Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Now Ephron was sitting in the middle of the children of Heth. Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the children of Heth, even of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying, “No, my lord, hear me. I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the presence of the children of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead.” Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land. He spoke to Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, “But if you will, please hear me. I will give the price of the field. Take it from me, and I will bury my dead there.””
(Genesis 23:10-13)

Now the dance of the deal starts, but it begins and continues with great respect to Abraham. At any point Abraham could have given up trying to buy the plot and accepted the generousity of the Hittites. These people respected Abraham even though they were very different. It is a great picture of how we can be a witness for God in the world. That who we are gets noticed. That how we do business is honoured, because we honour all those we do business with.

Ephron was not unwilling to sell his land and he made sure the whole process was public. No one was going to be able to say either side of this deal was dishonest or not above board.

Abraham was not looking for a free pass. Like King David with the threshing field of Araunah (2 Samuel 24:24), Abraham wanted to fairly pay for what he was looking for. He didn’t want the significance of what he was doing to be lost in a generous gift. He wanted this to last beyond their generation. He wanted a permanent and guaranteed resting place for his beloved wife.

The sage Radak writes: ‘ועפרון..באזני בני חת, in a loud voice, making sure they could all hear him. In this verse the Torah emphasises the aural aspect of the negotiations, whereas in verse 18, at the conclusion of the transaction the visible aspect, לעיני בני חת is stressed, as at that point eye-witnesses were more important. We find such a sequence of aural perception and visual perception also in Job 29,11 כי אזן שמעה ותאשרני ועין ראתה ותעידני, “for the ear that heard acclaimed me, and the eyes that saw were my witness.” לכל באי שער עירו, including all the people of his city, prominent or plain people. באי שער, people who enter or leave through the gate. In other words, everybody. Sometimes the Torah refers to באי שער, people entering through the gate, other times יוצאי עירו, people leaving via the gate. (compare Genesis 34,24) It all amounts to the same thing. For the sake of brevity the Torah mentions only either באי or יוצאי. Sometimes it mentions both, as in Jeremiah 17,19. לא אדוני שמעני, not like you say that you want to pay the full value of the property. Take it for free, as a gift, and not only the cave, but I am also donating the field to you. נתתי, I have already given it to you as a gift, לעיני בני עמי, in front of the members of my people who are all witnesses to this transaction between me and you. וישתחו, Avraham bowed to Efron in everybody’s presence. וידבר…אך אם אתה לו שמעני, I wish you would have listened to what I said that נתתי כסף השדה, I have already prepared the money for the field, if you’ll accept it you will be doing me a favour, ואקברה, and I will proceed to bury, as the matter does not permit further delay.’

The sage Rav Hirsch writes: ‘V. 11. Ephron had not understood Abraham, or pretended not to have understood him so as to make him declare his offer clearly and definitely. The actual meaning of his fine speech was probably: My intention is, that you should buy the field, but the cave, of that, I here and now publicly make you a present, so first bury your dead, and then afterwards we can come to terms about the rest. Abraham had only offered to buy the cave. But Ephron lets him know that he would only part with the cave to the buyer of the field. V. 13. Abraham answers that he has already indicated that he was ready to pay the value of the whole field for the cave, he had the money all ready for that payment, there it was, he no longer considered it as his own, let Ephron pick it up, and the matter would be finished.’