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 tion of generosity still observed in the East. —land [worth] 400 shekels what is that?] The word for 'land' is better omitted with G; it is not the land but the money that 'Ephrôn pretends to disparage.—16. Abraham immediately pays the sum asked, and clenches the bargain.—current with the merchant] The precious metals circulated in ingots, whose weight was approximately known, without, however, superseding the necessity for 'weighing' in important transactions (Benzinger, Arch.$5$ 197; Kennedy, DB, iii. 420; ZA, iii. 391 f.).

17-20. Summary and conclusion.—17, 18 are in the form of a legal contract. Specifications of the dimensions and boundaries of a piece of land, and of the buildings, trees, etc., upon it, are common in ancient contracts of sale at all periods; cf. e.g. KIB, iv. 7, 17, 33 (1st Bab. dynasty), 101, and 161 (8th cent. ), 223-5 (6th cent.); the Assouan Papyri (5th cent.); and especially the Petra Inscr. cited in Authority and Archæology, p. 135.

The traditional site of the Cave of Makpēlāh is on the E side of the narrow valley in which Hebron lies, and just within the modern city (el-Ḫalīl). The place is marked by a sacred enclosure (the Ḥarām), within which Christians have seldom been admitted. The SE half is occupied by a mosque, and six cenotaphs are shown: those of Abraham and Sarah in the middle, of Isaac and Rebekah in the SE (within the mosque), and of Jacob and Leah in the NW: that of Joseph is just

—] better (G).—16. ] The only other instance of this use of (2 Ki. 12$2$) is corrupt (rd., G).—17. ] = 'pass into permanent possession,' as Lv. 25$5$ 27$30$ (P).—] G is nonsense; but V in quo erat spelunca duplex suggests a reading which (if it were better attested) would remove the difficulty of supposing that the name 'double cave' was applied to the district around.—] [E] as in $14. 17. 19$ = 'in front of,' perhaps 'to the E of.'