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 receiv