Genesis 23:10

Summary

The verse sets the scene for Ephron's reply to Abraham: Ephron is described as sitting among the Hittites, and then he answers Abraham publicly, in the hearing of all the Hittites present at the city gate.

Key words

• yoshev ("sitting/dwelling", H3427) — qal participle, masculine singular, describing Ephron's ongoing position "among the sons of Heth" at the moment the scene opens.
• vaya'an ("and he answered", H6030B) — qal narrative form, marking the next event in the story sequence with the narrative vav.
• be'oznei ("in the ears of", H0241H) — feminine dual construct noun, literally "in the two ears of," an idiom indicating that the following speech was made audibly, in the hearing of witnesses.
• ba'ei ("those entering", H0935G) — qal participle, masculine plural construct, describing the men who were entering/present at the gate, syntactically linked to "gate of his city."
• le'mor ("saying", H0559) — qal infinitive construct, the standard formula introducing direct speech that follows in the next verse.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence divides into two parts joined by the narrative vav. The first part is a description clause: ve-Efron yoshev be-tokh benei-Chet ("and Ephron was sitting/dwelling among the sons of Heth"), using the participle yoshev rather than a finite verb, which in Hebrew narrative often signals background or setting rather than a discrete action. The second part shifts to narrative action with vaya'an ("and he answered"), a wayyiqtol form that moves the story forward.

The phrase be'oznei benei-Chet ("in the ears of the sons of Heth") is a Hebrew idiom for speaking within earshot of witnesses; it is reinforced by the following phrase le-khol ba'ei sha'ar iro ("to all who were entering the gate of his city"), which specifies the group of witnesses as those present at the city gate — a location associated in the passage with public or legal transactions. The construct chain sha'ar iro ("gate of his city") ties the location directly to Ephron, marking it as his own city's gate. The final word le'mor ("saying") functions grammatically as an infinitive construct that introduces the direct speech to follow, a standard narrative device in Biblical Hebrew.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders yoshev with the imperfect ἐκάθητο ("was sitting"), matching the participial nuance of ongoing state. The Vulgate instead uses habitabat ("was dwelling"), which shifts the sense from "sitting" toward "residing," a broader rendering than the Hebrew participle yoshev ("sitting") suggests. The BSB restructures the sentence syntactically, placing "in the presence of all the Hittites" before naming Ephron's response, while the Hebrew places the "ears of the sons of Heth" phrase after the verb vaya'an ("and he answered").