A Journey Through The Old Testament - Elmer Towns

constant reminder of the past. Abraham had grown in his life of faith and knew there was a time
to go on with his life. The practice of placing a cremation urn on the mantle or establishing a
“memory shrine” in the home will often hinder the necessary adjustments to life after the death
of a family member.
When Abraham made his appeal to buy a burial place, the children of Heth offered him
the choice of graves. The Hebrew word bemibehar translated “in the choicest of “ (v. 6) is a term
used to designate the most select, the best quality. Some commentators believe the offer of a
burying place may have been an attempt to prevent Abraham from owning the land. But
Abraham did not want outsiders involved in his faith relationship with God. As an act of faith, he
dealt honestly in his business transactions as Christians are instructed to do so in the New
Testament (Rom. 13:8; 2 Cor. 8:21; 1 Thes. 4:12).
Abraham was offered the best available because he was viewed as “a mighty prince”
(Gen. 23:6), literally the prince of God. The emphasis of this title probably implied he belonged
to God, was under God’s protection, blessed by God, and so a mighty or distinguished prince (cf.
Ps. 36:7). Though there was a Canaanite god named El, the title for God in this title is Elohim
suggesting this is a reference to Abraham’s God rather than the Canaanite god.
Abraham’s selection of a grave was the cave of Machpelah then owned by Ephron ben
Zohar (Gen. 23:8-9). Both the LXX and Vulgate translate the name Machpelah here as “the cave
with two entrances or compartments.” Probably the name was originally a descriptive phrase
which came to be the name used in the legal description of the property (cf. v. 17). With the
purchase of this cave, Abraham owned his first piece of the land promised to him by God.
According to the real estate provisions in Hittite legal codes, the landowner was
financially responsible for the taxes on a piece of property unless he sold it in its entirety. Some
commentators believe Abraham tried to avoid the transfer of these obligations by requesting a
severance in which he would purchase the cave only, but Ephron insisted on selling the property
as a whole, both field and cave (vv. 17, 19-20). All was done in a businesslike way at the
entrance or gate of the city.
One might question if Ephron was not taking advantage of Abraham’s grief in this real
estate transaction. Without records of other purchases of a similar nature, it is impossible to be
certain, but 400 shekels of silver seems a little expensive (v. 15). Jeremiah paid 17 shekels for a
field (Jer. 32:9) and David paid 50 shekels for a threshing floor and oxen for a sacrifice (2
Sam. 24:24). More expensive pieces of real estate purchased in the Old Testament include the
temple site which sold for 600 gold shekels (1 Chron. 21:25) and a Samarian hill purchased by
Omri for 2 talents (6,000 shekels) of silver (1 Kings 16:24). Supporting the idea that Abraham
may have overpaid is the absence of any bartering over the price of the land which would seem
more characteristic of a commercial transaction in the East.
The purchase was made with “currency of the merchants” (Gen. 23:16). As there were no
coins issued by the state, pieces of metal of fixed weights were to be used in trade. It is possible
that these shekels had been weighted and marked by traders as a kind of legal tender in an effort
to establish some sort of standardization and minimize the occurrence of fraud.
PERSPECTIVE: BURIAL TO POSSESS THE LAND
The description of the grave in which Sarah was buried may have come from the actual
title deed of the property (Gen. 23:17-18). The particular reference to trees is characteristic of
Hittite land transactions. The whole chapter seems to reflect the Hittite laws current in the times