The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 357

Epl1ron's offer of the fiel<l nncl cave ns a gift Vers. 17, 18.-And the field of Ephron, to he not wholly formal. I-lad ho regarded which was in Machpelah,-here the word is l~phron as all tho while desirous of n sale, he used as a proper name (vide atpra)-which wou!cl not have employed the language of entrcat.y. Take it of me, and I will bury was before Mamre,-';.~7 = over against my dead there. (Lange), te, the east of (K~il), the oak grove- Vers. 14, 15. - And Ephron anawered the field, nd the cave which was therein, and Abraham, saying unto him, My lord, hearken all the trees that were in the field, that were unto me : the land is worth four hundred in all the borders round about,-" In like shekels of silver. The word "shekel," from manner the specificatwns in the contract shakal, to weigh, here used for the first time, are just such as are found in modern deeds. was not a stamped coin, but a piece of metal It is not enough that you purchase a well- of definite weight, according to Exod. xxx. known lot; the contract must mention every- 13, equal to twenty gerahs, or beans, from thing that belongs to it, and certify that garar, to roll. Coined money was unknown fountains or wells in it, trees upon it, &.c., to the Hebrews until after the captivity. are sold with the field" (' Land ancl Book,' In the time of the Maccabees (1 Ma~. xv. p. 578)-were made anre-literally, stood up 6) silver coins wvre struck bearing tlie in- or arose, i. e. were confirmed (cf. Levit. xxvii. 14, 19)-unto Abraham for a posses- scription ',tt-,~' ',p~. Accordin a to Jose- sion in the presence of the children of Heth, phns (' Ant.,' iiL 8, 2) the sheke1 in use in before all that went in at the gate of his his day was equal to four Athenian drachmai; city. "This also is true to life. When any and if, as is believed, these were one-fifth sale is now to be effected in a town or village, larger than the old shekels coined by Simon the whole potulation gather about the parties Maccabeus, the weight of the latter would at the usua place of concourse, around or be equal to three and one-third drachma, or near the gate where there is one. There all two hundred grains, reckoning sixty grains take part and enter into the pros and cons to a drachm. It is impossible to ascertain with as much earnestness as if it were their the weight of the shekel current with the own individual affair. By these means the merchant in the time of Abraham; but operation, in all its circumstances and details, reckoning it at a little less than 2s. 6d. ster- is known to many witnesses, 1Lnd the thing ling, the price of Ephron's field must have is made sure without any written contruct" been somewhat under £50 ; e. very consider- (' Land and Book,' p. 679). able sum of money, which the Hittite mer- chant begins to depreciate by representing Ver. 19.-And after this, Abraham buried as n trifle, saying, Whe.t is the.t betwixt Sarah his wife-with what funeral rites can me and thee 1--words which aro still heard only be conjectured. hlouumental eviuence in the EE1St on similar occasions (vide 'Land nttests that the practice of embalming th,, and Book,' p. 678)-bury therefore thy dead. dead existed in Egypt in the reign of Ver. 16.-And Abraham hearkened unto Amunophth I. (n.o. 1500), though probably Ephron (either as knowing thl\t the pl'ice originating earlier (Sharpe's ' F.gypt,' vol. i. he asked was reasonnble, or as being in no p. 31) ; and 11n ex11mination of the 1,Iugheir humour to bnrgnin with him on the subject); vaults for burying the denu shows thnt among and Abrahe.m weighed to Ephron the silver, the 11arly Chaldrenns it wns customary to pll\cu - " Even this is still common ; for although the corpse upon n matting of reed spreacl coins have now a definite name, size, nnd upon a brick floor, the beau bciug pillowc,l value, yet every merchant carries a small on a single sun-dried brick, nn<I the bouy apparatus by which he woighs each coin to turued on its left siuo, tho right nrru falling see thllt it hns not been tampered with by towc;rds tho left, and the fingers resting 011 Jewish Clippers"(' Land nnd Book,' p. 578) the edge of a copper bowl, usually place,! -which he had named in the audience of on the palm of tho left hanu (vide Rawlin- the sons of Heth (the stipulation and the son's 'Ancient Monnrchios,' vol. i. p. 87)-in payment of the money were both made in the cave of the field of Machpelo.h before the presence of witnesses), four hundred Mamre. In which also in succcssiou his shekels of silver, ClllTent money with the own remains and those of Isanc, Rebokah, merchant-literally, silver passing with the Jacob, nnd Leah wore deposited, Rachel nlono merchant, or goer about, i. e. with mer- of the great patriarchnl family being absent. ch!Llldise; from sachar, to go nbout (cf. iµ1ro- This Inst resting-place of Abraham ,md his poc, lµ1ropd1oµa1). The Canaauites, of whom sons, ns of Sarah and her <laughters, has the Hittites wero II branch, wem among the been identified with Ramet-el-Kalil, nu earliest trnders of antiquity (cf. Job xl. 30; hour's journey to the north of Hebron (which Prov. xx:xi. 24); nnd the silver bars em- is too Jistant), where the foundations of nu µloyecl as the medium of exch1Lnge in their ancient heathen templo arc still pointct.l. out mere an tile trnnsl\ctions were probably staru pet! as Abrahnm's house ; but is more prolrnbl_y in some rnde fashion to imlicnte their weight. to be sou?l-.t for in the ~fohaunne,bn 1110,ru,,  2D4 'l'Im BOOK 01'' GENESIS. [rn. :o:m. 1--20.