_ABRAM RETURNS OUT OF EGYPT. A CONTENTION ARISING BETWEEN THE SHEPHERDS OF ABRAM AND LOT, THEY SEPARATE: LOT PITCHES HIS TENT IN THE PLAIN OF JORDAN;_ _Abram continues in Canaan: God promises him an innumerable offspring._... [ Continue Reading ]
INTO THE SOUTH— Into the south of Canaan.... [ Continue Reading ]
VERY RICH— Thus one part of the divine promise was amply fulfilled. _Observe,_ 1. His riches, which made him not forget God: so that a rich man may be a good man. It is a blessed prosperity, which is employed in promoting of God's cause, and advancing his glory. 2. The place of his abode between B... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LAND, &C.— See ch. Genesis 36:7. there was not sufficient pasturage for their cattle; insomuch that the shepherds and servants of each master began to quarrel and contend about it. A matter, which might have had bad effects, and therefore required immediate attention; for part of the land being... [ Continue Reading ]
WE BE BRETHREN— The Hebrews call near relations, as _kinsmen,_ &c. brethren. Indeed all men are brethren, as having _One Father;_ and consequently can hardly urge a more prevailing argument for unanimity and concord, than this common relationship. See Acts 17:26. Abram's behaviour here is extremely... [ Continue Reading ]
AND LOT LIFTED UP, &C.— This verse has much perplexed the Commentators, especially as it stands in our version: where the words _as thou comest unto Zoar_ are joined to _the land AEgypt,_ when the first inspection of a map will shew, that they cannot refer to the land of AEgypt. Houbigant therefore... [ Continue Reading ]
LOT CHOSE HIM ALL THE PLAIN OF JORDAN— Struck as he was with the beauty of the country, without any regard to the manners of the inhabitants; which became afterwards, as we shall see, a source of much discontent and uneasiness to him; The _plain of Jordan_ comprehends, according to Dr. Wells, the gr... [ Continue Reading ]
ABRAM DWELLED IN THE LAND OF CANAAN— That is, of the _Canaanites,_ peculiarly so called, see Genesis 12:6 for if Canaan be taken in its extensive sense, then Lot dwelt in Canaan also: or, perhaps, the sacred historian may mean to inform us, that Abram continued to dwell in the LAND, i.e.. in the cou... [ Continue Reading ]
MEN OF SODOM—SINNERS BEFORE THE LORD— i.e.. Very great sinners in his sight, who cannot be deceived, see ch. Genesis 10:9. The Chaldee paraphrase renders it: "They put their riches to an iniquitous use, and their bodies to the worst vices before the Lord." This verse seems inserted to prepare us for... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD, &C.— No sooner was Lot separated from Abram, than the Lord appears again to him, both to console him, to renew his promise with him, and to assure him that his posterity should certainly inherit this country: accordingly, he commands him to look every way, _from the place where he was,... [ Continue Reading ]
ARISE, WALK THROUGH THE LAND, &C.— That is, not only to take an exact survey of the gift: but also thus to vest himself, as it were, in that property, to which God had given him the right of inheritance.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN ABRAM REMOVED HIS TENT— And continued to do so, till he had travelled through and surveyed the whole land of Palestine, according to the divine admonition; which done, he settled _in the plain,_ or rather _at the oak of Mamre._ See ch. Genesis 12:6.* Mamre was so called from the name of the pro... [ Continue Reading ]