Abraham has no interest in Ephron's performance. In Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 23:13, the patriarch addresses Ephron before the people of the land — the witnesses must hear everything — and presses his offer: I will give thee in silver the price of the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there.
The Aramaic preserves Abraham's steady refusal to be co-opted. He acknowledges the offer as a kindness — if thou art willing to do me a favour — but immediately redirects it. The favour he seeks is not a gift. It is acceptance of silver.
This verse is a masterclass in covenantal ethics. Abraham knows that a gifted cave can be rescinded; a purchased cave cannot. He knows that Ephron's descendants could, decades later, claim the patriarch only held the field by gracious permission. He pays in silver precisely to prevent that future dispute.
The Targum of Pseudo-Jonathan is also careful to frame the transaction as happening in plain sight. Before the people of the land means before all the Hittites gathered at the city gate — the ancient equivalent of a notary public, a witness pool, and a courthouse all at once.
The Maggidim drew from this the rabbinic principle later codified in halakha: public sale, full payment, documented witnesses. The takeaway: when you want something to last a thousand years, pay in silver in front of witnesses. The deed must outlive the deed-makers.