Romans 9:7

neither because, &c. An illustration from manifest fact, to shew that an apparently inclusive promise may be limited. We may paraphrase: "Abraham's descendants, again, are not all his -children" in the sense contemplated, just because they are his descendants; on the contrary, there is a distinct limitation: -in Isaacand his line are they who shall bear the title of thy seed." " The cases of Israel's and Abraham's "children" are not here precisely parallel; because allIsrael's bodily descendants inherited a Promise, in some sense. But the second case illustrates the possibility of a limitation in the first.

In Isaac, &c. The quotation is verbatim from LXX., Genesis 21:12, and literally according to the Hebrew. It is introduced without "It is written," as being perfectly well known with its context. See on Romans 4:18.