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14 Ephron replied to Abraham, “Please, 15 sir, listen to me! A piece of land worth four hundred shekels[a] of silver—what is that between you and me? Bury your dead!” 16 (A)Abraham accepted Ephron’s terms; he weighed out to him the silver that Ephron had stipulated in the hearing of the Hittites, four hundred shekels of silver at the current market value.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. 23:15 Four hundred shekels: probably an exorbitant sum; Jeremiah (32:9) paid only seventeen shekels for his field in Anathoth, though the Babylonian invasion no doubt helped to reduce the price.
  2. 23:16 The current market value: the standard weight called a shekel varied according to time and place.

14 Ephron answered Abraham, 15 “Listen to me, my lord; the land is worth four hundred shekels[a] of silver,(A) but what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.”

16 Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver,(B) according to the weight current among the merchants.(C)

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Footnotes

  1. Genesis 23:15 That is, about 10 pounds or about 4.6 kilograms