The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 289

LXX. intcl'polates, brl ra ~,xornµ.~µ.ara), their exile, bondage, and affliction ; either a Abram drove them away. Literally, cauaed round number for 430 (Calvin, Rosenmi.illcr, them to be blown away, i. e. by blowing. Keil, AHord), to bo reckoned from the data " Though .Abram is here re.Presented as the of the descent into Egypt (Kalisch, Lange), instrument, yet the effect 1s to be ascribed as Moses (Exotl. xii. 39) and Stephen (Acta primarily to the tutelar agency of omnipo- vii. 6) seem to say, antl to be reconcilecl with tence " ( Bush ; cf. Exod. xv. I 0 ; Ezek. xxi. the statement of Paul (Gal. iii. 17) by reg"rd- 31). The net of scaring the voracious birtls ing the death of Jacob as the closing of the has been taken to reprcsen t the ease with time of promise (Lange, Inglis) ; or an exnrt which .Abrom or Israel would ward off his number dating from the birth of Isaac (Wil- enemies (Jonathan, Targums, Rosenmiiller, let, Murphy, Wordsworth), which was thirty Ilnsh) ; the averting of destruction from the years after the call in Ur, thus making the Israelites through .Abram's merit (Kalisch, entire interval correspontl with the 430 yearn Keil) ; .Abram's religious regard for and of Paul, or from the persecution of Ishmael observance of God's treaty (Wordsworth); (Ainsworth, Clarke, Bush), which occurrctl the patiiarch's expectation that God was thirty years after the promise in eh. xii. 3. about to employ the sacrificial victims for Ver. 14.-And also that nation (the name some holy purpose (.Alford) ; simply his of which he docs not reveal, in case of seem- anxiety to preserve the victims pure and un- ing to interfere with the free volition of his mutilated for whatever end they might have creatures, who, while accomplishing his high to serve (Murphy). designs and secret purposes, arc ever conscious Ver. 12.-And when the sun was going of their moral freedom), whom they shall down. Literally, was about to go down (cf. serve, will I judge :-i. e. punish after judg- Gesenius, § 132). The vision having com- ing, which prediction was in due course ful- menced the previous evelllllg, an entire day filled (Exod. vi. 11)-and afterward shall bas already passed, tho interval being de- they come out with great substance-recush si~ed to typify the time between the pro- (cf. eh. xiii. 6 ; vide Exod. xii. 36). mise and its fulfilment (Kalisch). A deep Ver. 15.-And thou she.It go to thy fathers sleep-tardemah (cf. .Adam's sleep, eh. ii. in peace (cf. eh. xxv. 8; xu:v. 29; xlb:. 33). 21); ;KaTaa,, (LXX.); a supernatural slum- Not a periphrasis for going to the gra,e ber, as the darkness following was not solely (Rosenmiiller), since .Abram's ancestors were tlue to natural causes-fell upon Abram; not entombed in Canaan; but a proof of the and, lo, an horror of great darkneas-liter- survival of departed spilits in a state of con- ally, an horror, a great darkness, i. e. an scious existence after death (Knobel, Murphy, overwhelming dread occasioned by the dense Wordsworth, 'Speaker's Commentary,' 111- gloom with which he was encircled, nnd glis), to the company of which the patriarch which, besides being designed to conceal was in due time to bo gathered. The disposa I the working of the Deity from mortal of his remains is provided for in what follows. vision (Knobel), was meant' to symbolise the Thou shalt be buried in a good old age. Egyptian bondage (Grotius, Calvin, Rosen- Yer. 16.-Ba.t in the foa.rth generation- rniiller, Keil, Kalisch), and perhaps a.lso, nraprp oi YEVHj (LXX.) ; but, more cor- since Abram's faith embraced a larget.sphere rectly, the .fourth generation, calculatin:s than Canaan· (Heb. xi. 10, 14, 16), and a 100 years to a generation. "Caleb was the nobler seed 'than Sarah's sou (John viii. 66), fourth from Judah, and JIIoses from Len, the sufferings of Christ (Wordsworth, Inglis) antl so doubtless many others" (Bush). Drs. -fell upon him. Oort and Kuenen, reckoning four generations Ver. 13.-And he said unto Abram, Know as a far shorter space of time than four cen- 'of a surety-literally, knowing know (cf. turies, detect a contradiction between this eh. ii. 17; vide Ewald's 'Hebrew Syntax,'§ verso and ver. 13, anti an evitlence of the 312)-that thy seed shall be a stranger in a free use which the ancient and uncritical land which is not theirs (literally, wt to Israelitish author matle of his mnteria ls them, viz., Egypt, or Egypt and Canaan, ac- (' Bible for Young People,' vol. i. p. 158). cording to the view which is taken of the On the import of ii"I vide eh. vi. 9-they point of departure for the reckoning of the shall come hither again (literally, shall 400 years), and shall serve them (i. e. the i·eturn hither): for the iniqa.ity or the inhabitants of that alien country) ; and they Amorites is not yet full. Literally, for not (i. e. these foreigners) shall affl.ict them- completed the iniquity of tl,e Amorites (vide three different stages of adverse fortune are eh. xiv. 7; here put for the entiro population) described : - (1) exile; (2) bondage; (3) until then (the same word as "hither," o..ffliction (Murphy) ; or the two last clauses which i! ';.s nsunl signification). depict the contents of the first (Kalisch)- Ver. 17.-And it came to pass, that, wheu four hundred years. The duration not of the sun went down,-litcrally, ancl it irn.i their nfiliction merely, but either of their (i. e. this took 1,1I11~e), t~e.. sun '.C!!f!t doim_; bc?::!~be and affiiction, or more probn bly of 1c~s accurately, ""' JI U ,,:1.,0, 1r<VITU ll'PQ"  THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [ce. xv. 7-it.