Genesis 23:13

Summary

Abraham responds to Ephron in the presence of "the people of the land," urging him with emphatic language to accept payment for the field's price so that he may bury his dead there. The Hebrew stacks several particles of entreaty before the actual request, giving the speech a marked tone of urgency or courtesy.

Key words

• va-yedaber ("and he spoke", H1696) — piel narrative verb; the intensive stem marks this as formal, direct speech introduced within the narrative chain.
• be-'oznei ("in the ears of", H0241) — construct plural of "ear," idiomatically meaning "within earshot of," here linked to 'am ha-aretz ("people of the land").
• 'akh 'im 'attah lu ("nevertheless if you, if only", H0389/H0518/H0859/H3863) — a stacked sequence of an adverb, a conditional particle, a pronoun, and a wish-particle (lu), producing an unusually dense cluster of entreaty markers before the imperative "listen."
• natati ("I have given/I give", H5414) — qal perfect, first person; despite being grammatically "completed," in this transactional context it functions as a performative statement (the act of giving is enacted by declaring it).
• 'eqberah ("let me bury", H6912) — qal form with prefixed vav, expressing purpose/result following the imperative "take" (qach, H3947): "take it... so that I may bury."

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative verb va-yedaber ("and he spoke," H1696), placing Abraham's speech "in the ears of" (be-'oznei, H0241) "the people of the land" ('am ha-aretz, H5971/H0776) — a construct phrase locating the address as public, witnessed speech rather than a private exchange with Ephron alone.

The introduction to Abraham's actual words is marked by an unusual concentration of particles: 'akh ("nevertheless," H0389), 'im ("if," H0518), 'attah ("you," H0859), and lu ("if only," H3863) all precede the imperative shema'eni ("listen to me," H8085). This stacking of conditional and wish particles in sequence is not typical of ordinary Hebrew prose syntax and produces a heightened, insistent tone before the imperative verb appears.

The core transaction is expressed through natati ("I have given/I give," H5414), a qal perfect verb. Although the perfect form normally marks completed action, here it appears before any actual exchange of money has occurred in the narrative — it functions performatively, as though the statement itself enacts the offer. This is followed by two imperatives, qach ("take," H3947) referring to kesef ha-sadeh ("the money/price of the field," H3701/H7704), and the purpose clause ve-'eqberah ("so that I may bury," H6912) governing 'et-meti ("my dead [one]," H4191) with the directional suffix -shammah ("there," H8033+H9011) closing the verse.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the opening particle cluster as epeidē pros emou ei ("since you are on my side/with me"), which interprets the Hebrew's stacked 'akh 'im 'attah lu as an expression of alliance rather than preserving the particle-by-particle conditional-wish structure. The Vulgate simplifies similarly with Quæso ut audias me ("I beg that you hear me"), collapsing the multiple Hebrew particles into a single request formula. The Hebrew meti ("my dead [one]," H4191, masculine participle) is rendered in modern translations like SBLIBRE as "mi esposa" ("my wife"), supplying gender/referent information not explicit in the participle itself, which simply means "the one who is dead" in construct with the first-person suffix.