Genesis 23:18

Before all that went in at the gate— See Genesis 23:10 and ch. Genesis 19:1. The authors of the Universal History observe, that gates of cities in those days, and for many centuries after, were the places of judicature and common resort. Here the Governors, or elders of the city, met to hear complaints, administer justice, make conveyances of titles and estates, and to transact all the affairs of the place; whence that verse in the Psalms, they shall not be ashamed, when they speak with their enemies in the gate, i.e.. when they are accused by them before the court of magistrates. It is probable, that the room or hall where the magistrates sat, was over the gates. How considerable they became in time for largeness and sumptuousness, appears by the two kings of Israel and Judah being present at one of them in all their royal splendor, and convening thither four hundred priests of Baal, besides their own guards and officers. It seems as if these places had been at first chosen for the conveniency of the inhabitants, who being all husbandmen, and forced to pass and repass morning and night as they went and came from their labour, might be more easily called as they went by, whenever they were wanted to appear in any business. These gates were likewise markets for provisions like those of the Romans, as appears by the prophet Elisha's foretelling an incredible plenty to happen next day in the midst of a famine, at the gate of Samaria. What the number of magistrates was, how far their power extended, and how many orders of them there were, is not to be gathered from Scripture; only it is plain there could be but few of the latter, since in the time of Joshua, we can find but four sorts of them, viz. the elders, the heads of the people, the judges, and the officers. Abraham therefore could not make his purchase from Ephron the Hittite, without having recourse to the city-gates.

REFLECTIONS.—Abraham preferring the purchase, Ephron accepts the money, and conveys to him the field where the cave stood, with all its appurtenances. Abraham is put in possession, and the children of Heth witness the bargain; and there Sarah's corpse is deposited. Learn hence, 1. Fair reckonings make fast friends. 2. Fidelity in our agreements and bargains is to be scrupulously observed. 3. The decent care of a burial may be considered as a profession of our hope of the resurrection of the body. 4. While we are so solicitous in general for a burying-place for our bodies in the earth, let it quicken us to greater solicitude, to secure a resting-place for our souls in heaven.