I will give thee money Abraham was rich in silver and gold, and therefore thought it unjust to take advantage of Ephron's generosity. Perhaps, also, there may be weight in Le Clerc's observation: “The orientals,” says he, “seem to have had the same notions about burying- places, which prevailed among the Greeks and Romans, namely, that it was ignominious to be buried in another person's ground: and therefore every family, the poorer sort excepted, had a sepulchre of their own, in which they would not suffer others to be interred.”
Genesis 23:15. Four hundred shekels of silver A shekel is computed to be of about the value of two shillings and four pence farthing; so that the sum mentioned here amounted to about forty-six pounds of our money. What a noble and amiable pattern of a generous behaviour between friends, free from selfishness, have we in Abraham and Ephron! The one earnestly presses to give, while the other as generously declines to receive. Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver For in those times money (or, more properly, silver or gold, for it was not coined) was paid by weight, (Genesis 43:21; Jeremiah 32:10,) and continued to be so till the Babylonish captivity.