Abraham Continued:
And Became A Land Owner.
'If you are willing for me to take my dead wife and bury her, then listen to
me. Intercede for me with Ephron, Zohar's son, to give me the cave he owns at
Machpelah, which is on the edge of his land.
Let him make it over to me in your presence at its full price, for me to own as a burial plot,' There now took place a typical piece of oriental bargaining. Ephron, the owner of the cave, happened to be present; he at once replied to Abraham's request: 'I give you the land and I give you the cave on it; I make this gift in the sight of the sons of my people. 4 Bury your dead.' Abraham answered: 'l will pay the price of the land; accept it from me and I will bury my dead there.' Ephron answered Abraham, 'My Lord, listen to me, A property worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is a little thing like that between me and you? Bury your dead.' Abraham agreed to Ephron's terms, and Abraham weighed 5 out for Ephron the silver he had stipulated in the hearing of the sons of Heth, namely four hundred shekels of silver, according to the current commercial rate. This was according to local custom. Still nowadays in the shop of a Palestine antique dealer, if he has retained the old and noble traditions of his ancestors, a European buyer will be told on asking the price of an object: 'Take it for nothing, I give it to you!' Of course it is not to be believed. Courtesy requires that the customer should refuse, and then insist on a price being fixed. It is proper for the merchant to hesitate and evade the issue for a time. Finally, pressed by the buyer he mutters, 'Twenty dollars, what is that between you and me?' It is understood; the customer pays the sum and leaves with the purchase. Thus Ephron's field at Machpelah opposite Mamre, the field and the cave that was on it, and all the trees that were on it, 6 the whole of its extent in every direction, passed into Abraham's possession in the sight of the sons of Heth and of all the citizens of the town. And so the field and the cave that was on it passed from the sons of Heth into Abraham's possession to be owned as a burial-plot' (Bereshith 23:17-20).
Thus Abraham Became A Land Owner.
This forms a turning point in the history of the Chosen People, for the cave of Machpelah is the first plot, acquired in due form, of the Promised Land.Sarah's body was solemnly transported to the tomb in the cave. It was not embalmed nor was there a sarcophagus in the Egyptian fashion. Possibly, in accordance with the Mesopotamian custom, the body was wrapped in a reed mat or, following the usage of the Aramean shepherds, in a sheepskin. It was laid on a stone bench carved out of the rock of the inner cave. Custom required that the corpse should lie on its left side with the knees drawn up towards the chin, the position of a child in the mother's womb.
By analogy with the various tombs of the same period, of which it has been possible to make an archaeological study, it can be asserted with some probability that beside Sarah's mortal remains Abraham had laid some small jars, probably filled with water and very similar to those used for fetching water from the well. In addition, almost certainly there were vessels containing food, and also stone knives. But all these various articles would be intentionally broken or pierced, or rendered useless in some way: it was 'dead' funeral furniture because it was intended to accompany a dead person.
All this leads naturally to the question of what the first Hebrews thought about life after death. There should be no cause for surprise at the primitive nature of their ideas. In fact, the patriarchs seem to have adopted the view of the future life as a dwellings after death was in Sheol.
Sheol is the place of the departed spirits. They live there with the same features as at the time of their death and with their earthly personality. But they have become elohim, that is, not gods indeed, but at least beings endowed with superhuman power and knowledge. Among the Hebrews of Abraham's time, as among the contemporaries of Yitschaq and Yacob (the second and third patriarchal generations), belief in a reward beyond the tomb cannot yet be discerned; this idea was only accepted in the second century B.C.
While admitting the gathering of the departed in Sheol the Hebrew shepherds thought that the dead person continued to enjoy a sort of slowed down existence in the tomb. They believed that the dead retained their own feelings and knowledge. From this arose the importance of burial, enabling the dead person to enjoy quiet and calm in the privacy of the tomb.
When Sarah's body had been laid upon the bench in the cave the entrance was closed with a huge boulder. It is difficult to say how long the mourning for Sarah continued, since the Scriptures gives different numbers of days according to the periods and the persons concerned. Thus there were seventy days for Yacob, thirty days for Mosheh and also for Aaron. Subsequently the seven days of mourning which followed the death of Saul seem to have become the rule, but for a father or mother the period of thirty days was retained. Very often widows, of their own free will, remained in mourning for the rest of their lives. In any case during the seven days following the death the mourner was forbidden to wash, shave, anoint his body with oil, wear anything on his feet (it was necessary to go barefoot) or to cover his head; and all the relatives of the dead person wore the saq.
On return from the cave of Machpelah, once the burial was over, Abraham and his near relatives were obliged to perform a ceremony of purification, since to have touched or even to have looked at a corpse was a cause of uncleanness. The tent also became unclean together with all those who had gone into the place in which the dead person lay. Seven days of special rites were required for those present to regain their previous state of cleanness.
Abraham was taken back to the camp by his family. He was still fasting and would continue to do so until sunset. At that moment friends, not members of the clan, would come to bring, from outside, the funeral meal. There could be no question in such circumstances of eating food from the camp since it would be considered unclean owing to the recent presence of the corpse. The friends urged the mourning family to eat. After several refusals, justified by their very great sorrow, in the end the relatives of the dead woman consented to eat the 'bread of mourning' and drink 'the cup of consolation' (YermeYah 16:7; Hos. 9:4).
4 Babylonian law is very clear on this point; the code of Hammurabi lays down that 'If anyone proceeds to a sale without witnesses or a contract, he is a thief and will be put to death.'
5 There was no minted money, no coins were struck at this period the Ingots of gold or silver used in transactions were weighed. The shekel was the unit of weight in Yisrael. Four hundred shekels weighed about 156 ozs.
6 'The trees that were on it.' In a properly drawn up Mesopotamian contract of sale it was very carefully specified that the trees were sold with the land. For with the litigious spirit characteristic of the area the seller might argue that he had sold the land but not the orchard planted on it, and in these circumstances he could demand the crop produced by these trees.
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