Genesis 23 · a question people ask
Why did Abraham insist on paying when Ephron offered the field as a gift?
Genesis doesn't give his reason. It shows what came of it: Abraham asked for it "For the full price" and "as a possession for a burial place" (23:9), paid four hundred shekels "in the hearing of the children of Heth" (23:16), and the field and cave were "deeded to Abraham for a possession" before "all who went in at the gate of his city" (23:17-18), as 23:20 repeats. Years later Jacob still speaks of it as the field "which Abraham bought" (49:30), and the account of Jacob's own burial names it the same way (50:13).
The verses
“in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as a burial place.”
“for his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field, as a possession for a burial site, from Ephron the Hittite, near Mamre.”