Unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city.
The field of Ephron was made sure unto Abraham for a possession. This is the earliest instance of a transference of property on record. There was no attorney, no parchment, no seal or signature attached to a deed, no register house in which to deposit it among the municipal archives of Hebron. It was entirely an oral transaction; yet the act of conveyancing was marked by a particularity of details and specifications-field, cave, ilexes, "in all the borders round about," - as minute as could be done in a modern legal document; and, being completed in the presence of known witnesses-probably the elders and magistrates-was considered, according to the notions and customs of patriarchal times, as binding as the strictest forms of written law could have made it. On the part of Abraham, however, this was not simply a commercial transaction: it was an act of faith, performed in steadfast regard to the promise. It was an earnest of the future possession of the land by his posterity, which in consequence of the public compact with the children of Heth, became universally known.