Abraham agreed with Ephron: this is literally “heard Ephron” and shows that the final stage has been reached, which is the handing over of the cash payment. Revised English Bible says “Abraham closed the bargain with him.” Translators should use the expression that is the most natural for closing a deal when making a purchase; for example, “Abraham agreed to pay the price that Ephron had named.”

Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver: weighed translates the Hebrew verb shakal related to the noun shekel. Driver says there was no coined money, and that “precious metals circulated in the form of ingots of known weight, which upon occasion of any commercial transaction were regularly ‘weighed’ as a security against fraud.” In language areas where the weighing of precious metals is unknown, the local equivalent should be used. It may be necessary to say “Abraham counted the silver pieces.”

The silver which he had named: that is, “the amount of silver he had said” or “the four hundred pieces of silver he had mentioned.” Most translations avoid repeating the term “silver” by using a term like “amount” (Good News Translation) or “price”; for example, “Abraham counted out the right money … he gave that man four hundred silver pieces.”

In the hearing of the Hittites: see verses 10, 13.

According to the weights current among the merchants: the expression is literally “… passing over to the merchant.” According to Speiser “this means that the goods that were offered in payment were computed in terms of silver at the fixed rate that was current at the time.” Good News Translation translates “four hundred pieces of silver, according to the standard weights used by the merchants.” We may also say, for example:

• Abraham closed the sale with Ephron. He weighed out [counted] the amount of silver that Ephron had asked for, with his countrymen as witnesses. That was four hundred silver pieces using the merchants’ fixed rate [or, … figuring the way the merchants do].

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .