tion of generosity still observed in the East.[1]—land [worth] 400 shekels . . . what is that. . .?] The word for 'land' is better omitted with G; it is not the land but the money that 'Ephrôn pretends to disparage.—16. Abraham immediately pays the sum asked, and clenches the bargain.—current with the merchant] The precious metals circulated in ingots, whose weight was approximately known, without, however, superseding the necessity for 'weighing' in important transactions (Benzinger, Arch.2 197; Kennedy, DB, iii. 420; ZA, iii. 391 f.).[2]
17-20. Summary and conclusion.—17, 18 are in the form of a legal contract. Specifications of the dimensions and boundaries of a piece of land, and of the buildings, trees, etc., upon it, are common in ancient contracts of sale at all periods; cf. e.g. KIB, iv. 7, 17, 33 (1st Bab. dynasty), 101, and 161 (8th cent. B.C.), 223-5 (6th cent.); the Assouan Papyri (5th cent.); and especially the Petra Inscr. cited in Authority and Archæology, p. 135.
The traditional site of the Cave of Makpēlāh is on the E side of the
narrow valley in which Hebron lies, and just within the modern city
(el-Ḫalīl). The place is marked by a sacred enclosure (the Ḥarām),
within which Christians have seldom been admitted. The SE half is
occupied by a mosque, and six cenotaphs are shown: those of Abraham
and Sarah in the middle, of Isaac and Rebekah in the SE (within the
mosque), and of Jacob and Leah in the NW: that of Joseph is just
—(
Hebrew characters)] better (Hebrew characters) (G).—16. (Hebrew characters)] The only other instance of this use of
(Hebrew characters) (2 Ki. 125) is corrupt (rd. (Hebrew characters), G).—17. (Hebrew characters)] = 'pass into permanent
possession,' as Lv. 2530 2714. 17. 19 (P).—(Hebrew characters)] G (Greek characters)
is nonsense; but V in quo erat spelunca duplex suggests a
reading (Hebrew characters) which (if it were better attested) would remove the
difficulty of supposing that the name 'double cave' was applied to
the district around.—(Hebrew characters)] [E] (Hebrew characters) as in 19 = 'in front of,' perhaps 'to
the E of.'
- ↑ "The peasants will often say, when a person asks the price of any thing which they have for sale, 'Receive it as a present': this answer having become a common form of speech, they know that advantage will not be taken of it; and when desired again to name the price, they will do so, but generally name a sum that is exhorbitant." Lane, Mod. Eg.5 ii. 13f.
- ↑ Cuneiform records recently discovered in Cappadocia seem to prove that shekels "stamped with a seal" were in use in the time of Ḫammurabi. See Sayce, Contemp. Rev., Aug. 1907, p. 259.
