Genesis 23:16 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Genesis 23:16
And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Ephron
עֶפְרוֹן֒'ef.rOn
H6085
Ephron · proper noun, a man's name
Abraham
אַבְרָהָם֙'av.ra.Ham
H85
Abraham · proper noun, a man's name
weighed
וַיִּשְׁקֹ֤לvai.yish.Kol
H8254
to suspend or poise (especially in trade) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Ephron
לְעֶפְרֹ֔ןle.'ef.Ron
H6085
Ephron · preposition + proper noun, a man's name
silver
הַכֶּ֕סֶףha.Ke.sef
H3701
silver (from its pale color) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
named
דִּבֶּ֖רdi.Ber
H1696
perhaps properly · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
audience
בְּאָזְנֵ֣יbe.'a.ze.Nei
H241
broadness. i.e. (concrete) the ear (from its form in ma… · preposition + noun, common feminine dual construct
sons
בְנֵיve.nei-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
Heth
חֵ֑תChet
H2845
Cheth · proper noun, a man's name
four
אַרְבַּ֤ע'ar.Ba'
H702
four · cardinal number, both genders singular construct
hundred
מֵאוֹת֙me.'ot
H3967
a hundred · cardinal number, feminine plural absolute
shekels
שֶׁ֣קֶלShe.kel
H8255
probably a weight · noun, common masculine singular construct
silver
כֶּ֔סֶףKe.sef
H3701
silver (from its pale color) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
current
עֹבֵ֖ר'o.Ver
H5674
to cross over · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
merchant
לַסֹּחֵֽרla.so.Cher
H5503
to travel round (specifically as a pedlar) · preposition with the article + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 32:9 And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle’s son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver.
Zechariah 11:12 And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.
Genesis 23:15 My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead.
Genesis 43:21 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 mon…
Exodus 30:13 This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twe…
Ezra 8:25-30 And weighed unto them the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, even the offering of the house of our God, which the king, and his counsell…
Job 28:15 It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.
Ezekiel 45:12 And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 23:16–end
We have here the conclusion of the treaty between Abraham and Ephron about the burying-place. The bargain was publicly made before all the neighbours, in the presence and audience of the sons of Heth, Gen 23:16, Gen 23:17. Note, Prudence, as well as justice, directs us to be fair, and open, and above-board, in our dealings. Fraudulent contracts hate the light, and choose to be clandestine; but those that design honestly in their bargains care not who are witnesses to them. Our law countenances sales made in market - overt, and by deed enrolled. Observe, 1. Abraham, without fraud, covin, or further delay, pays the money, Gen 23:16. He pays it readily, without hesitation, - pays it in full, wi…
Abraham weighed . . . the silver--The money, amounting to £50 was paid in presence of the assembled witnesses; and it was weighed. The practice of weighing money, which is often in lumps or rings, each stamped with their weight, is still common in many parts of the East; and every merchant at the gates or the bazaar has his scales at his girdle.
Adam Clarke on Genesis 23:16
Current with the merchant - עבר לסחר ober lassocher, passing to or with the traveler - such as was commonly used by those who traveled about with merchandise of any sort. The word signifies the same as hawker or peddler among us.
John Gill on Genesis 23:16
And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron,.... He agreed at once to give him the sum proposed, judging it to be a moderate price between man and man, and he was satisfied with it, and well content to pay him the money:
and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver: for in those times money had no mark or stamp upon it to show its value, and therefore was not told by pieces, but weighed, by which its full worth was known; and that Ephron might have his whole and just demand, the silver was weighed to him:
which he had named, in the audience of the sons of Heth; who were witnesses of the bargain, of the price set by Ephron, and of the payment of it by Abraham:
four hundred shekels of silver: the sum bef…
Dictionary and topics
Abraham — Father of a multitude, son of Terah, named (Gen. 11:27) before his older brothers Nahor and Haran, because he was the heir of the promises. Till the age of seventy, Abram sojourned among his kindred…
Burial — The first burial we have an account of is that of Sarah (Gen. 23). The first commercial transaction recorded is that of the purchase of a burial-place, for which Abraham weighed to Ephron “four…
Coin — Before the Exile the Jews had no regularly stamped money. They made use of uncoined shekels or talents of silver, which they weighed out (Gen. 23:16; Ex. 38:24; 2 Sam. 18:12). Probably the silver…
Ephron — Fawn-like. (1.) The son of Zohar a Hittite, the owner of the field and cave of Machpelah (q.v.), which Abraham bought for 400 shekels of silver (Gen. 23:8-17; 25:9; 49:29, 30). (2.) A mountain range…
Hebron — A community; alliance. (1.) A city in the south end of the valley of Eshcol, about midway between Jerusalem and Beersheba, from which it is distant about 20 miles in a straight line. It was built…
Heth — Dread, a descendant of Canaan, and the ancestor of the Hittites (Gen. 10:18; Deut. 7:1), who dwelt in the vicinity of Hebron (Gen. 23:3, 7). The Hittites were a Hamitic race. They are called “the…
Machpelah — Portion; double cave, the cave which Abraham bought, together with the field in which it stood, from Ephron the Hittite, for a family burying-place (Gen. 23). It is one of those Bible localities…
Metals — The Hebrews, in common with other ancient nations, were acquainted with nearly all the metals known to modern metallurgy, whether as the products of their own soil or the results of intercourse with…
Silver — Used for a great variety of purposes, as may be judged from the frequent references to it in Scripture. It first appears in commerce in Gen. 13:2; 23:15, 16. It was largely employed for making…
Weights — Reduced to English troy-weight, the Hebrew weights were: (1.) The gerah (Lev. 27:25; Num. 3:47), a Hebrew word, meaning a grain or kernel, and hence a small weight. It was the twentieth part of a…
And Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver. I know not what had come into Jerome's mind, when he says, that one letter was abstracted from Ephron's name, after he had been persuaded, by Abraham's entreaties, to receive money for the field; because, by the sale of the sepulcher, his virtue was maimed or diminished: for, in fact, the name of Ephron is found written in the very same manner, after that event, as before. Nor ought it to be imputed to Ephron as a fault, that, being pressed, he took the lawful price for his estate; when he had been prepared liberally to give it. If there was any sin in the case, Abraham must bear the whole blame. But who shall dare to condemn a just sale, in which, o…
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 (Gen 23:7), in the gate of the city (Gen 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," Gen 23:10, Gen 23:18; a phrase interchangeable with "all that went out at the gate," Gen 34:24, and those who "go out and in," Jer 17:19). The citizens with the greatest readiness and respect offered "the prince of God," i.e., th…
Abraham paid the amount and finalized the transaction, avoiding indebtedness by accepting no gifts from the people (cp. 14:21-24). The Hittite elders witnessed the transaction, ensuring that no one could challenge Abraham’s full ownership of the land. The transaction took place at the city gate, where public legal and business dealings were conducted (cp. 19:1). The land became Abraham’s permanent possession, a down payment on God’s promise to give him the land. Abraham knew that God’s promise was not fulfilled (12:7) by this acquisition, so he planned for the future. By buying land for his dead, he declared that God’s promises do not end with this life. This is the hope of all who die in fa…
וישקל אברהם לעפרן AND ABRAHAM WEIGHED TO EPHRON [THE SILVER] — The name Ephron is written defectively (without the ו) to indicate that there was something missing in Ephron viz, sincerity — because he promised much but did not do even the very least (Bava Metzia 87a): He took from him big Shekels, viz., centenaria (worth a full 100 smaller units) as it is said, “money current with the merchant” which means, such coins as were everywhere accepted as worth a full Shekel — for there are places where their Shekels are of large size, centenaria; old French Centenars (cf. Ruth R. 7).
Burial · Antiquity of purchasing places for — Antiquity of purchasing places for
Cave · Burial place — Burial place
Commerce · Articles of: Land — Articles of: Land
Covenants · Designed for: Selling land — Designed for: Selling land
Ephron · .Sells to Abraham the field containing the — .Sells to Abraham the field containing the
Gates · of legal transactions — of legal transactions
Heth · General references — General references
Land · Bought and — Bought and
Merchant · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Money · Weighed — Weighed
Silver · Used for money — Used for money
Weights · Value of money estimated according to — Value of money estimated according to
Witness · To the transfer of land — To the transfer of land
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
