The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 252

EXPOSITION. chiefly as his life and fortunes connect with CHAPTER XII. the Divine purpose of salvation that they Vcrs. 1-5.-Designed to trace the out- find a place in the inspired recorJ. The ward development of God's kingdom on the progress of infidelity during the four cen- earth, the narrative now concentrates its turies that had elapsed sinco the Flood, the attention on one of the foregoing Terachites, almost universal corruption of even the whose remarkable career it sketches with Shemite portion of the human family, had considerable minuteness of detail, from the conclusively demonstrated the necessity of a period of his emigration from Chaldrea to his second Divine interposition, if the kno,v- death at Hebron in the land of Canaan. ledge of salvation were not to be completely Distinguished as n man of undoubted superi- banished from the earth. Accordingly, the ority both of ch1m.cter and mincl, the hand son of Terah was selccte,l to bo tho foun,ler of at least two poworful 11.ncl important races, of a new nation, in which the light of gospel ancl sta11cling, as one might say, on the truth might bo deposited for preserYatio11 throsholu of the hfat-1 Jl'ical ora, it is yet until tho foieess of the times, and through Oll:NllH!ll. N 17R 'I'IlE BOOK 01'' GENRSIS. [en:. XII. 1-5. ---- -~ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - which the promise of the gospel might be Colcnso, David110n), "Such II hypothesis," conductetl forlVllrd to its ultimate re11lise.tion says Keil," ran only be maintained by those in the mAmfest.ntion of the woman's seed. who misundershnd the distinctive meaning l'nrtly to prepAre him for the l1igh destiny of of the two MmM, Elohim and Jehovah (q. 11. being the progenitor of the cl1osen nation, on eh. ii. 4), end arbitrarily set nside tho And partly to illustrate the character of that Jehovah in eh. xvii. 1, on nccount of 1111 gospel with which he was to be intrusted, erroneous dctern1i11ntion of the relation in 116 was summoned to renounce his natin which El Sha,ldai stands to Jehovah." In- counh-y Rnd kinsmen in Chaldrea, 11nd ven- dications of tho literary unity of the patri- ture forth upon an untried journey in obe- archal history will be noted, 1md replies to <iience to the call of Heaven, to a land which objections given, in the progress of tho Ex- he should. nfterward receive for an inherit- position. nnce. In n series of successive theophanics Ver. 1.-Now the Lord. Jehovah= the or Di,inc manifostations, around which tho God of salvation, nn indication tlmt the Yarious incidents of his life are grouped-in narrative is now to specially- concern itself with the chosen seed, and the Deity to dis- Ur of the Chaldees (Acts vii. 2), at Moreh cover himself as the God of redemption. in Canaan (Gen. xii. 7), near Bethel (ibid. The hypothesis that vers. 1-4 were inserted xiii.), at Mamre (-ibid. xv., xvii.), and on in tbe fundamental document by tl1e Jeho- l\Ioriah (ibid. xxii. )-be is distinctly promised vist editor is not required for a satisfactory three things-a land, a seed, and a blessing explanation of the change of the Divino no.me at this particular stage of the narra- - -ns the reward of bis compliance with the tive. Had said. Literally, said. In Ur of heavenly invitation ; nnd the confident per- the Chaldees, according to Stephen (Acts vii. suasion both of the reality of these gracious 2), reverting, after the usual manner of the promises nnd of the Divine ability and will- writer, to the original point of departure in ingness to fulfil them forms the animating the Abrahamic history (Aben Ezra, Mede, Piscator, Pererias, Calvin, Willet, Rosen- spirit ancl guiding principle of his being in miiller, Dathius, Alford, Murphy, 'Speaker's every situation of life, whether of trial or Commentary'); or in Harau, after Terah's of difficulty, in which he is subsequently death, as the first call given to the patriarch placed. The miraculous character of these (LXX., Chaldee, Syriac, Raschi, Lyra, Keil, theophanics indeed has been made a ground Kalisch, Dykes), or as a repetition of the call addressed to him in Ur (Clarke, Words- on which to assail the entire patriarchal worth, Inglis). Luther conjectures that the history as unhistorical. By certain writers call in Ur was given "fort(l,sse per patri- they have been represented as nothing more archam Shem;" but if the authority of than natural occurrences embellished by the Stephen be recognised, this was the occasion genius of the author of Genesis (Eichhorn, of the first theophany vouchsafed to Abram; Get thee out. Literally, go for thyself, Bauer, Winer), as belonging to the domain a frequent Hebraism, expressive of the way of poetical fiction (De Wette), and therefore in which the action of the verb returns upon as undeserving of anything like serious con- itself, is terminated and completed (cf. eh. sideration. But unless the si:peruatural is xxi. 16; xxii. 2; Isa. xxxi. 8; Cant. ii. 11 ; to be in toto eliminated from the record, a vule Ewald's 'Hebrew Syntax,' § 314) ; hence, though not necessarily emphatic, it concession which cannot possibly be granted may oe equivalent to "Go thou," whoever by an enlightened theism, the Divine appear- else remains behiud (Jarchi, Ainsworth, ances to Abraham cannot be regarded as in Bush). Of thy country. A proof that the any degree militating against the historical elate of the call was while Abram was in Ur vcraci ty of the story of his life, which, it (Calvin), though if Ur was at Edessa (vid6 aupra) the patriarch could scarcely have may be said, is amply vouched for by the been said to be from home. And from thy harmony of its details with the character- kindred. At Ur in all probability Nabor istics of the period to which it belongs (cf. and Milcah were left behind ; at Haran, Havernick's 'Introduction,' § 18). Nor Nahor and his family, if they had nlready does the employment of the name Jehovah arrived thither, and according to soma (Kalisch, Dykes) Teroh also. And from in connection with these thcophauies war- thy father'• houae. I. e. if they will not rant the conclusion that the passages oon- accompany thee. No Divine interdict for- taining tbem are interpolations of a post- bade the other members of the fan1ily of ·Mosaic or Jehovistic editor (Tuch, B!eek, Tcrah joining in the Abrahamic emigration, cm. x11. 1-5.J TIIE BOOK OF GENESIS. 179