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Home / Scripture and the ancient world / Genesis says Abraham paid 400 shekels for a family tomb at Hebron; the Talmud says Esau…
Case file s848 · Scripture and the ancient world · 750 BCE
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750 BCE
Hevron e Ma'arat HaMachpela (14524916927): סיור בחברון העתיקה ובמערת המכפלה Hevron e Ma'arat HaMachpela
Hevron e Ma'arat HaMachpela (14524916927). Daniel from Israel. CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
Jacob, in Egypt (Genesis 49-50); undated, placed with the Jacob story at 750 BC
Place
Cave of Machpelah, Hebron, West Bank · Israel and Palestine
Field
family burial ground
Legal tradition
land purchase before witnesses (Genesis 23); Talmudic aggadah on burial rights · Jewish and biblical law
Historical event
Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, 25 February 1994
Scripture and the ancient worldBodies, bones and burialsMurder and sudden deathAncient worldMiddle EastIsrael and Palestine

Scripture: this account comes from a sacred text. Court and archive records of it do not exist.

Genesis says Abraham paid 400 shekels for a family tomb at Hebron; the Talmud says Esau blocked Jacob's burial there and was killed at the cave

Genesis 23 says that when Sarah died, Abraham bought the cave of Machpelah and its field from Ephron the Hittite. He weighed out 400 shekels of silver, "current money with the merchant," in the hearing of the sons of Heth. Genesis 49 lists who was buried there: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Leah. Jacob died in Egypt and made his sons swear to bury him there. The Babylonian Talmud, tractate Sotah 13a, says Esau stopped the funeral at the cave. He argued that Jacob had used his own place for Leah and the one remaining place was Esau's. The brothers said he had sold that right with the birthright. Esau said he sold the birthright, not his rights as an ordinary brother, and demanded the bill of sale. It was in Egypt, and Naphtali, the fastest runner, was sent for it. Hushim, a son of Dan who was hard of hearing, asked why the burial was waiting. When told, he struck Esau on the head with a club. The Talmud says Esau was buried the same day as Jacob. The building over the cave now holds both a mosque and a synagogue. On 25 February 1994 Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish settler, opened fire on Palestinians praying there and killed at least 30. An Israeli commission under Supreme Court President Meir Shamgar investigated. Since 1967 the building has been divided between Muslim and Jewish worship†.

What the law took from it

A sale that does not name every right it transfers invites a claim over the rights it left out.

Sources
  1. mechon-mamre.orgPress
  2. mechon-mamre.orgPress
  3. sefaria.orgPress
  4. csmonitor.comPress
  5. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Genesis says Abraham paid 400 shekels for a family tomb at Hebron; the Talmud says Esau blocked Jacob's burial there and was killed at the cave,” story s848, https://www.celebrity.estate/cave-of-machpelah-750-bc, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Scripture and the ancient worldBodies, bones and burialsMurder and sudden deathAncient worldMiddle EastJewish and biblical lawIsrael and Palestine