Abraham and David Paying the Full Price For Land

Nadene Goldfoot                                           

  Paying for land was a mark of ownership over 3,871 years ago.  Abraham paid 400 shekels of silver for his burial plot. It was a man's only proof of ownership.                                       

The Cave of Machpela has an ancient history dating back to the earliest man and woman in the Bible.  Adam and Eve are said to be buried in the cave, the first of four couples to be buried there.

 The Cave of Machpela and the field around it were Abraham’s first acquisition in the Land that God promised to him and his descendants.   Besides Adam and Eve, the three patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish people – Abraham and Sarah, Rebekah and Isaac, and Jacob and Leah – are buried there as well. These three holy couples gave birth to the Jewish people and brought the awareness of God to the world.  Since Biblical times, the Cave of Machpela has been a place of prayer, meditation, and study.  The cave is respected as a gateway to the Garden of Eden, where our prayers have a special potency. 

Hebron was the first capital of the tribe of Judah. King David began his kingship here.  From Hebron, he was crowned King of Judah seven years before he was crowned king of Israel in Jerusalem.  Then he chose Jerusalem as his capital.  

The Cave of Machpelah  outside of Jerusalem was bought by Abraham who was born in the 2nd millennium or about 1948 BCE.  The cave  is a series of caves situated 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of Jerusalem in the heart of the Old City of Hebron in Judea (West Bank today). According to Judaism and the Abrahamic religions (Quran of Islam), the cave and adjoining field were purchased by Abraham as a burial plot, According to Genesis 23:1–20, Abraham's wife Sarah dies in Kiryat Arba near Hebron in the land of Canaan at the age of 127, being the only woman in the Bible whose exact age is given, while Abraham is tending to business elsewhere. Abraham comes to mourn for her.

When the Exodus arrived in Canaan, Joshua had assigned Hebron to Caleb, and it became a levitical  city and a city of refuge. By 1890 CE, Jews numbered 1,500, later to decline, but after 1936's riot. the Jews were forced out.   Today Hebron is an Arab city.   

Abraham with the sons of Heth (Hittites).  

 After a while he stands up and speaks to the sons of Heth. He tells them that he is a foreigner in their land and requests that they give him a burial site so that he can bury his dead. The Hittites flatter Abraham, call him a Lord and mighty prince, and say that he can bury his dead in any of their tombs. Abraham doesn't take them up on their offer and instead asks them to contact Ephron the Hittite, the son of Zohar, who lives in Mamre and owns the cave of Machpelah which he is offering to buy for "the full price". Ephron slyly replies that he is prepared to give Abraham the field and the cave within it, knowing that it would not result in Abraham having a permanent claim to it. Abraham politely refuses the offer and insists on paying for the field. Ephron replies that the field is worth four hundred shekels of silver and Abraham agrees to the price without any further bargaining. He then proceeded to bury his dead wife Sarah there.

The burial of Sarah is the first account of a burial in the Bible, and Abraham's purchase of Machpelah is the first commercial transaction mentioned.  

“Let him sell me the cave of Machpelah that he owns, which is at the edge of his land. Let him sell it to me, at the full price, for a burial site in your midst.” (Genesis 23:9) 3,800 years ago, Abraham purchased the cave to bury his wife Sarah and as an eternal inheritance to his children.  The Bible tells the story of this purchase in detail, the first Jewish acquisition of land in the Land of Israel.

Abraham bought the “cave at the edge of the field” for 400 silver shekels. Even though God told Abraham that this was his land as an inheritance and the Hittites offered to give him the cave for free, Abraham wisely insisted on pay full price for it, to insure that there would no question of ownership over this land and perhaps with prophetic insight into the future when others would try to claim it.  

His purchase is also used as the source for establishing the four different methods by which land can be legally acquired in Jewish law – by money, by deed, by witnesses, and by physical possession.  The Bible records that Abraham used all four methods to acquire the Cave of Machpela and field surrounding it, establishing him and his descendants – Yitzchak, Yaakov, and the Jewish people – as its rightful owners for all time to come.  

And here we are in the year 2023, 4,000 years from the purchase and so people dare to deny the Jews their land.  

 

                David fighting the Ammonites (today in Jordan) who frequently attacked  and suffered defeats by Jephthah and Saul.  

David (1010 -970 BCE) , who became king of Israel, bought the Foundation Stone with a threshing floor from  the Jebusite, Araunah. It's in Jerusalem.    Araunah had also offered it as his gift, but David insisted on paying for it.  The account of David’s census of the Israelites is found both at the end of 2 Samuel and in chapter 21 of 1 Chronicles.                                   

Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. (2 Samuel 24:24)

Then King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will surely buy it for the full price, for I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings with that which costs me nothing.” So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place. (1 Chronicles 21:24–25)

 David values that which he buys over a gift, and that is true today.  Many people who are given education for free-- value it far less than a class they had to pay for.  It's sad, but they must physically feel the ownership;  they can't imagine its value without this. Perhaps paying for something with your own money is a form of ancient sacrifice-the giving away of your own money. That shows you appreciate it. 

 

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_the_Patriarchs

https://hebronfund.org/cave-machpelah-overview/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abrahamic_religions