BELIEVER IN CHRIST AS MY BEST FRIEND

Sunday, January 7, 2024

MACHPELAH A PIECE OF GROUND PURCHASED BY ABRAHAM

mak-pe'-la (ha-makhpelah, "the Machpelah"; to diploun, "the double"): The name of a piece of ground and of a cave purchased by Abraham as a place of sepulcher. The word is supposed to mean "double" and refers to the condition of the cave. It is translated "double cave" (to diploun spelaion) in the Septuagint in Genesis 23:17.
23 Now [a]Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. 2 Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan; and Abraham [b]went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. 3 Then Abraham rose from before his dead, and spoke to the sons of Heth, saying, 4 “I am a stranger and a sojourner among you; give me [c]a burial site among you that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” 5 The sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, 6 “Hear us, my lord, you are a [d]mighty prince among us; bury your dead in the choicest of our graves; none of us will refuse you his grave for burying your dead.” 7 So Abraham rose and bowed to the people of the land, the sons of Heth. 8 And he spoke with them, saying, “If it is your [e]wish for me to bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and approach Ephron the son of Zohar for me, 9 that he may give me the cave of Machpelah which he owns, which is at the end of his field; for the full price let him give it to me in [f]your presence for [g]a burial site.” 10 Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the sons of Heth; even of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying, 11 “No, my lord, hear me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the presence of the sons of my people I give it to you; bury your dead.” 12 And Abraham bowed before the people of the land. 13 He spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, “If you will only please listen to me; I will give the price of the field, accept it from me that I may bury my dead there.” 14 Then Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, 15 “My lord, listen to me; a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between me and you? So bury your dead.” 16 Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver which he had named in the [h]hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, [i]commercial standard.

HISTORY OF THE HITITES

According to Genesis, the Hittite Ephron sold Abraham the cave of Machpelah in Hebron for use as a family tomb. Later, Esau married wives from the Hittites. In the Book of Joshua 1:4, when the Lord tells Joshua "From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your border", this "land of the Hittites" on Canaan's border is seen to stretch between Lebanon and the Euphrates, and from there toward the setting Sun (i.e., to the west).

According to the Book of Judges 1:26, when the Israelites captured Bethel, they allowed one man to escape, and he went to the "land of the Hittites" where he founded the settlement of Luz. In King Solomon's era the Hittites are depicted in the Hebrew Bible along with Syria as among his powerful neighbors.

From around 1900, archaeologists were aware of a country established in Anatolia and known to Assyrians as "Hatti". Because it was initially assumed that the people of Hatti were identical to the Hetti of the Hebrew Bible, the term Hittite Empire is still today used to describe the Anatolian state. Their language is known to have been a member of the Indo-European family. Because its speakers were originally based in Kanesh, they called their language "Neshili". The former inhabitants of Hatti and Hattusas are now called Hattites; and their Hattic language was not Indo-European, but is of unknown linguistic relationship.

After the fall of the Hittite Empire around 1178 BC, a remnant of them, still using the name "people of Hatti", established some city-states in the region of northern Syria. Therefore these are usually assumed to be the Hittites mentioned in Solomon's time.

Some scholars take the view that the two peoples are identical.^[1] Apart from the similarity in names, the Anatolian Hittites were a powerful political entity in the region before the collapse of their empire in the 14th-12th centuries BC and so one would expect them to be mentioned in the Bible, just as the ḤTY post-Exodus are. Moreover, in the account of the conquest of Canaan, the Hittites are said to dwell "in the mountains" and "towards the north" of Canaan, a description that matches the general direction and geography of the original Hittite Empire, which had been influential in the region prior to the Battle of Kadesh.

Modern academics propose, based on much onomastic and archaeological evidence, that Anatolian populations moved south into Canaan as part of the waves of Sea Peoples who were migrating along the Mediterranean coastline at the time of the collapse of the Hittite Empire. Many kings of local city-states are shown to have had Hittite and Luwian names in the Late Bronze to Early Iron Age transition period. Indeed, even the name of Mount Zion may be Hittite in origin.^[1]

THE HITTITES GAVE ABRAHAM A BURIAL PLACE FOR SARAH

GENESIS 23:20

So the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site.

The Hittites play a prominent role at key places in the Hebrew Bible: Ephron the Hittite sells Abraham the family burial ground (Genesis 23); Esau married Hittite women, and Rebecca despised them (Genesis 26:34); frequently they are listed as one of the inhabitants of Canaan (e.g., Exodus 13:5; Numbers 13:29; Joshua 11:3); King David had Uriah the Hittite killed in order to acquire Uriah’s wife (2 Samuel 11); King Solomon had Hittites among his many wives (1 Kings 10:29–11:2; 2 Chronicles 1:17);...
The Hittites were an ancient Anatolian (modern-day Turkey) people who formed an empire between 1600-1180 BCE.
•The Hittites manufactured advanced iron goods, ruled over their kingdom through government officials with independent authority over various branches of government, and worshipped storm gods.
•The Hittites’ ongoing conflicts with Egypt produced the world’s first known peace treaty.
The Hittites were an ancient group of Indo-Europeans who moved into Asia Minor and formed an empire at Hattusa in Anatolia (modern Turkey) around 1600 BCE.
The Hittite Empire reached great heights during the mid-1300s BCE, when it spread across Asia Minor, into the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia.
Like many Indo-Europeans, the Hittites were able to travel long distances and migrate to other lands due to the domestication of horses. The spread of technologies like the wheel and wagon, which were also used in ancient Mesopotamia and other early civilizations in the region, also assisted pastoralists and and agrarian civilizations.
After about 1180 BCE, the empire ended and splintered into several independent Neo-Hittite—new Hittite—city-states, some of which survived until the eighth century BCE. The Hittites, also spelled Hethites, were a group of people mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. Under the names בני-חת (bny-ḥt "children of Heth", who was the son of Canaan.

Friday, January 5, 2024

PROVERBS -INSTRUCTION FOR OUR SOULS

PROVERBS 4:14-15 ENTER NOT UNTO THE PATH OF THE WICKED, AND GO NOT IN THE WAY OF EVIL MEN. AVOID IT, PASS NOT BY IT, TURN FROM IT, AND PASS AWAY.

PSALMS 37:1-10 BE STILL BEFORE THE LORD AND WAIT PATIENTLY FOR HIM; DO NOT NOT FRET WHEN PEOPLE SUCCEED IN THEIR WAYS, WHEN THEY CARRY OUT THEIR WICKED SCHEMES.

REFRAIN FROM ANGER AND TURN FROM WRATH; DO NOT FRET-IT LEADS ONLY TO EVIL. FOR THOSE WHO ARE EVIL WILL BE DESTROYED, BUT THOSE WHO HOPE ON THE LORD WILL INHERIT THE LAND.A LITTLE WHILE, AND THE WICKED WILL BE NO MORE.

PROVERBS 5:12 AND SAY , HOW HAVE I HATED INSTRUCTION, AND MY HEART DESPISED REPROOF; AND HAVE NOT OBEYED THE VOICE OF MY TEACHERS, NOR INCLINED MINE EAR TO THEM THAT INSTRUCTED ME.

PROVERBS 9:8 DO NOT REPROVE A SCOFFER, OR HE WILL HATE YOU; REPROVE A WISE MAN, AND HE WILL LOVE YOU; REBUKE THE WISE AND THEY WILL LOVE YOU.

EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL CONFESS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS LORD. THE LORD INHABITS THE PRAISES OF HIS PEOPLE.

FOLLOWING THE LORD IS WISE. RECEIVING COUNSEL IS WISE. BEING DOERS OF THE WORD IS WISE. TURNING AWAY FROM REBELLION IS WISE. MAY WE WALK IN THE STEPS OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR. HE IS NEAR TO THE BROKENHEARTED.