Genesis 23:16

23:16 So Abraham agreed to Ephron’s price ¹  and weighed ²  out for him ³  the price ⁴  that Ephron had quoted ⁵  in the hearing of the sons of Heth – 400 pieces of silver, according to the standard measurement at the time. ⁶ 

Genesis 23:2

23:2 Then she ⁷  died in Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. ⁸ 

Genesis 15:19

15:19 the land ⁹  of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,

Genesis 18:14

18:14 Is anything impossible ¹⁰  for the Lord? I will return to you when the season comes round again and Sarah will have a son.” ¹¹ 

Genesis 18:31

18:31 Abraham ¹²  said, “Since I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty are found there?” He replied, “I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty.”

¹ tn Heb “listened to Ephron.”

² tn Heb “and Abraham weighed out.”

³ tn Heb “to Ephron.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“him”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁴ tn Heb “silver.”

⁵ tn Heb “that he had spoken.” The referent (Ephron) has been specified here in the translation for clarity and for stylistic reasons.

⁶ tn Heb “passing for the merchant.” The final clause affirms that the measurement of silver was according to the standards used by the merchants of the time.

⁷ tn Heb “Sarah.” The proper name has been replaced in the translation by the pronoun (“she”) for stylistic reasons.

⁸ sn Mourn…weep. The description here is of standard mourning rites (see K. A. Kitchen, NBD³ 149-50). They would have been carried out in the presence of the corpse, probably in Sarah’s tent. So Abraham came in to mourn; then he rose up to go and bury his dead (v. 3).

⁹ tn The words “the land” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹⁰ tn The Hebrew verb פָּלָא (pala’) means “to be wonderful, to be extraordinary, to be surpassing, to be amazing.”

¹¹ sn Sarah will have a son. The passage brings God’s promise into clear focus. As long as it was a promise for the future, it really could be believed without much involvement. But now, when it seemed so impossible from the human standpoint, when the Lord fixed an exact date for the birth of the child, the promise became rather overwhelming to Abraham and Sarah. But then this was the Lord of creation, the one they had come to trust. The point of these narratives is that the creation of Abraham’s offspring, which eventually became Israel, is no less a miraculous work of creation than the creation of the world itself.

¹² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.