bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead.  And Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth.  And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and intreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field; for as much money as it is worth he shall give it me for a possession of a buryingplace amongst you.  And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth:  and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, Nay, my lord, hear me:  the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee:  bury thy dead.  And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land.  And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me:  I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there.  And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, My lord, hearken unto me:  the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead.  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.’

In this very early and curious example of a bargain we find the seller continually expressing reluctance to sell and asking the buyer to accept as a gift the commodity that he wants.  It appears from the sequel that this is merely an example of Oriental politeness.  At any rate, the end of the bargain was that Abraham paid the money, four hundred shekels of silver, which is described as ‘current money with the merchant’, thus apparently showing that this system of payment in metals was already a regular feature of commercial transactions.  Coined currency had not yet been developed, for we may note that Abraham weighed the silver.

When we come to the days of Solomon we find something like a developed international trade.  The fifth chapter of the first book of Kings describes how Solomon, on taking the throne of his father, sent to Hiram, king of Tyre, and stated his purpose to build a house unto the name of the Lord his God, asking Hiram to send his servants to hew cedar trees out of Lebanon, and saying that he would give hire for Hiram’s servants according to all that he should appoint.  Hiram replied that he would do all that Solomon desired concerning timber of cedar and concerning timber of fir.  ’My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea:  and I will convey them by sea in floats unto the place that thou shalt appoint me, and will cause them to be discharged there, and thou shalt receive them:  and thou shalt accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household.  So Hiram gave Solomon cedar trees and fir trees according to all his desire.  And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for food to his household, and twenty measures of pure oil:  thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year.’