Efron did nothing wrong

Shavua Tov, Morai VeRabotai!

This week, we read Parashat Chaye Sarah, which famously begins with Avraham Avinu purchasing the field of Efron the Hittite in order to bury his wife, Sarah. One thing I’ve always found interesting about this chapter is that anytime it is brought up in a Torah discussion, Efron is always labeled as a wicked man and a trickster for supposedly taking advantage of Avraham while he was in a vulnerable state based on the following understanding of the passage:

Avraham requests to purchase the cave in Efron’s field, and Efron loudly announces before everyone present that he has already given the field and everything in it to Avraham as a gift, seemingly putting Avraham on the spot. Avraham, not wishing to be indebted to anyone other than G-d, insists on paying, so Efron then privately gives Avraham the exorbitant price of 400 Silver Shekel for the field, therefore charging him much more than if he would have just bought the cave.

I wish to challenge this common understanding based on the following ideas:

1 – There is a principle in Halakha that says that the sale of land is not subject to price fraud based on the Gemarah in Bava Metziah 56a: אֵלּוּ דְּבָרִים שֶׁאֵין לָהֶם אוֹנָאָה: הָעֲבָדִים, וְהַשְּׁטָרוֹת, וְהַקַּרְקָעוֹת, וְהַהֶקְדֵּשׁוֹת (These are the things that are not subject to price fraud: Slaves, legal documents, land, and consecrated property.). With this in mind, whether Efron sold to Avraham the entire field or just the cave is irrelevant to the price for which he asked, since he was well within his rights to ask for the same price if he had just sold the cave, as opposed to the entire field.

2 – Avraham Avinu was by no means a poor man. The Torah discusses his wealth at length, so it’s not as though Efron was committing any kind of sin by asking for a high price for the sale he was making.

3 – This one may be more open to debate, but I believe that Efron actually did Avraham Avinu a service by selling him the entire field. If he had only purchased the cave, the rest of the field would still belong to Efron, so then Avraham and his children would need to require permission anytime they wished to cross the field in order to reach the cave. By also selling the field to Avraham, Efron ensured that future generations would always have access.

What do you all think? Do you agree or disagree with my interpretation? Please discuss.