight.’”
Genesis 23:5-6, “The sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, ‘Hear us, my lord, you are a mighty prince among us; bury your dead in the choicest of our graves; none of us will refuse you his grave for burying your dead.’”
Genesis 23:7, “So Abraham rose and bowed to the people of the land, the sons of Heth.”
Genesis 23:8-9, “And he spoke with them, saying, ‘If it is your wish for me to bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and approach Ephron the son of Zohar for me that he may give me the cave of Machpelah which he owns, which is at the end of his field; for the full price let him give it to me in your presence for a burial site.’”
Genesis 23:10-11, “Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the sons of Heth; even of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying, ‘No, my lord, hear me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the presence of the sons of my people I give it to you; bury your dead.’”
Genesis 23:12, “And Abraham bowed before the people of the land.”
Once again, by bowing to the Hittites, Abraham expresses his politeness and appreciation as to the offer made by Ephron.
Genesis 23:13, “He spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, ‘If you will only please listen to me; I will give the price of the field, accept it from me that I may bury my dead there.’”
Abraham is aware of the importance of any agreement being public and attested by witnesses, so he, like Ephron, spoke “in the hearing of the people of the land.”
Again, Abraham insists that he not only wants to purchase the tomb but the field also and not receive them as a gift so that he and his descendants might not be obligated to Ephron or his descendants in the future.
Abraham wants to secure the property for his descendants, which is a demonstration of his faith in the Lord’s promise to give him the land of Canaan as a permanent possession.
Genesis 23:14-15, “Then Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, ‘My lord, listen to me; a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between me and you? So bury your dead.’”
Ephron accepts Abraham’s terms that the latter pay for the land rather than receive it as a gift.
In a nonchalant manner, Ephron names his price as “four hundred shekels of silver.”
A “shekel” is worth about 65 cents, thus 400 shekels was about $ 260.
We do not know if this price named by Ephron was exorbitant or not.
But according to Nahum Sarna, “three texts from Ugarit written in Akkadian and dating from the fourteenth-thirteenth centuries B.C.E., record real estate transactions involving a purchase price of 400 shekels of silver” (The JPS Torah Commentary, Genesis, Nahum M. Sarna, Jewish Publication Society, page 157).
Abraham does not make an offer but rather lets Ephron name his price since “only a payment that is manifestly accepted by the seller of his own volition ensures the unchallengeable nature of the transaction…once that is done, there is no further bargaining” (The JPS Torah Commentary, Genesis, Nahum M. Sarna, Jewish Publication Society, page 157)
Delitzsch makes an insightful comment regarding this transaction between Abraham and Ephron:
The bargain which is here made between Ephron and Abraham is to this very day repeated in that country. In Damascus, when a purchaser makes a lower offer than can be accepted, he is answered: What, is it a matter of money between us? Take it for nothing, friend, as a present from me; don’t feel under any kind of constraint! Dieterici had a similar experience in Hebron: ‘In our excursions we had noticed a fine grey horse belonging to the Quarantine inspector. Mr. Blaine, my fellow-traveller, had appeared to wish to buy the animal. It now made its appearance at our tents. We inquired the price, and our astonishment may be conceived when the dirty Turk offered us the animal as a present. Mr. Blaine declared that he by no means intended to take it as a present, when the Turk replied: What then are five purses (25 pounds sterling) to thee?’ Similar experiences take place every day in Egypt” (page 2:99-100 cited by Gordon Wenham, Word Biblical Commentary, volume 2, Genesis 16-50, page 129).
Genesis 23:16, “Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver which he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, commercial standard.”
Ephron names his price and Abraham agrees to it without arguing or attempting to bargain with Ephron to bring the price down.
Whether the price of 400 shekels was fair or not, we do not know since we do not have enough knowledge of the price of land in Israel in the days of Abraham.
Ephron is well aware of how important it is for Abraham to gain unimpeachable possession of the burial place and therefore, knows that Abraham will pay any amount.
Even if Ephron did overcharge Abraham, the price paid suggests Sarah’s burial ground was quite extensive, which befits the mother of the nation of Israel.
Her grave was impressive, a worthy memorial to a great woman.
The phrase “in the hearing of the sons of Heth” indicates that the Hittites were witnesses to this transaction between Abraham and Ephron and indicating that these negotiations were proper and legal.
The expression “commercial standard” is composed of: (1) Substantival use of the verb `avar (rb^u) (aw-var), “the current rate of exchange” (2) Distributive use of the preposition le (l+) (lamed), “among” (3) Substantival use of the verb sachar (rj^s) (saw-khar), “merchants.”
Therefore, the entire expression `over lassocher (rb@u{ rj@S{L^) means, “the current rate of exchange among merchants.”
After agreeing to Ephron’s price, Abraham calculated the weight of four hundred shekels of silver, which was according to the current rate of exchange among merchants in Abraham’s day.
In Genesis 23:17-18, Moses records the deed of sale.
Genesis 23:17-18, “So Ephron's field, which was in Machpelah, which faced Mamre, the field and cave which was in it, and all the trees which were in the field, that were within all the confines of its border, were deeded over to Abraham for a possession in the presence of the sons of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city.”
Bruce K. Waltke commenting on the expression “deeded over to” makes the following insightful comment, he writes, “In the Hebrew text, this word occurs first, a format precisely following the dialogue contract form. Literally, the phrase is ‘rose [and went over] to.” That is, the deed ‘rose and went to Abraham.’ The detailed contractual form demonstrates that Abraham has an impeccable legal claim to the field in Machpelah. Goodwill, good faith, and sincerity exist between the three parties” (Genesis, A Commentary, page 321, Zondervan).
Not only was the field and the cave deeded over to Abraham as a permanent possession but also “all the trees” which were in the field were as well since trees were considered appurtenances meaning they belonged to the property purchased.
Near Eastern contract clauses use similar language as we have here in Genesis 23:17-18.
With this purchase of the cave in the field of Machpelah facing Mamre in Hebron in the land of Canaan, Abraham was renouncing Paddan Aram, that is, northwest Mesopotamia (cf. 25:20), which was brought to the readers attention indirectly by mentioning the relatives of Abraham in Genesis 22:20-24.
Canaan was now Abraham’s new native land when he made this purchase.
Fascinatingly, the only piece of land that Abraham ever owned in the Promised Land, the land of Canaan was a burial plot.
But this first property of the patriarchs, a burial plot, bound them to the land of Canaan so that there would never be a return to Mesopotamia.
Later patriarchs, such as Isaac, Rebekah and Jacob, would die and be buried with their ancestors in Canaan.
Based upon God’s promise of land to his descendants, Abraham made plans for the future.
By buying the land for his dead, he was forced to realize that God’s promises do not end with this life.
God will do far more than He has done in this life, which is the confident expectation of all who die trusting in the Lord.
In this life, the patriarchs such as Abraham and Sarah were sojourners but in death they were heirs of the promise and occupied the land.
The patriarchs died not receiving the promises and yet they died in faith (see Hebrews 11:39-40).
God’s plan is for the patriarchs and all believers in every dispensation is to receive the promised rest (from sin and Satan) during the millennial reign of Christ.
This rest, the Sabbath rest spoken of in Hebrews 4:8-10 can be experienced to a certain extent in time through fellowship with God but will be experienced perfectly and completely during the millennial reign of Christ and in eternity future.
God’s promises to believers are not exhausted in this life.
Abraham bought this gravesite in the land of Canaan in the confident expectation of God fulfilling His promise to give the land of Canaan to himself and his descendants as a permanent possession.
He died trusting that God would fulfill His promise and so we too must die in faith.
As Abraham had a confident expectation of God fulfilling His promise in the future for him and his descendants, so believers today are to be confidently expecting God to fulfill His promises of a resurrection body and rewards for faithfulness.
Our natural inclination is to mourn death as the world does but in reality death should be the time of a believer’s greatest demonstration of faith because the recipient of God’s promises has a hope and a glorious future beyond the grave.
Remember, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself referred to Abraham when discussing the resurrection with the Sadducees (see Matthew 22:31-32) and stated that God’s promises demand resurrection.
Genesis 23:19 presents to us a summary of the burial of Sarah.
Genesis 23:19, “After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field at Machpelah facing Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan.”
Once the purchase had been consummated, Abraham proceeded with the burial of Sarah, the field and the cave had been secured, the bodies of the patriarchs and their wives would rest in the Promised Land until the day of resurrection.
The field and everything in it was now Abraham’s as a burial site and all the Hittites at the gate of the city were witnesses to this transaction, which made it official and a matter of record.
Abraham now had property in Canaan, even though it was to be used as a burial site.
Not only was Sarah buried at this site but so also were Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Leah were buried there as well (See Genesis 25:9; 35:27, 29, 49:31; 50:13) and all of these demonstrated their faith in God’s promises by being buried with Sarah.
This simple and terse statement in Genesis 23:19 without any descriptive detail, epitomizes the simplicity and lack of ostentation that have always characterized traditional Jewish burial rites.
The expression “facing Mamre” provides for us the reason why Abraham chose to buy this piece of land from Ephron.
The oaks of Mamre in Hebron was a place of happy memories for both Abraham and Sarah since there the Lord promised Abraham and Sarah that Isaac would be born one year later as recorded in Genesis 18:1-15.
Mamre was about two miles north of ancient Hebron, which was on a hill to the west of the modern Hebron.
Genesis 23:20 presents the conclusion of Abraham’s acquisition of the cave of Machpelah.
Genesis 23:20, “So the field and the cave that is in it, were deeded over to Abraham for a burial site by the sons of Heth.”
This little piece of land gives promise of the whole land and makes clear that Abraham and Sarah were aliens and strangers seeking a homeland, which they will receive at the resurrection of Old Testament believers.
Hebrews 11:8, “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.”
Hebrews 11:9, “By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise.”
Hebrews 11:10, “for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
Hebrews 11:11, “By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised.”
Hebrews 11:13, “All these (Abraham, Sarah) died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”
Hebrews 11:14, “For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.”
Hebrews 11:15, “And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return.”
Hebrews 11:16, “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.”
With this purchase of land in Hebron facing Mamre, Abraham wanted his descendants to know that he had believed in the Lord’s promises.
The presence of the grave site among his descendants in later years would be mute but eloquent testimony to them all that Abraham was sure that God would fulfill His promises.
Consequently, the purpose of the passage recorded in Genesis 23:1-20 is not to show that by this initial purchase of one piece of ground Abraham secured possession or option on the whole.
Rather, Abraham’s title to the land rested entirely on God’s promise to give him and his descendants the land of Canaan as a permanent possession and not upon a purchase and sale agreement between two human beings!
