What Does Genesis 23:16 Mean?
And Abraham heard and responded to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out to Ephron the silver, which he had spoken in the ears of the sons of Heth, four hundred weights of silver, passing from hand to hand with the merchant.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.THE KEY
Here listening becomes weight: Abraham answers Ephron’s public word by putting its exact value on the scale.
THE MEANING
A word heard in public takes material form: the silver is weighed according to the amount already named before witnesses. The verse keeps the cost visible, four hundred shekels, so the agreement appears as a specific exchange.
THE ROOT
וַיִּשְׁקֹל
vayyishqol
GROWS FROM
שקל
To weigh or measure by weight.
“weighed out” in this verse is vayyishqol. The same root gives the word for a shekel, a unit of weight that also serves as money. The silver is literally weighed, so its value remains a physical measure in the exchange.
ALSO GROWS
sheqel: A shekel; a unit of weight and a monetary unit.
שֶׁקֶל
The amount is named in shekels because the silver’s value is expressed through weight.
mishqal: Weight or weighing.
מִשְׁקָל
This branch names the measure itself, keeping the act of weighing at the center of the word-family.
וַיִּשְׁמַע
vayyishmaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
To hear, listen, or heed.
“heard and responded” in this verse is vayyishmaʿ. Shamaʿ means hearing and can carry the sense of heeding when the context calls for it. The verse places that listening beside weighing: Abraham receives Ephron’s stated terms, then gives them measurable substance.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
This familiar form of the root brings hearing together with response, as the next action in the verse makes concrete.
shemuʿah: A report or something heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch shows the root’s range from hearing itself to what is heard and communicated.
THE PATTERN
A spoken bargain becomes materially legible through a stated price.
And Abraham heard and responded to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out to Ephron the silver, which he had spoken in the ears of the sons of Heth, four hundred weights of silver, passing from hand to hand with the merchant.And I bought the field of Hanameel, my uncle's son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed out the silver to him, even seventeen shekels.And said to them, What will you give me, and I will hand him over to you? And they set out for him thirty pieces of silver.THE THREAD
And I bought the field of Hanameel, my uncle's son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed out the silver to him, even seventeen shekels.Jeremiah uses the same root, שקל (shaqal, to weigh), for silver paid in a field purchase. In both verses, agreement becomes tangible through measured weight.
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