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Genesis 23:16 Darby English Bible (DARBY)

16 And Abraham hearkened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the money that he had named in the ears of the sons of Heth -- four hundred shekels of silver, current with the merchant.

Cross Reference

Jeremiah 32:9 DARBY

And I bought of Hanameel, mine uncle's son, the field which is in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, seventeen shekels of silver.

Zechariah 11:12 DARBY

And I said unto them, If ye think good, give [me] my hire; and if not, forbear. And they weighed for my hire thirty silver-pieces.

Genesis 23:15 DARBY

My lord, hearken to me. A field of four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between me and thee? bury therefore thy dead.

Genesis 43:21 DARBY

And it came to pass when we came to the inn, that we opened our sacks, and behold, [every] man's money was in the mouth of his sack, our money according to its weight; and we have brought it again in our hand.

Exodus 30:13 DARBY

This shall they give -- every one that passeth among them that are numbered -- half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary, -- twenty gerahs the shekel; a half shekel shall be the heave-offering for Jehovah.

Ezra 8:25-30 DARBY

and I weighed to them the silver and the gold and the vessels, the heave-offering for the house of our God, which the king and his counsellors and his princes, and all Israel present, had offered. And I weighed into their hand six hundred and fifty talents of silver; and silver vessels a hundred talents, [and] of gold a hundred talents; and twenty basons of gold, of a thousand darics; and two vessels of shining copper, precious as gold. And I said to them, Ye are holy unto Jehovah; the vessels also are holy; and the silver and the gold is a voluntary offering to Jehovah the God of your fathers. Watch and keep [them] until ye weigh them before the chiefs of the priests and the Levites, and the chiefs of the fathers of Israel, at Jerusalem, in the chambers of the house of Jehovah. And the priests and the Levites received by weight the silver and the gold and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem unto the house of our God.

Job 28:15 DARBY

Choice gold cannot be given for it, nor silver be weighed for its price.

Ezekiel 45:12 DARBY

And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs; twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh.

Matthew 7:12 DARBY

Therefore all things whatever ye desire that men should do to you, thus do *ye* also do to them; for this is the law and the prophets.

Romans 13:8 DARBY

Owe no one anything, unless to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law.

Philippians 4:8 DARBY

For the rest, brethren, whatsoever things [are] true, whatsoever things [are] noble, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] amiable, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue and if any praise, think on these things.

1 Thessalonians 4:6 DARBY

not overstepping the rights of and wronging his brother in the matter, because the Lord [is] the avenger of all these things, even as we also told you before, and have fully testified.

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Genesis 23

Commentary on Genesis 23 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary


Verse 1-2

Sarah is the only woman whose age is mentioned in the Scriptures, because as the mother of the promised seed she became the mother of all believers (1 Peter 3:6). She died at the age of 127, thirty-seven years after the birth of Isaac, at Hebron, or rather in the grove of Mamre near that city (Genesis 13:18), whither Abraham had once more returned after a lengthened stay at Beersheba (Genesis 22:19). The name Kirjath Arba, i.e., the city of Arba, which Hebron bears here and also in Genesis 35:27, and other passages, and which it still bore at the time of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites (Joshua 14:15), was not the original name of the city, but was first given to it by Arba the Anakite and his family, who had not yet arrived there in the time of the patriarchs. It was probably given by them when they took possession of the city, and remained until the Israelites captured it and restored the original name. The place still exists, as a small town on the road from Jerusalem to Beersheba, in a valley surrounded by several mountains, and is called by the Arabs, with allusion to Abraham's stay there, el Khalil , i.e., the friend (of God), which is the title given to Abraham by the Mohammedans. The clause “ in the land of Canaan ” denotes, that not only did Sarah die in the land of promise, but Abraham as a foreigner acquired a burial-place by purchase there. “ And Abraham came ” (not from Beersheba, but from the field where he may have been with the flocks), “ to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her, ” i.e., to arrange for the customary mourning ceremony.


Verses 3-16

He then went to the Hittites, the lords and possessors of the city and its vicinity at that time, to procure from them “a possession of a burying-place.” The negotiations were carried on in the most formal style, in a public assembly “of the people of the land,” i.e., of natives (Genesis 23:7), in the gate of the city (Genesis 23:10). As a foreigner and sojourner, Abraham presented his request in the most courteous manner to all the citizens (“all that went in at the gate,” Genesis 23:10, Genesis 23:18; a phrase interchangeable with “all that went out at the gate,” Genesis 34:24, and those who “go out and in,” Jeremiah 17:19). The citizens with the greatest readiness and respect offered “the prince of God,” i.e., the man exalted by God to the rank of a prince, “the choice” ( מבחר , i.e., the most select) of their graves for his use (Genesis 23:6). But Abraham asked them to request Ephron, who, to judge from the expression “his city” in Genesis 23:10, was then ruler of the city, to give him for a possession the cave of Machpelah , at the end of his field, of which he was the owner, “for full silver,” i.e., for its full worth. Ephron thereupon offered to make him a present of both field and cave. This was a turn in the affair which is still customary in the East; the design, so far as it is seriously meant at all, being either to obtain a present in return which will abundantly compensate for the value of the gift, or, what is still more frequently the case, to preclude any abatement in the price to be asked. The same design is evident in the peculiar form in which Ephron stated the price, in reply to Abraham's repeated declaration that he was determined to buy the piece of land: “a piece of land of 400 shekels of silver, what is that between me and thee” (Genesis 23:15)? Abraham understood it so ( ישׁמע Genesis 23:16), and weighed him the price demanded. The shekel of silver “current with the merchant,” i.e., the shekel which passed in trade as of standard weight, was 274 Parisian grains, so that the price of the piece of land was £52, 10s.; a very considerable amount for that time.


Verses 17-19

Thus arose ( ויּקם ) the field...to Abraham for a possession; ” i.e., it was conveyed to him in all due legal form. The expression “the field of Ephron which is at Machpelah” may be explained, according to Genesis 23:9, from the fact that the cave of Machpelah was at the end of the field, the field, therefore, belonged to it. In Genesis 23:19 the shorter form, “cave of Machpelah,” occurs; and in Genesis 23:20 the field is distinguished from the cave. The name Machpelah is translated by the lxx as a common noun, τὸ σπήλαιον τὸ διπλοῦν , from מכפּלה doubling; but it had evidently grown into a proper name, since it is sued not only of the cave, but of the adjoining field also (Genesis 49:30; Genesis 50:13), though it undoubtedly originated in the form of the cave. The cave was before, i.e., probably to the east of, the grove of Mamre, which was in the district of Hebron. This description cannot be reconciled with the tradition, which identifies Mamre and the cave with Ramet el Khalil , where the strong foundation-walls of an ancient heathen temple (according to Rosenmüller's conjecture, an Idumaean one) are still pointed out as Abraham's house, and where a very old terebinth stood in the early Christian times; for this is an hour's journey to the north of modern Hebron, and even the ancient Hebron cannot have stretched so far over the mountains which separate the modern city from Rameh , but must also, according to Genesis 37:14, have been situated in the valley (see Robinson's later Biblical Researches , pp. 365ff.). There is far greater probability in the Mohammedan tradition, that the Harem, built of colossal blocks with grooved edges, which stands on the western slope of the Beabireh mountain, in the north-western portion of the present town, contains hidden within it the cave of Machpelah with the tomb of the patriarchs (cf. Robinson, Pal. ii. 435ff.); and Rosen. is induced to look for Mamre on the eastern slope of the Rumeidi hill, near to the remarkable well Ain el Jedid .


Verse 20

The repetition of the statement, that the field with the cave in it was conveyed to Abraham by the Hittites for a burial-place, which gives the result of the negotiation that has been described with, so to speak, legal accuracy, shows the great importance of the event to the patriarch. The fact that Abraham purchased a burying-place in strictly legal form as an hereditary possession in the promised land, was a proof of his strong faith in the promises of God and their eventual fulfilment. In this grave Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, were buried; there Jacob buried Leah; and there Jacob himself requested that he might be buried, thus declaring his faith in the promises, even in the hour of his death.