Atlas - Abraham Buys the Makhpelah Cave

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ABRAHAM BUYS THE MAKHPELAH CAVE

From A History of the Jews by Paul Johnson

Hebron is the site of [the Jews']...first recorded acquisition of land. Chapter 23 of the Book of Genesis describes how Abraham, after the death of his wife Sarah, decided to purchase the Cave of Machpelah and the lands which surrounded it, as a burying-place for her and ultimately for himself....It is perhaps the first passage in the Bible which records an actual event, witnessed and described through a long chain of oral recitation and so preserving authentic details. The negotiation and ceremony of purchase are elaborately described. Abraham was what might now be termed an alien, though a resident of long standing in Hebron. To own freehold land in the place he required not merely the power of purchase but the public consent of the community. The land was owned by a dignitary called Ephron the Hittite, a West Semite and Habiru of Hittite origin. Abraham had first to secure the formal agreement of the community, 'the children of Heth', 'the people of the land', to make the transaction; then to bargain with Ephron about the price, 400 shekels (i.e., pieces) of silver; then to have the coins, 'current money with the merchant', weighed out and handed over before the communal elders.

This was a memorable event in a small community, involving not merely transfer of ownership but change of status: the ritualistic bowings, the dissimulations and false courtesies, the hardness and haggling, are all brilliantly conveyed by the Bible narrative. But what strikes the reader most, what lingers in the mind, are the poignant words with which Abraham begins the transaction: 'I am a stranger and a sojourner with you'; then, when it was concluded, the repeated stress that the land 'was made sure unto Abraham for a possession' by the local people (Genesis 23:20).