Unto a (litcrully, the) land that I will show tho waters of the flood) thee. The Divine thee. 'l1irough a. revelation (La.nge), or Being thus identifies himself with Abr~m, simply by ~ho gui<lancc of providence.. The and solemnly engages to regard Abram's !tmd itself 1s loft unnamed for the tnal of friends and enemies as his, as Christ rloes tho patriarch's faith, which, if it sustained with his Church (d. Acts i. 4). And in the proof, was to be rewarded by the exceed- thee shall all the families of the earth be ing great and precious promises which follow: blessed. Not bless themselves by thee or in -according to ono arrangement, seven in thy name (Jo.rchi, Clericus); but in thee, as number, ono for each clanso of the next the progenitor of the promised seed, shall two verses (Cajeta.n, Willet) ; according to all the families of the ground (which was nnother, four, corresponding to the clauses cursed on account of sin, eh. iii. 17) bo of the second verse, the last of which is ex- spiritually blessed-cf. Gal. iii. 8 (Calvin, panded in the third (Keil) ; according to a Luther, Rosenmiiller, Keil, Wordsworth, third, six, forming threo pairs of parallels Murphy, 'Speaker's Commentary'). Thusth0 (Alford); according to a fourth, and perhaps second sense in which Abram was consti- the best, two, a lower or personal blessing, tuted a blessing lay in this, that the whole comprising the fi;st thr_ee particul~rs, nnd fulness of the Divine promise of salvation a higher or public blessmg, embracmg the for the world was narrowed up to bis line, last three (Murphy). by which it was in future to be carried for- Vers. 2, 3.-And I will make of thee a ward, and at the appointed season, when the great nation. A compensation for leaving woman's seed was born, distributed among his small kindred. 'fhe nation should be mankind. great (1) numerically (Keil, Rosenmiiller), Ver. 4.-So (literally, and) Abram de- (2) influentially (Kalisch, Inglis), (3) spirit- parted-from Ur of the Chaldees, or from ually (Luther, Wordsworth). And I will Haran (vide supra) - as the Lord had bless thee. Temporally (Pererius, Murphy), spoken unto him; and Lot went with with every kind of good (Rosenmiiller), in him. Lot's name being repe&ted here be- particular with offspring (Vatablus); but also cause of his connection with the ensuing spiritually (Rupertus, Bush), in the sensA, narrative. And Abram was seventy and e. g., of being justified by faith, as in Gal. five years old-literally, a 8on offive years iii. 8 (Candlish). The blessing was a recom- and seventy years (cf. eh. vii. 6)-when he pense for the deprivations entailed upon him clepa.rted-literally, in his goi711J forth upon by forsaking the place of his birth and the second stage of his journey-from Haran. kindred (Murphy). And make thy name Ver. 5.-And Abram took (an important great. Render thee illustrious and renowned addition to the foregoing statement, intimat• (Rosenmiiller); not so much in the annals of ing that .Abram did not go forth as a lonely the wol'ld as in the history of the Church wanderer, but accompanied by) Sarai hi3 (Bush); in return for leaving thy father's wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all the house (Murphy). So God made David a substance - ree1.1Sh, acquired wealth, from great name (2 Sam. vii. 9 ; cf. Prov. xxii. 1 ; racash, to gain (cf. eh. xiv. 11, 16, 21; YV. Eccles. vii. 3). And thou shalt be a bless- 14), which consisted chiefly in cattle, Lot ing. I. e. "blessed," as in Zech. viii. 12 nnd Abram being nomads-that they had (Chahlee, Syriac, LXX., Dathe, Rosenmiil- gathered (not necessarily implying a pro- ler, Gesenins) ; or "a typo or example of tracted st11y, as some allege), and the souls blessing," so that men shall introduce thy -here slaves and their children (cf. Ezek. name into their formularies of blessing xxvii. 13)-that they hacl gotten-" not only (Kimchi, Clericus, Knobel, Calvin) ; but, as secular property for themselves, but as best, "a source of blessing (spiritual) to brethren to themsel vcs, and as children of tha others" (Tuch, Delitzsch, Keil, Kalisch, one heavenly Fnther" (Wordsworth); that Murphy). The sense in which Abram was they had converted to the law (Oukelos) ; that to be a source of blessing to others is ex- they had proselyted (Raschi, Targnm Jona- plained in the next verse. First, men were than, and Jerusalem Targum )-in Haran; and to be either blessed or cmsed of God accord- they went f~rth to go in:to the landofCan~n; ing ns their o,ttitude to Abram was pro- -a proleps1s (cf. eh. x1. 31, q. v.)-and into pitious 01· hostile. And I will bless them the land of Canaan they came--a distance of -grace expecting there will bo many to 300 miles from Haran, from which their cours0 bless (Delitzsch)-that bless thee, and curse must have been across the Euphrates in one of (with a jmlicial curse, the word bein~ the its higher affluents, over the Syrian desert, same as in eh. iii. 14; iv. 11) him-only an southwards to Lebanon and Dam1LScus (cf. individual here and there, in the judgment eh. xv. 2), where, according to Josephus, the of the Deity, boi.ug likely to inherit this patriaroh reigned for some considerable time, malediction (Deli I tsch)-that ourseth (liter- "being come with o.n army from the land of nlly, treateth ligl<tly, or despiseth. The verb the Chuldreans" ('Ant.,' L 7), and a village ia nppliecl in eh. viii. 11 to tho diminn tion of smTiV~ll to his day callc,l "abr-J.ham's N 2 180 THE 13OOK OF GENESIS. [en. xn. 1-li.
habitation." According to the rartitionists Abram (vor. 6) as journeying through the (Tuch, Bleck, Colenso, DRvidson) this verse land without having previously men tionod belongs to the Elohist or fundamental docu- whnt lnnd (cf. Quarry, p. 420), ment ; but if so, then the Jehovist represents