Genesis 23:15

15 "If you insist, master. What's four hundred silver shekels between us? Now go ahead and bury your wife."

Genesis 23:15 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 23:15

My lord, hearken unto me
Since it is your mind to buy the field, and not receive it as a gift, then hear what I have to say as to the value of it: the land [is worth] four hundred shekels of silver;
which, reckoning a shekel at two shillings and sixpence, comes to fifty pounds of our money; what [is] that betwixt thee and me?
between two persons so rich, the sum was trifling and inconsiderable, whether the one paid it, and the other received it, or not; or between two such friends it was not worth speaking of, it was no matter whether it was paid or not: or else the sense is, between us both it is honestly worth so much; it is a good bargain, and must be owned to be so, what is it? the sum is so small, and it is so clearly the worth of it, that there needs no more to be said about it: bury therefore thy dead:
in it, and give thyself no more trouble and concern about it.

Genesis 23:15 In-Context

13 and answered Ephron: "Please allow me - I want to pay the price of the land; take my money so that I can go ahead and bury my wife."
14 Then Ephron answered Abraham
15 "If you insist, master. What's four hundred silver shekels between us? Now go ahead and bury your wife."
16 Abraham accepted Ephron's offer and paid out the sum that Ephron had named before the town council of Hittites - four hundred silver shekels at the current exchange rate.
17 That's how Ephron's field next to Mamre - the field, its cave, and all the trees within its borders -
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.