Paying a Lot to Buy a Plot

I had originally intended to skip over Gen 23 because Abraham’s negotiations to acquire a burial plot for Sarah didn’t seem terribly interesting. Yes, in the grand scheme of things the biblical author wanted to make the point that the death of Sarah resulted in Abraham purchasing land of his own, an incremental step in the fulfilment of God’s promise of the land to Abraham. But I didn’t think I could write 1000 words on it.

Then I read the transcript of a lecture on Gen 23 Meir Sternberg delivered in 2011 that changed my mind. Meir Sternberg is Professor of Poetics and Comparative Literature at Tel Aviv University. Along with Robert Alter (mentioned in my previous article), he is one of the most prominent proponents of a literary approach to understanding the Bible.

Sternberg points out that Sarah’s burial site, the cave of Machpelah, is only mentioned in Genesis and nowhere else. The Bible is not interested in establishing a cult of the dead as in Egypt. So why does the biblical author spend twenty verses discussing a real estate deal?

Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. A wall built by Herod the Great surrounds the courtyard built over the cave of Machpelah. It is one of the holiest sites for both Jews and Muslims. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, 2010)

They didn’t say “yes”, but they didn’t say “no”

The first couple of verses in Gen 23 inform us that Sarah died in Hebron at the age of 127. Abraham needs a place to bury his wife, so he approaches the town’s Hittite leaders. As negotiations begin (vv. 3-6), Abraham acknowledges that, as a resident alien (“stranger and sojourner among you”), he has no citizenship rights. Therefore, he petitions the Hittites to give him property for a burial place. The word “give” in Biblical Hebrew is ambiguous. It could mean “give” as a gift and it can also mean “give” me to purchase.

The Hittites answer him with flattery (“you are a great prince among us”) as a way of politely pointing out that Abraham is a wealthy man and not merely a poor sojourner. They also offer the use of any of their grave sites (“none of us will refuse you his grave”). Perhaps because they do not know if Abraham is asking for a gift or for a purchase, they do not say they will “give”, only that “no one will refuse”.

On the one hand, it sounds great. If Abraham needs a grave, they can provide a grave. But Abraham wants a burial site (“landed property”) and all they are offering is his choice of tombs.

“I give it to you”

A second round of negotiations (vv. 7-11) is in order. Abraham has his eye on a particular cave owned by a Hittite named Ephron. We learn later this double cave (“Machpelah” means “double”) faces Mamre, which was one of the first places where Abraham settled in Canaan (Gen 13:18). He was still residing there when he received a visit from three strangers announcing the future birth of Isaac (Gen 18:1). The spot certainly must have held a sentimental meaning for Abraham.

Abraham asks the leaders of the Hittites if they can approach Ephron on his behalf. The cave is at the end, on the boundary of his field. It’s not like the cave is in the center of Ephron’s field and he will have to work around it. Abraham is saying, “Sell me the cave and I will be out of your way. I will pay full price. I’m not asking for a gift.”

As it so happened, Ephron is sitting among the men at the city gates where business is done. “You want to buy the cave? I’ll give you the field as well.” He literally says “I give it to you” three times. Sounds generous, right?

Ephron does not want to sell just the cave. Selling the land to Abraham would grant him citizenship rights, it would set a precedence, it would break the status quo. Who knows? Maybe it will lower property values and he’d never be able to sell his field in the future. No, if Abraham wants the cave, he has to make it worth Ephron’s while. He needs to buy the entire field.

What’s a million dollars between friends?

We now enter the third and final round of negotiations (vv. 12-18). Abraham only wanted to purchase the cave, but if he can only get it by purchasing the field, then that is what he will do: “I will give you the price of the field.” If Ephron is making an offer in good faith, he will name his price. But if he has no intention of selling Abraham land at any price, then he will have to withdraw his offer in the eyes of the entire community.

Ephron shows his true colors and names his price: four hundred shekels of silver. “What is that between me and you?” To give you some idea of the price Ephron is asking, King David paid fifty shekels (2 Sam 24:24) for the site of the future Jerusalem Temple. That was hundreds of years later for prime real estate in the heart of Jerusalem and here Ephron is asking eight times that for a field on the outskirts of Hebron. What’s a million dollars between friends?

Did Ephron name an outrageous price to call Abraham’s bluff, so he will fold and go home? Or is Ephron price gouging? We don’t know, but Abraham doesn’t try to bargain down to a fair price. He weighs out 400 shekels (about 4.5 kg or almost 10 pounds) of silver and gets the title deed to Ephron’s field. (Interestingly, the purchase price of 400 shekels is one shekel for each of the four hundred years God told him Abraham it would be before his descendants would finally inherit the land of Canaan).

The meaning of it all

Why does the Bible spend all this time telling us this story of a real estate deal?

A running theme throughout the entire Abraham cycle is the dual promise of the land of Canaan and descendants to inherit it. After a long time, God finally came through on his promise to provide Abraham with a son, Isaac. And then God tested Abraham by asking him to sacrifice this long-promised son.

And while God has promised Abraham that the entire land of Canaan will one day belong to his descendants, when Sarah dies and he needs a place to bury her, a promise of land in the distant future doesn’t help at all. He needs a place to bury his wife now. And to get it, he has to go hat in hand and demean himself playing a game the Hittites have rigged against him.

The moral of the story is that God will deliver on his promises, but don’t expect Amazon next-day delivery. And there will be suffering involved.