Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 10.pdf/96

 An Ancient Conveyance of Land.

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AN ANCIENT CONVEYANCE OF LAND. By David Werner Amram. THE twenty-third chapter of Genesis is of peculiar interest, not only because it contains a record of an ancient convey ance of land, perhaps the most ancient of which we have any knowledge, but also be cause of the still more interesting fact that the entire method of transfer, even the formal words by which the purchaser obtained title, are there given. We can, by reading this chapter and by the exercise of a little imaginative power, reproduce a mental pic ture of the formalities by which Abraham became the owner of the burial place of Makhpelah. Sarah, the wife of Abraham, died at the advanced age of one hundred and twentyseven years, in the city of Hebron. Abra ham, the roving chieftain, now found him self among strangers, with no proper place wherein to bury his dead. After the first pang of mourning had passed, Abraham " arose from before his dead " and went down to the gate of the city, where the ciders of the Hittitcs, the heads of the houses, were sit ting in council, for the purpose of deciding matters of common weal, or perhaps for the purpose of sitting in judgment upon some public offense or some dispute between neighboring chieftains. For the gate of the city was the great gathering place, where the public market was held, where justice was dispensed and where the elders sat in council. There sat the council of the elders of the Hittites, who at that time possessed the city of Hebron and the surrounding country. Abraham approached them and, being recog nized as a mighty chieftain among them, was invited, although a stranger, to a seat in their council. After the preliminary courtesies of greeting were exchanged,

Abraham said unto the council, " I am a stranger and a sojourner with you; give me a possession of a burying place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight." The chieftains of the Hittites courteously replied to Abraham : " Hear us, my lord, thou art a mighty prince of God among us; in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead." Touched by this courteous address and generous offer, Abraham arose from his place amid the chieftains and bowed himself to them, the representatives of the people of the land, and said: " If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and entreat for me to Ephron, the son of Zokhar, that he may give me the cave of Makhpelah. So far Abraham took advantage of the generous outburst of the chieftains, " in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead," but the noble pride of Abraham, who had refused to take " from a thread even to a shoe latchet " belonging to the King of Sodom, again asserted itself, and he added, " for the full price let him give it to me in the midst of you for a possession of a burying place." Ephron was present at the council, and, not to be outdone in generosity, he said, "Nay, my lord, hear me; the field I give thee, and the cave that is therein I give it thee, in the presence of the sons of my people I give it thee; bury thy dead." But Abraham bowed again and repeated his desire to pay the price of the field. Ephron then said : " A piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that be twixt thee and me? Bury, therefore, thy dead." Abraham took the hint and with