CHAPTER XVII _In the ninety-ninth year of Abram's life God again appears to_ _him, announces his name as GOD ALMIGHTY, and commands him to_ _walk perfectly before him_, 1; _proposes to renew the covenant_, 2. _Abram's prostration_, 3. _The covenant specified_, 4. _Abram's name changed to ABRA... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 17:3. _AND ABRAM FELL ON HIS FACE_] The eastern method of prostration was thus: the person first went down on his knees, and then lowered his head to his knees, and touched the earth with his forehead. A very painful posture, but significative of great humiliation and reverence.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 17:5. _THY NAME SHALL BE ABRAHAM_] Abram אברם literally signifies a _high_ or _exalted father_. Ab-ra-ham אברהם differs from the preceding only in one letter; it has ה _he_ before the last radical. Though this may appear very simple and easy, yet the true etymology and meaning of the w... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 17:7. _AN EVERLASTING COVENANT_] ברית עולם _berith olam_. Genesis 13:15. Here the word _olam_ is taken in its own proper meaning, as the words immediately following prove - _to be a God unto thee, and thy_ _seed after thee_; for as the soul is to endure for ever, so it shall eternally... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 17:8. _EVERLASTING POSSESSION_] Here עולם _olam_ appears to be used in its _accommodated_ meaning, and signifies the completion of the Divine counsel in reference to a particular period or dispensation. And it is literally true that the Israelites possessed the land of Canaan till the... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 17:10. _EVERY MAN - CHILD - SHALL BE CIRCUMCISED._] Those who wish to invalidate the evidence of the Divine origin of the Mosaic law, roundly assert that the Israelites received the rite of circumcision from the Egyptians. Their apostle in this business is Herodotus, who, lib. ii., p.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 17:11. _AND IT SHALL BE A TOKEN_] לאות _leoth_, for a sign of spiritual things; for the circumcision made in the flesh was designed to signify the purification of the heart from all unrighteousness, as God particularly showed in the law itself. See Deuteronomy 10:16; see also Romans 2... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 17:12. _HE THAT IS EIGHT DAYS OLD_] Because previously to this they were considered unclean, Leviticus 12:2, and circumcision was ever understood as a _consecration of the person to God_. Neither calf, lamb, nor kid, was offered to God till it was eight days old for the same reason, Le... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 17:13. _HE THAT IS BORN IN THY HOUSE_] The son of a servant; _he that is bought with thy money _- a slave on his coming into the family. According to the Jewish writers the father was to circumcise his son; and the master, the servant born in his house, or the slave bought with money.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 17:14. _THE UNCIRCUMCISED - SHALL BE CUT OFF FROM HIS PEOPLE_] By being cut off some have imagined that a sudden temporal death was implied; but the simple meaning seems to be that such should have no right to nor share in the blessings of the covenant, which we have already seen were... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 17:15. _THOU SHALT NOT CALL HER NAME SARAI, BUT SARAH_] Genesis 17:5, Genesis 17:5.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 17:16. _I WILL BLESS HER, C._] Sarah certainly stands at the head of all the women of the Old Testament, on account of her extraordinary privileges. I am quite of Calmet's opinion that Sarah was a type of the blessed _Virgin_. St. Paul considers her a type of the _New Testament_ and h... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 17:17. _THEN ABRAHAM - LAUGHED_] I am astonished to find learned and pious men considering this as a token of Abraham's _weakness of_ _faith_ or _unbelief_, when they have the most positive assurance from the Spirit of God himself that _Abraham was not weak but strong in_ _the faith_;... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 17:18. _O THAT ISHMAEL MIGHT LIVE BEFORE THEE!_] Abraham, finding that the covenant was to be established in _another_ branch of his family, felt solicitous for his son Ishmael, whom he considered as necessarily excluded; on which God delivers that most remarkable prophecy which follow... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 17:20. _TWELVE PRINCES SHALL HE BEGET, C._] See the names of these _twelve princes_, Genesis 25:12-1. From Ishmael proceeded the various tribes of the Arabs, called also _Saracens_ by Christian writers. They were anciently, and still continue to be, a very numerous and powerful people.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 17:21. _MY COVENANT WILL I ESTABLISH WITH ISAAC_] All _temporal_ good things are promised to Ishmael and his posterity, but the establishment of the Lord's covenant is to be with Isaac. Hence it is fully evident that this covenant referred chiefly to _spiritual_ _things_-to the Messiah... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 17:22. _GOD WENT UP FROM ABRAHAM._] Ascended evidently before him, so that he had the fullest proof that it was no human being, no earthly angel or messenger, that talked with him; and the promise of a son in the course of a single year, _at this set time_ _in the next year_, Genesis 1... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Genesis 17:23. _AND ABRAHAM TOOK ISHMAEL, C._] Had not Abraham, his son, (who was of age to judge for himself,) and all the family, been fully convinced that this thing was of God, they could not have submitted to it. A rite so painful, so repugnant to every feeling of delicacy, and every way... [ Continue Reading ]