19 You will eat — at the cost of sweat on your face. בְּזֵעַ֤ת אַפֶּ֙יךָ֙ תֹּ֣אכַל לֶ֔חֶם
Last time, I explained everything about these first four words of v. 19 except for what you see above in bold. In Hebrew, that’s just one letter, the preposition ב־ b-. We saw that the Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (which loves to specify and particularize) listed 18 different meanings for this tiny but powerful letter. Now let’s focus in on their extended discussion of the one that’s at play here:
10. בְּ at the cost of, as the price of, at the risk of, in exchange for, e.g. perh. בָּאָדָם דָּמוֹ יִשָּׁפֵךְ as the price of the (murdered) person will his blood be shed Gn 96, בְּכֶסֶף מָלֵא יִתְּנֶנָּה let him give it at the cost of full silver, i.e. for the full price Gn 239, אֶעֱבָדְךָ . . . בְּרָחֵל I will serve you . . . as the price of Rachel Gn 2918, אֶתְּנָה לָכֶם בְּמִקְנֵיכֶם I shall give to you in accordance with the value of your cattle Gn 4716, בִּבְכֹרוֹ יְיַסְּדֶ֔נָּה וּבִצְעִירוֹ יַצִּיב דְּלָתֶיהָ at the cost of his firstborn he will lay its foundations and at the cost of his little one, i.e. youngest child, will he erect its doors Jos 626, אֵרַשְׂתִּי לִי בְּמֵאָה עָרְלוֹת I betrothed to myself at the cost of a hundred foreskins 2 S 314, אֶקְנֶה מֵאוֹתְךָ בִּמְחִיר I shall buy from you at (the cost of) a price 2 S 2424, הַהֹלְכִים בְּנַפְשׁוֹתָם that go at the risk of their souls 2 S 2317, גָּלוּתִי יְשַׁלֵּחַ לֹא בִמְחִיר וְלֹא בְשֹׁחַד my diaspora he will send away not at (the cost of) a price and not at the cost of a bribe Is 4513, בַּעֲוֹנֹתֵיכֶם נִמְכַּרְתֶּם וּבְפִשְׁעֵיכֶם שֻׁלְּחָה אִמְּכֶם as the price of your iniquities you were sold and as the price of your sins your mother was sent away Is 501, וַיָּמִירוּ אֶת־ כְּבוֹדָם בְּתַבְנִית שׁוֹר and they exchanged their glory for the image of an ox Ps 10620, מַה־יִּתְרוֹן לָאָדָם בְּכָל־עֲמָלוֹ what is the profit to a person in exchange for all one’s labour? Ec 13, also 2 S 327 147 2424 1 K 223 1634.34Ho 32 47 Am 26.6 Jon 114 Pr 723 Ca 87.11 Lm 111 59 1 C 1220.
This ב #10 is what’s called the bet pretium, the ב of price. Our example doesn’t happen to be listed, either here or under any of the other 17 meanings — don’t forget, ב occurs 15,722 times — but you can see that there are many examples of this usage. When Abraham asks Ephron to sell him the cave of Machpelah, he asks him to sell it בְּ־ kesef male, ‘b’the full price’. See the dictionary entry for many more examples.
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