Genesis 23:14

Summary

This verse is a short narrative transition marking that Ephron responds to Abraham. It contains no new content beyond introducing the direct speech that follows in the next verse.

Key words

• va-Ya'an ("and he answered", H6030B) — qal verb with narrative vav, moving the story forward by introducing Ephron's reply as the next event in sequence.
• Efron ("Ephron", H6085G) — proper name, the subject of the verb, identifying who speaks.
• 'et- (H0853) — direct object marker, untranslated, signaling that Avraham is the grammatical object of the verb "answered."
• Avraham ("Abraham", H0085) — proper name, the one being answered.
• le'mor ("saying", H0559) — infinitive construct with the preposition le, a standard formula that opens direct speech, followed here by lo ("to him", H9033 attached to H9005), reinforcing that the words are directed at Abraham specifically.

What the text says

The verse follows a simple narrative pattern common in Biblical Hebrew: subject + verb + object + speech-introducing infinitive. The verb va-Ya'an ("and he answered", H6030B) carries the narrative vav, which links this clause to the preceding exchange between Abraham and the sons of Heth/Ephron, showing continuity of action. The subject Efron (H6085G) is placed immediately after the verb, following normal verb-subject order in Hebrew narrative.

The direct object marker 'et- (H0853) has no independent meaning but marks Avraham (H0085) as the recipient of Ephron's answer, not merely someone spoken about. The infinitive le'mor ("saying", H0559) functions as the standard hinge word introducing direct discourse — it does not add semantic content on its own but signals that quoted speech follows.

A notable feature is the doubling found in the Hebrew: the object marker constructs "Ephron answered Abraham," and then a second prepositional phrase, lo ("to him", H9033 with H9005), appears attached to the infinitive, reinforcing "saying to him." This creates a slightly redundant construction in Hebrew — "answered Abraham... saying to him" — where the addressee is marked twice, once through the direct object and once through the pronominal suffix on the preposition.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew's double indication of the addressee ('et-Avraham ... lo) is not reproduced in the Greek or Latin. The LXX has τῷ Ἀβραὰμ λέγων ("to Abraham, saying"), marking the addressee only once via the dative, without a separate pronoun equivalent to lo. The Vulgate is even shorter, Responditque Ephron, omitting explicit mention of Abraham as addressee within this clause, presumably because it is supplied by the following verse. Modern translations such as BSB and SBLIBRE follow the sense of a single naming of the addressee, not reflecting the Hebrew's repeated marking of "to him."