400

Esau’s 400 Men

Posted on January 29, 2026 by jovial_cynic

וַיָּ֩שׇׁב֩ בַּיּ֨וֹם הַה֥וּא עֵשָׂ֛ו לְדַרְכּ֖וֹ שֵׂעִֽירָה׃
So Esau started back that day on his way to Seir.
Genesis 33:16 (Revised JPS, 2023)

When Jacob and Esau part ways, the text states that Esau heads to Seir. It doesn’t specifically state that he went alone, but the rabbis note that the previously mentioned “400 men” aren’t mentioned again.

Because Esau represents “a tilting towards the perishing,” it would be significant for the 400 men to part ways with him as well, and perhaps the text would say something about this.

The rabbis note that in 1 Samuel, there is an odd mention of David striking back against the Amalakites (descendents of Esau), and this strange inclusion of 400 men who escaped the slaughter.

Then David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode on camels and fled. So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives.
1 Samuel 30:17-18 (NKJV)

Yes, the event in 1 Samuel and the event in Genesis 33 are far removed from one another in time. If you know that Torah was written/compiled/edited during the Babylonian Empire, it starts to make more sense. The text is there to teach us something, not to record history.

There is a lesson here.

Ransom

Posted on March 18, 2025March 18, 2025 by jovial_cynic

“My lord, listen to me: a plot of land worth four hundred shekels of silver — what is that between me and you? So bury your dead.”
Genesis 23:15 (NASB)

Ephron charged Abraham 400 shekels of silver (~12.5lbs) after offering the land and the cave to bury his wife Sarah for free.

The rabbinical understanding is that 400 shekels isn’t an arbitrary price. It’s stated as an objective value of the land, suggesting this is what Ephron paid for it. The price is set.

There is sharp contrast shown here between Abraham, who offered “a morsel of bread and water” (Gen 18:4-5) to his guests and then prepared a massive feast for them, and Ephron who offered the land for free, and then charged the full exact price for it.

Perhaps this is a picture.

Abraham is shown to us like the promise of Life, where blessings overflow. It offers more than you ever dreamed, and brings joy and laughter.

But Death is a liar. It tells you that there is no cost, and then it demands an exact price: the high cost of Life itself. It whispers, “you will not surely die,” when it knows full well that you will.

But hope is found here: a price was paid by Abraham, and the Cave of Hebron becomes a sacred place for the Patriarchs, even to this day.

When Abraham insists on paying the case, we are shown the symbol of Life pahing the price for Death, like a ransom, to preserve the one he loved.

***

I have a hunch is that this is what C.S. Lewis was talking about when Aslan says “Do not cite the Deep Magic to me, Witch. I was there when it was written,” to the Queen.

Death is the curse established in Genesis 2 and 3. There is a price that must be paid. The cost is not zero.

Posted on January 25, 2025 by jovial_cynic

Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. Then God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.
Genesis 15:12-14 (NASB)

Genesis 15:12-14 echoes Genesis 1:1-3.

The number 400 is represented by the Hebrew letter “tav,” which is the final letter in the Hebrew alphabet. It points to a finality; perhaps captivity in Egypt is a picture of something larger.

It is the past. It is the future. It is now.