14 And Ephron answered Abra- | of Heth, four hundred shekels of ham, saying unto him, silver current money with the mer

15 My lord, hearken unto me: chant. the land is worth four hundred h shekels of silver what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead.

1

17 ¶ And the field of Ephron which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders round about, were made sure

k ch. 25. 9 & 49. 30, 31, 32. & 50. 13. Acts 7. 16.

16 And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron, and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons Exod. 30. 15. Ezek. 45. 12. i Jer. 32. 9. the money is produced, he counts it and thee' (1 Sam. xxv. 12). This was carefully, and transfers it to the pocket not therefore considered disrespectful or bosom of his vest in a business-like even in an inferior; nor is it now in the manner, without any indication that East-at least not in Persia-where the shekels of silver are undervalued by strict and minutely regulated etiquette him.' Pict. Bible. of society does not regard this practice

16. Four hundred shekels. Heb. pas improper.' Pict. Bible. shekel, from shakal, to weigh,

17. Were made sure. Heb. p yakom, whence we have by transposition of stood, or stood up; i. e. were made staletters the Eng. 'scale,' an instrument ble, sure, confirmed. The same term v. of weighing. It is so called from the 20, rendered by the Gr. ɛxvρw✪ŋ, was confact that the value of money was in firmed. Throughout the above transacthose early ages reckoned by weight. tion, there was much more in the mind For this reason the word shekel is at of Abraham than was known to the peoonce the name of a weight and a coin. ple with whom he was dealing. The imThe value of the Jewish shekel was not mediate and ostensible reason for making far from fifty cents, American money. the purchase was, to procure a place of The price, therefore, that Ephron set up-interment for his wife. But he had others on his field, may be fixed at about two no less important. One of these, as we hundred dollars; consequently it could have already intimated, was to express his not have been a very small tract which confidence in the divine promise. God had in that age could have brought so con- promised to him and to his seed the land siderable a sum.- - What is that be- wherein he sojourned. But Abraham had twixt me and thee? We all know what continued there till this time without a proof of arrogance or ignorance it is gaining in it so much as one foot of land. considered for a person to name himself Yet it was not possible that the promise before another, even though that other could fail. He was as much assured that should be an inferior; and what odium it should be fulfilled, as if he had seen its Cardinal Wolsey incurred by writing actual accomplishment. Under this conhimself before the king,- Ego et rex viction he purchased the field as a pledge meus, I and my king. Yet here Ephron and earnest of his future inheritance. A mentions himself before Abraham, to similar compact, made with precisely whom he nevertheless speaks with great the same view, occurs in the prophecies respect and David, while he continues of Jeremiali, ch. 33. 6-16, 42-44. The to treat Saul as his sovereign, and ap- prophets had foretold the speedy desopears before him in a most submissive lation of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, attitude, uses the same expression, 'me and the restoration of the Jews to their

18 Unto Abraham for a posses-re; the same is Hebron in the sion in the presence of the children land of Canaan.

of Heth, before all that went in at 20 And the field, and the cave the gate of his city. that is therein were made sure 19 And after this, Abraham bu- unto Abraham for a possession of a ried Sarah his wife in the cave of burying-place, by the sons of Heth. the field of Machpelah, before Mam

1 See Ruth 4. 7, 8, 9, 10. Jer. 32. 10, 11. out of the land of Egypt to possess the land of Canaan, they should carry up his bones with them, and bury them in the sepulchre of his progenitors.

༔

19. Buried Sarah his wife, in the cave, &c. This chapter affords the earliest notice of the practice, which was for

own land after a captivity of seventy years. His uncle's son, alarmed, as it should seem, by the approach of the Chaldean army, determined to sell his estate; and offered it to Jeremiah first, because the right of redemption belonged to him. By God's command, Jeremiah bought the inheritance, and hav-merly very prevalent in the East, of deing had the transfer signed and sealed positing the dead in natural or artificial in a public manner, he buried the writ- caves, great numbers of which are still ings in an earthen vessel, that, being pre- to be found in Palestine, Syria, Egypt, served to the expiration of the Babylo- and Persia. In the mountainous counnish captivity, they might be an evi- try of southern Palestine there are dence of his title to the estate. This abundance of natural caves in the rocks, was done, not that the prophet or his which might easily be formed into comheirs might be enriched by the purchase, modious sepulchral vaults; and where but that his conviction of the truth of such natural caves are wanting, sepulhis own prophecies might be made man- chres were hewn in the rock for such ifest. But in addition to this, and close- families as were able to incur the necesly connected with it, Abraham designed sary expense; for this was the mode of to perpetuate among his posterity the ex- sepulchre decidedly preferred by those pectation of the promised land. It was who could obtain it. The arrangement to be four hundred years before his seed and extent of these caves varied with were to possess the land of Canaan. circumstances. Those in the declivity In that length of time it was probable of a mountain were often cut in horizonthat without some memento, the prom- tally; but to others there was usually a ise itself would be forgotten; and more descent by steps from the surface. The especially during their Egyptian bond-roofs of the vaults are commonly arched; age. But their having a burying-place and sometimes, in the more spacious in Canaan, where their bones were to vaults, supported by colonnades. These be laid with the bones of their father rocky chambers are generally spacious, Abraham, was the most likely means of being obviously family vaults, intended keeping alive in every succeeding gen- to receive several dead bodies. Niches, eration the hope of ultimately possessing about six or seven feet deep, are usually the whole land. Accordingly we find cut in the sides of the vault, each adaptit did produce this very effect; for as ed to receive a single corpse; but in Abraham and Sarah were buried in that some vaults small rooms are cut in the cave, so were Isaac and Rebekah, and same manner; and in others, stone Jacob and Lean, notwithstanding Jacob slabs of the same length are fixed horidied in Egypt. And Joseph also, though zontally against the walls, or cut out of buried in Egypt, gave commandment the rock, one above another, serving as that when the Israelites should depart shelves on which the corpses were de

:

posited in others, however, the floor it- | same, built sixe sepulchres in the temself is excavated for the reception of the ple, by the names of Abraham, Sara, dead, in compartments of various depths, Isaac, Rebecca, Iacob, and Lia (Leah). and in the shape of a coffin. Some of And the inhabitants now tell the pilthe bodies were placed in stone coffins, grimes that they are the monuments of provided with sculptured lids; but such the patriarkes; and great summes of sarcophagi were by no means in gene- money are offered there. But surely, ral use; the bodies, when wound up in to any lew coming thither, and offering the grave-clothes, being usually deposit- the porters a reward, the cave is shewed without any sort of coffin or sarco-ed, with the iron gate opened, which phagus. The vaults are always dark, the from antiquitie remayneth yet there. only opening being the narrow entrance And a man goeth down with a lampwhich is usually closed by a large stone light into the first cave, where nothing rolled to its mouth; although some of is found, nor also in the second, untill he a superior description are shut by stone enter the third, in which there are the doors, hung in the same manner as the sixe monuments, the one right over doors of houses, by pivots turning in against the other; and each of them are holes in the architrave above and in the engraven with characters, and distinthreshold below. Some of these vaults guished by the names of every one of consist of several chambers, one within them after this manner,-Sepulchrum another, connected by passages. The Abraham patris nostri, super quem pax innermost chambers are usually deeper sit; and so the rest, after the same exthan the exterior, with a descent of se- ample. And a lampe perpetually burnveral steps. When there is more than eth in the cave, day and night; the offione chamber, the outermost seeins to cers of the temple continually ministerhave been a sort of ante-room, the ing oile for the maintenance thereof. walls being seldom occupied with se- Also, in the self-same cave, there are pulchral niches or shelves. This cave of tuns full of the bones of the ancient IsMachpelah became, after the purchase raelites, brought thither by the families by Abraham, the family sepulchre of of Isreal, which even untill this day rethe Hebrew patriarchs; and it is rea- mayne in the self-same place.' This sonable to conclude that it was of supe-curious account agrees pretty well the rior size, and contained more than one above general description. The word apartment, The Spanish Jew, Benja- Machpelah means ‘double,' applied rather min of Tudela, visited the place about the field containing the cave, than to the 650 years ago; and as his account is cave itself. Benjamin's mention of the precise and interesting, we quote it from two valleys forming, as Purchas trans'Purchas his Pilgrimes,' 1625. 'I came lates, the field of duplicity,' explains to Hebron, seated in a plaine; for He the application which has perplexed bron, the ancient metropolitan citie, Calmet and others. Sandys, who was stood upon an hill, but it is now deso- there early in the seventeenth century, late. But in the valley there is a field, and who describes the valley of Hewherein there is a duplicitie, that is, as bron as 'the most pregnant and pleasant it were, two little valleyes, and there the valley that ever eye beheld,' mentions citie is placed; and there is an huge tem- the 'goodly temple' built by the emple there called Saint Abraham, and that press Helena, the mother of Constanplace was the synagogue of the lewes, tine, and afterwards changed into a at what time the country was possessed mosque, as a place of much resort to by the Ishmaelites. But the Gentiles, Moslem pilgrims. John Sanderson was who afterwards obtayned and held the there in the summer of 1601, and the

account he gives agrees, as far as it goes, places of the patriarchs in the cave unwith that of the Spanish Jew; but ac- derneath; and that, instead of conductcess to the cave was more restricted ing them into the crypt, these tombs than it seems to have been in the time above ground are shown to ordinary of the latter. He says, 'Into this tombe visiters.'-Pict Bible. The accompanynot any are suffered to enter, but at a ing cut from Maundrell will give a tolesquare hole through a thick wall they rably correct idea of the ground-plan of may discern a little light of a lamp. The the excavated sepulchres of the East. lewes do their ceremonies of prayer there without. The Moores and Turkes are permitted to have a little more sight, which is at the top, where they let down the oyle for the lampe; the lampe is a very great one, continually burning.' For upwards of a century only two or three Europeans have been able, either by daring or bribery, to obtain access to the mosque and cave. Ali Bey, who passed as a Mussulman, has given a description of it; but his account is so incompatible with all others, and with the reports of the Turks, that it is difficult to admit its accuracy. According to all other statements, the sepulchre is a deep and spacious cavern, cut out of the solid rock; the opening to which is in the centre of the mosque, and is seldom entered even by Moslems: but Ali Bey seems to describe each separate tomb as a distinct room, on the level of the floor of the mosque. These rooms have their entrances guarded by iron gates, and by wooden doors plated with silver, with bolts and padlocks of the same metal. He says, 'All the sepul- As the sacred story proceeds, we see chres of the patriarchs are covered more and more of the simple manners with rich carpets of green silk, magnifi- of those ancient times, but we see also, cently embroidered with gold; those of what is far better, the deep regard which their wives are red, embroidered in like Abraham had to the word and promise manner. The sultans of Constantino- of God in all his transactions. He carple furnish these carpets, which are re-ries the great principle of Faith into all newed from time to time. I counted his domestic arrangements, and has a nine, one over the other, upon the se- single eye intent upon one object, whatpulchre of Abraham. The rooms also ever he does., By the death of Sarah, which contain the tombs are covered the care and anxiety that naturally with rich carpets.' We can only recon- gathered about the dear object of their cile this with other statements by sup-common affection becomes, of course, posing that the Turks have put these much increased to the surviving parent. monuments upon the level of the floor, Isaac was now arrived at man's estate, immediately over the supposed resting- and it was fit that the heir of the prom

CHAPTER XXIV.

CHAPTER XXIV.

a

2 And Abraham said unto his

e

AND Abraham was old and well elder servant of his house, that & rulstricken in age: and the LORD ed over all that he had, Put, I bhad blessed Abraham in all things. pray thee, thy hand under my thigh:

ch. 18. 11. & 21. 5. Ps. 112. 3. Prov. 10. 22.

bch. 13. 2. ver. 35.

c ch. 15. 2. & ver. 10. ch. 39. 4. 5, 6. ech. 47. 29. 1 Chron. 29. 24. Lam. 5. 6.

coming, or

ise should be established in a family of en in age. Heb. his own. This becomes no w the going, into days; i. e. into years, as the great theme of the patriarch's solicitude, word days often signifies.

ed with the utmost precision. This can only be done by a comparison of the passages in which they occur, and the result of such a comparison will clearly evince that they are both, in many cases, titles of office, with which the idea of

and the chapter before us details with 2. His eldest servant of his house the most simple and interesting minute-Heb. 7.77 1 172 his servant, the elness the steps taken to bring about the der of his house. So also the Gr. 7 wished-for event. The narrative affords παιδι αυτου τω πρεσβυτέρω της οικίας a striking instance of the sovereignty of avrov, his servant the elder of his house, inspiration. The Holy Spirit is not gov-allusion being probably had to Eliezer, erned by human estimates of the relative of whom see Gen. 15. 2. The scriptuimportance of events. The great revo-ral usage in respect to both these terms, lutions which take place in the world, servant and elder, is important, as they the rise and overthrow of secular king- are of frequent occurrence in the New doms, are disregarded by God as com- Testament, and belong to that class of paratively unworthy of notice, while words whose import deserves to be fixthe most trivial things that appertain to his church and people are often recorded with the most minute exactness. We have here a whole chapter, and that one of the longest in the Bible, taken up with an account of the marriage of Isaac, an incident which might as well, subordinate or ministerial ruling is closeto all appearance, have been narrated in ly connected. Thus, wherever mention a few words. But nothing is trivial in is made of the 'servants' of a king or God's eyes which can serve to illustrate prince, the term is for the most part to the operations of his grace or tend to be understood of counsellors, ministers, the edification of his church; and he or other officers pertaining to the court. may deem it no less important for men The leading idea is not that of servitude, to be brought to recognize and admire as understood among us at the present his providence in the most inconsidera-day. Thus, Gen. 40. 20, Pharaoh made ble affairs of life than in the most mo- a feast unto all his servants; i. e, unto mentous. It is perhaps for this reason all his officers. Ex. 12. 30, Pharaoh that we have here such a detailed ac- rose up in the night, he and all his sercount of the incidents and conversation vants;' i. e. all his officers. In this sense connected with Eliezer's expedition, Moses is emphatically called 'the serv while in other things involving the deep-ant of the Lord,' Deut. 34. 5; Heb. 3.5, est mysteries, the greatest brevity is from being intrusted with administration studied. of divine things. Retaining this sense 1. Abraham was old. As he was an of ministerial rather than of servile agenhundred when Isaac was born. ch. 21. 5, cy, the term is used in the New Testaand Isaac was forty when he married, ment with nearly the import of steward, ch. 25, 20, it follows that he was now and with prevailing reference to officeone hundred and forty.¶ Well strick-bearers in the church, rather than ordi