GENESIS CHAPTER 22 God tempts Abraham, GENESIS 22:1; to sacrifice Isaac, GENESIS 22:2. He readily goes about it, GENESIS 22:3. Isaac's question, GENESIS 22:7. Abraham's answer, GENESIS 22:8. They come to the place; he binds Isaac; lays him on the altar; takes the knife, GENESIS 22:9,10. The Lord see... [ Continue Reading ]
Not a word here but might pierce a heart of stone, much more so tender a father as Abraham was. TAKE NOW, without demurring or delay, I allow thee no time for _thy_ consideration, own proper SON; not a beast, not an enemy, not a stranger, though that had been very difficult to one so kind to all str... [ Continue Reading ]
ABRAHAM ROSE UP EARLY IN THE MORNING, that he might execute God's command without doubt or delay; AND SADDLED HIS ASS, for greater expedition, not waiting for his servant to do it.... [ Continue Reading ]
Probably on the beginning of the third day. It is true, Moriah was not three days journey from Beer-sheba. But it must be considered that the ass, upon which he rode, is a dull and slow creature, and that Abraham went no faster than the rest of his company, who, for aught appears, were on foot; and... [ Continue Reading ]
ABRAHAM SAID this, lest they should hinder him in the execution of his design. I AND THE LAD WILL COME AGAIN TO YOU; for he knew that God both could and would for his promise sake, either preserve Isaac from being sacrificed, or afterward raise him from the dead, as it is intimated, HEBREWS 11:19.... [ Continue Reading ]
Isaac, though called a _lad,_ GENESIS 22:5, was now a grown man, at least five and twenty years old, and therefore well able to bear that burden; and in this act he was an eminent type of Christ, who carried that wood upon which he was crucified.... [ Continue Reading ]
MY FATHER; a compellation which might both wound Abraham's heart, and admonish him how unbecoming to a father that action was which he was going about. HERE AM I, MY SON; which expression showed that he had not put off fatherly affection to him, and that his intention did not arise from any unnatura... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD WILL PROVIDE HIMSELF A LAMB; either, 1. Literally, though I know not how; for his wisdom and power are infinite: or, 2. Mystically, as Christ, whose type Isaac was, is called a Lamb. Thus Abraham prudently reveals the matter to him by degrees, not all at once.... [ Continue Reading ]
ABRAHAM BUILT AN ALTAR, made of earth slightly put together, as God afterwards prescribed, EXODUS 20:24; AND BOUND ISAAC HIS SON, partly, because burnt-offerings were to be bound to the altar; of which SEE POOLE ON "PSALMS 118:27"; partly, to represent Christ, who was bound to the cross. And that Is... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ANGEL OF THE LORD, i.e. Christ the Angel of the covenant, as appears from GENESIS 22:12,16. He repeats his name to prevent Abraham, whom he knew to be most expeditious in God's service, and just ready to give the deadly blow.... [ Continue Reading ]
God knew the sincerity and resolvedness of Abraham's faith and obedience before and without this evidence, and from eternity foresaw this fact and all its circumstances; and therefore you must not think that God had now made any new discovery: but this is spoken here, as in many other places, of God... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHIND HIM; which way he looked, either because the voice came that way, or because he heard the noise made by the motion of _the ram_ in the thicket, which had gone astray from the rest of the flock, and whose errors were directed hither by God's wise and powerful providence; and being young, thoug... [ Continue Reading ]
JEHOVAH-JIREH. The same Hebrew letters differently pointed make the sense either active, _the Lord will see, _ i.e. provide or take care of those that commit themselves and their affairs to him; or passive, _the Lord will be seen, _ i.e. will appear and show himself in the behalf of all those that l... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
BY MYSELF HAVE I SWORN: so the Lord swears _by his name,_ JEREMIAH 44:26; _by his soul, _ in the Hebrew text, JEREMIAH 51:14; _by his holiness,_ AMOS 4:2; which is the same with _by himself_ here. Hence also it appears that the Angel who speaks here is Christ and God, because this is God's prerogati... [ Continue Reading ]
i.e. The city, by a usual synecdoche, as DEUTERONOMY 12:15, DEUTERONOMY 18:6, all the cities, and consequently the country adjacent; _gate_ for _gates._ The sense is, they shall subdue their enemies. For the _gates_ of cities were the places both of jurisdiction or judicature, DEUTERONOMY 21:19, DEU... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
This narration and genealogy is added for Rebekah's sake, and to make way for the following relation.... [ Continue Reading ]
From BUZ descended, as some conceive, Elihu the Buzite, JOB 32:2. ARAM was so called, possibly because he dwelt among the Syrians, as Jacob, for the same reason, was called a _Syrian,_ DEUTERONOMY 26:5. But there was another more ancient Aram, from whom the Syrians descended, GENESIS 10:22.... [ Continue Reading ]
No text from Poole on this verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
REBEKAH was afterwards Isaac's wife, GENESIS 24:1.... [ Continue Reading ]
A CONCUBINE was an inferior kind of wife, taken according to the common practice of those times, subject to the authority of the principal wife, and whose children had no right of inheritance, but were endowed with gifts. See GENESIS 21:14, GENESIS 25:6. MAACHAH, a name common both to man, as 2 SAMU... [ Continue Reading ]