this is as much an actual prophecy of the sacrifice and resurrection of the Son of God as was possible without a true slaying of Isaac, for which was substituted the slaying of the ram. That which Isaac's sacrifice wanted to make it perfect as a type was actual death and the notion of substitution. These therefore were supplied by the death of the ram, and his substitution for a human life. Theodoret says ('Qu. in Gen.' LXXIII.) that "Isaac was the type of the Godhead, the ram of the manhood." This perhaps sounds fanciful at first; but the correspondence is in truth very exact. Isaac was of too noble a nature to be slain upon the altar; God would have abhorred such an offering. Hence the Most High prepares a victim to be as it were joined with Isaac and then to suffer, that thus the sacrifice should not be imperfect, So the ever blessed Son of God was by nature above the possibility of suffering; hence the Eternal Father prepares for Him a perfect humanity ("a Body hast Thou prepared me"), that He might die in that nature which was mortal, the immortal, impassible nature being yet inseparably united with it. Thus, Isaac and the ram together symbolized and typified in almost all particulars the sacrifice, the death and the resurrection of the Son of God, who also was the Son of man.

We may observe too, that not only was Isaac thus made the most memorable type of the Redeemer of the world (Isaac, who otherwise seems less noticeable than either Abraham or Jacob), but also that Abraham had the singular honour of representing the highest, holiest God and Father, who "spared not His own Son, but freely gave Him up for us all" (Rom. viii. 32. See Aug. 'De Ĉiv. D.' xvI. 32).

In

14. JEHOVAH-jireh] i. e. "the Lord will see," or "the Lord will provide." The same words which Abraham had used in v. 8, but with a change in the sacred names. v. 8, when Isaac had asked, "where is the Lamb?" Abraham answered, Elohim jireh, "God will see," or "provide a lamb for Himself." Now he perceives that he had uttered an unconscious prophecy, and that the God (Elohim) in whom he trusted had shewn Himself indeed JEHOVAH, the Eternal Truth and the covenated Saviour of his servants, and so he names the place JEHOVAH-jireh. The -connection which there is between these words and the word Moriah (see on v. 2) has sug

gested the belief, that the name Moriah in v. 2 is used proleptically, and that it really originated in this saying of Abraham.

as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen] Or, "it shall be provided."

There is great variety of renderings in the ancient Versions. Indeed, if we disregard the vowel points, it would be equally possible to translate "In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen or provided," or "In the mount the Lord will see or provide," or "In the mount the Lord will be seen." The LXX. takes the last, the Vulgate, Syriac and Samaritan take the second. Onkelos departs from his habit of translating, and paraphrases, like the late Targums; "And Abraham worshipped and prayed there and said before the Lord, Here shall generations worship; whereupon it shall be said in that day, In this mountain Abraham worshipped before the Lord." St Jerome, taking the Latin, explained it thus: "This be came a proverb among the Hebrews, that if any should be in trouble and should desire the help of the Lord, they should say, In the mount the Lord will see, that is, as He had mercy on Abraham, so will He have mercy on us" (Qu. Hebraic, in Gen.' XXII).

On the whole, the pointing of the Masorites, a tradition never lightly to be rejected, which is followed by the Authorised Version, seems to give the most probable sense of the passage (So Ges. 'Thes.' p. 1246; Rosemn., Knobel). But, in any case, there seems not only a general assurance of God's providential care of His people, who in trouble may remember that "the Lord will provide," but also a special prophecy, 1st of the manifestation of the Lord in His temple at Jerusalem, where He was to be seen in the Shechinah or cloud of glory between the Cherubim, where He provided access to Himself and sacrifices for His service; 2ndly, of the coming of the Lord to His temple (Mal. iii. 1), thereby making "the glory of the latter house greater than of the former” (Hagg. ii. 9); and of His providing there a Lamb for a sacrifice, which should save not only from temporal but from eternal death, taking away the sin of the world.

16. by myself have I sworn] This is the final promise of the Lord to Abraham, confirming all the former promises by the solemnity of an oath, and "because He could swear by no greater, He sware by Himself"

(Heb. vi. 13). The vast importance of the revelation and of the promise here recorded is proved by this remarkable act of the Most High. "God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, interposed Himself by an oath" (or "made Himself the Mediator to be sworn by," eμeσitevσev opko); "that by two immutable things" (i. e. His word and His oath, Chrysost., Theod., Theophyl.), "in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us" (Heb. vi. 17, 18). Abraham had by Divine grace achieved a victory of faith unheard of before in the world's history; and so to him personally a most blessed and most solemn promise is given of prosperity, honour and enlargement to him and to his seed after him. But this great victory of Abraham's was the type of a still greater victory to be won hereafter by God and God's only begot ten Son; and so the promise to Abraham includes a promise still greater to all mankind, for in the seed of Abraham all the nations of the earth were to be blessed for ever. N. B. Onkelos renders here, "I have sworn by My Word," Memra; and the Arabic, "I have sworn by My own Name."

20. it was told Abraham] This is introduced for the sake of tracing the genealogy of Abraham's brother Nahor down to Rebekah the wife of Isaac, v. 23.

21. Huz] See on ch. x. 23, where we have seen Uz and Aram together before. It is only natural that names should have been repeated in the same race, the race of Shem. Uz and Aram also occur among the posterity of Esau (Gen. xxxvi. 28), whence Idumea is called "the land of Uz" (Lam. iv. 21). This recurrence of names in juxtaposition creates some obscurity as to the sites to be assigned to their descendants in the division of the

20 ¶ And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she hath also born children unto thy brother Nahor;

21 Huz his first-born, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram,

22 And Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel. 23 And Bethuel begat Rebekah: Called, these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Rebecca. Abraham's brother.

24 And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she bare also Tebah,

Rom. 9. 10,

nations. St Jerome (Qu. in Gen.') thinks that Job was a descendant of Huz or Uz the son of Nahor. It is said that Job was of the land of Uz (Job i. 1), and his friend Elihu was "a Buzite of the kindred of Ram" (xxxii. 2). If Ram be the same as Aram, we have then the three names in this verse-Huz, Buz and Aram occurring in the history of Job. In Jerem. xxv. 23 Buz is placed with Dedan and Tema, apparently in Arabia Petræa.

22. Chesed] Jerome supposes the Chasdim (or Chaldæans) to have derived their name from him, to which conjecture the occurrence of the Chasdim also in the Book of

Job, gives some colour (see on v. 21). If,

indeed, "Ur of the Chaldees" was so called when Abraham dwelt there (Gen. xi. 31), this would be an anachronism, but very probably it may have been known as Ur of the Chaldees when Moses wrote, and so desigdim may not have been in existence in the nated by him, though the Chaldees or Chasdays of Abraham,

23. Bethuel begat Rebekah] The relationship therefore of Rebekah to Isaac was that Rebekah was daughter of Isaac's first cousin. They were, as we should say, first cousins once removed. Nahor was the elder brother of Abraham, and his granddaughter may have been of a suitable age to be the wife of Abraham's son.

these eight] The sons of Nahor, like the sons of Ishmael and of Jacob, were twelve in number. But though it happens that among the descendants of Terah three persons had twelve sons, there is such a diversity in the other circumstances of the family, such a difference with regard to their mothers, and there are so many other patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, &c., the numbering of whose children were quite unlike these, that the notion of a mystic number is utterly untenable (see Keil in loc.).

CHAP. XXIII, 1. And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old] Sarah is the only woman whose age is mentioned in the Scriptures (Lightfoot, Har. of Old Testament,' Gen. xxiii.), because as the mother of the promised seed, she became the mother of all believers. (1 Pet. iii. 6) (Del., Keil.) She died 37 years after the birth of Isaac, as she was 90 when he was born.

2. Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan] See on ch. xiii, 18. The supposition that the name Hebron was not given till the time of Joshua, and that the use of it in Genesis indicates a later hand, is contradicted by the natural force of these words. They appear plainly to have been written by some one not then living in the land of Canaan, Hebron was apparently the original name, which was changed to Kirjath-arba, and restored again by Caleb, Josh, xiv. 15.

Abraham came to mourn for Sarah] Abenezra and others infer from this that Abraham was not with Sarah when she died. It may mean no more than that Abraham went into Sarah's tent to mourn for her.

4. I am a stranger and a sojourner] (Cp. Heb. xi. 13). Abraham had only pastured his flocks, moving from place to place, as a nomad chief; but the various Canaanitish tribes had settled in the land, building cities and cultivating fields; and so as Lightfoot observes (Harm.:' on Gen. xxiii.), "a burial place is the first land that Abraham has in Canaan." The heir of the promises was but a stranger and a pilgrim, never to rest but in the grave, but with a glorious future before him for his race and for himself; assured that his seed should possess the land, and himself "desiring a better country, that is a heavenly." Give me a possession of a buryingplace with you] This is the first mention of burial. It was noted by the heathen historian as a characteristic of the Jews, that they preferred to VOL. I.

bury their dead rather than to burn them; corpora condere quam cremare (Tac. 'Hist.' v. 5). It is observable that this is thus mentioned first, when the first death takes place in the family of him, who had received the promises. The care of the bodies of the departed is a custom apparently connected with the belief in their sanctity as vessels of the Grace of God, and with the hope that they may be raised again in the day of the restitution of all things. The elaborate embalming of the Egyptians had perhaps a very different significance, looking rather to retain the beloved body in its former shape, and perhaps existence with it, rather than hoping that the to preserve the living principle in permanent body, being "sown a natural should be raised a spiritual body."

5. saying unto him] The Sam. Pent, and LXX. read (by the variation of a single letter), "saying, Not so."

6. thou art a mighty prince among us] lit, “a See on ch. x. 9, the name prince of God." of God being apparently added to give a superlative force: cp. 1 Sam. xxvi. 12, where R. D. Kimchi writes, "When the Scripture would magnify anything, it joins it to the name of God."

in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead] The Hittites in the complimentary manner common in oriental bargains (see Thomson,

Land and Book,' p. 578) offer Abraham to bury his dead in their sepulchres; but there was a separation between them of faith and life, which forbade Abraham to deposit the body of Sarah in the same grave with the people of the land. We know nothing of the funeral rites of the Canaanites at this early period, nor whether they buried the bodies of the departed or only their ashes. It is, however, very probable, that there were idolatrous rites connected with their sepulture, which it would have been unlawful for Abraham to countenance,

K

bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth.

8 And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and intreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar,

9 That he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field; for as much money as it is worth he shall give it me for a possession of a buryingplace amongst you.

10 And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the 1audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying,

7. bowed himself] The Vulgate has "adoravit coram populo." It was simply the deep reverence common in the East (cp. I Sam. xxv. 24; xxviii. 14; 1 Kings xviii. 7; 2 Kings ü. 15; Esth. viii. 3). It was a matter of courtesy and respect, also of entreaty or of gratitude,

9. the cave of Machpelah] The soil of Palestine being rocky naturally suggested sepulture in caves (see Winer, 'Realw.' s. v. Grabes, Smith, 'Dict. of Bible,' s.v. Burial). All the ancient Versions render the words "cave of Machpelah" by "the double cave," deriving Machpelah from the verb Caphal to divide, to double. Interpreters have explained this in various ways, as either that there were two entrances to the cave, or that it had a double structure such that two bodies (as e.g. that of Abraham and Sarah) might be laid there (see Heidegger, II. 131). Others, however, treat the word as a proper name, and Gesenius considers it more probably to signify "portion" than "duplication." The site of this ancient burialplace is well ascertained, Josephus tells us that "Abraham and his descendants built monuments over the sepulchres" here (A. J. I. 14), which were said to be still visible in the days of Jerome ('Onomast.'). Now a mosque is erected over the ground believed to cover the sepulchres. The Haram or sacred precinct of the mosque is surrounded by a wall, believed to be as ancient as anything now remaining in Palestine. The present condition and appearance of it are described by Robinson ('B. R.' II. p. 431 sq.), see also Thomson, 'Land and Book, p. 580, and a full account of the sepulchre in the appendix to Stapley's 'Sermons in the East.'

II Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead.

12 And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land.

13 And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me: I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there,

14 And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him,

15 My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead.

for as much money as it is worth] lit. "for full money." The same words are rendered 1 Chrọn, xxi, 22, "for the full price."

10. all that went in at the gate of his city] The transaction took place publicly at the gate of the city, the forum or public place of the ancient cities of the East, see on ch. xix. I.

11. the field give I thee] Compare 2 Sam, xxiv. 20, 24. Both conversations, that between Abraham and Ephron, and that between David and Araunah, are specimens of the extreme courtesy of the Eastern people in the transaction of business.

13. But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me] Rather perhaps, "But do thou, I pray thee, hear me." Two particles of wishing or intreating are used.

field," ie. the value of the field. money for the field] Lit. "the money of the

15. four hundred shekels of silver] The word shekel means merely weight, cp. pondus, pound. See on ch. xx. 16, where no name for a coin or weight occurs, but only the words "a thousand of silver." Here we first have the name of a weight, though probably not of a coin. There is no mention of coinage in Scripture before the Babylonish Captivity; but the Egyptians had rings of gold and silver of fixed weight long before Moses, which are represented on the monuments. The first actual Jewish money appears to have been coined by Simon Maccabæus (1 Macc. xv.). It is not easy to conjecture accurately what the value of a shekel may have been in the time of Abraham. In later times the LXX. and the New Testament (Matt, xvii. 24)

identify the half shekel with the didrachma, which would make the shekel nearly half an ounce, 220 grains of our weight, or a little less in value than half-a-crown of our present money. The field therefore would have been purchased for about fifty guineas, 52, 10s. (See Gesenius, 'Thes.' p. 1474; Winer, 'R. W. B.' s.v. sekel; Smith's 'Dict, of Bib.' s.vv. money, shekel, weights and measures.)

16. current money with the merchant] Lit. "silver passing with the merchant." The Canaanites were great merchants, so much so that the very word Canaanite became a synonym for merchant, see Job xl. 30 (in Authorised Version xli. 6); Prov. xxxi. 24. It is therefore very probable that they early learned the use of silver as a means of barter: and though it may not have been coined, yet the masses or bars of silver may have been early formed into conventional shapes, or marked with some rude sign to indicate their weight (see Ges. 'Thes.' p. 982).

17. the field, &c.] Not only the cave, as first proposed by Abraham, but the whole field with trees in it, which may have formed part of that grove of Mamre, where Abraham dwelt before the overthrow of Sodom and where he built an altar to the Lord.

were made sure unto Abraham] Lit. "stood firm to Abraham."

CHAP. XXIV. 1. Abraham was old] He

was 137 at the death of Sarah. Isaac was then 37; and when he married Rebekah, he was 40 (see ch, xxv. 20). Abraham therefore must have been in his 140th year at this time, and he lived 35 years after it (ch. xxv. 7).

2. unto his eldest servant of his house] Lit. "to his servant, the elder of his house." The word elder in Hebrew as in most languages is used as a title of honour, cp. Sheykh, Senatus, yépovres, presbyter, Signor, Mayor, &c. (Ges. 'Thes.' p. 427; Hammond, on Acts xi. 30). It is generally supposed that this was Eliezer of Damascus, see ch. xv. 2.

เ

Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh] A form of adjuration mentioned only here and of Jacob, ch. xlvii. 29. Various conjectures have been made by Jews (Joseph. Ant.' 1. 16; Hieron. 'Qu. in Gen.;' Ambrose, 'De Abraham.' 1. 6; Eliezer, in 'Pirke,' c. 39), and by the fathers (Ambros. 'De Abrahamo, 1. 9 Hieron. ubi supra; August. 'De C. D.' XVI. 33); but nothing is known with certainty of the signification of the action. Aben-Ezra supposes that it was a form of oath prevalent in patriarchal times but only taken by inferiors, as here by Abraham's steward, and in Gen. xlvii. 29 by a son to his father; that accordingly it was a kind of homage, the servant or son thereby indicating subjection and the purpose of obedience. (See Heidegger, II. pp. 134, 135; Rosenm, in loc.)

3. of the daughters of the Canaanites]

29.