The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 349

of filial rcnr,·ncc nn,l en,lca1me11t thnt must (Lango); or the words nre used anthropomor• have lacerated Abraham's heart. As used phic.<i.1Jy (Calvin)-that thou fee.rest God,- by Isaac it signified a desiro to interrogate Elohim; the Divin11 intention being to his piirent-and he said, B:ere iim I, my son characterise the pntrinrch as R God-fearing (literally, Behold me, my son= Well, m:v man, and not simply os II worshipper of son, ·what is it 1 in colloquial English). And Jehovah (cf. Quarry 'on Genesis,' p. 460)- he said, Behold the fire and the wood: hut seeing-literally, and (sc. in proof thereof)- where is the lamb for a burnt oft'ering. thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only Another hint that the sacrificial system did son from me. Ka~ obc lf/>dtrw Toii i,,oii aoii not originate with :Moses. tiya,r11roii o,' Iµ, {LXX. ). Cf. Ii, yE roii /01011 Ver. 8. - And Abraham said, Ky son, i•wu ova: ~~•i11aro (Rom. viii. 32), ns applied God will provide himself a lamb for a to the sacrifice of Christ. In this verse the burnt oft'ering :-the utterance of heroic angel of Jehovah identifies himself with faith ra thcr thnn the language of pious Elohim. dissimulntion (vid-e on ver. 5)-so they went Ver. 13.-And Abraham lifted up his eye■ both of them together. To see in this twice- (in tho direction of the voice), and looked, repca ted expression a type of the concurrence and behold behind him-either at bis bock of the Father and the Son in the work of (l<'iirst, Keil, Lange, Murphy), or in the redemption (Wordsworth) is not exegesis. hackground of the altar, i. e. in front of him , er. 9. - And they came to the place (Gesenius, Kalisch). The LXX., Samaritan, which God had told him of; and Abraham Syriac, mistaking iO~ for iOt:!, read "one," built an altar there,-i. e. upon the mountain which adds nothing to the se.nse or pictur. summit or slope (ver. 2)-and laid the wood esqueness of tbo composition-a ram-,!~ ; in order (it is scarcely likely that Isaac in tbo component letters of which cabnlistic was permitted to assist in these affecting preparations), and bound Isaac his aon,- writers find the initial letters of ,~-i1t:!"!'. -rrbo must have acquiesced in his father's c•;:i",~, God will provide for himself (ver. •s·; purpose, and there by evinced his fai tb in the 'Vide Glass, 'Phil Tract~,• p. 196). In the Divine commandment. The t{lnn "bound," animal itself the Fathers (Augustine, Ter- though seeming to convey the idea of violence, tullian, Origen, Chrysostom, Theodoret, derh-es its significance from the binding of Ambrose) rightly discerned a type of Christ, the sacrificial victim-and la.id him on the though it is fanciful to detect a shadow of al tar on the wood. The feelings of the the crown of thorns in the words that follow patriarch throughout this transaction are -caught .in a thicket by hie horns (the ~imply inconceiva.ble. sebach being the intertwined branches of Yer. 10.-And Abraham stretched forth trees or brushwood): and Abraham went his hand, and took the knife to slay his son and took the ram, and (though not directc,l -who even in the last moment offers no what to do, yet with e. fine spiritual instinct n,sistance, but beha,;cs like a type of him discerning the Divine purpose) oft'ared him who was led like a lamb to the slaughter up for a humt oft'ering in the stead of his (Isa. liiL 7). son-whom he thus received from the tlentl Yer. 11.-And the angel of the Lord- as in a figure (Heb. xi 19). 1,laleach Jehovah (vide eh. xvi. 7); intro- Ver. 14.-And Abraham called the name duced into the narrative at this point not of that place 1ehovah-jireh :-i. e. the Loni as n ,Tehovistic alteration (Bleck, Kalisch, will provide (Jone.than, Calvin, Rosenmiillcr, et alii), hnt because the God of redemption Keil, &c.), rather thnn the Lord solects, or now interposes for the deliverance of both looks out, i. e. the sacrifices to be afterwards lsaac and Abraham (Hengstenberg)-called offered in the temple worship on Moriah unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, (Kalisch) ; or, the Lord shall appear (Oort, Abraham (the repetition denotes urgency, Kuenen), which overlooks the mnnifest allu- as contrasted 'll·ith ver. 1): and he aaid, sion to ver. 8-as it is said to this day,-or, Here am I. so that it is said ; cf. eh. xiii. 16 (Keil)-In Ver. 12.-And be ■ aid, Lay not thine the mount of the Lord it shall be seen-01· hand upon the lad, neither do thou any "it shall be provided" (Gcscnius, Roscn- thing unto him. Abraham's surrender of miiller, Dathe, • Speaker's Commentnry '), tl,e son of his affections having been com- though by competent authorities it hnA Lee11 pkte, there was no need to push the trial otherwise rendered. "In the mount the Loni further. The voice from heaven has been shall appear, or be seen" (LXX.); ff in tl1e nccepted as evidence of God's rejection of mount the Lord will see,or provide" (Vulgeh', human sacrifices {Lange, Murphy), only that Syriac, Samaritan); ff in the mount of the i8 not assigned as the reason for Isaac's Lord he will be seen" (Murphy) ; ff in the deliverance. For now I know-literally, mount of the Lord one abnll be seen," or have known; not cause,t thee to know "people appear," i. e. the people of Co,l (Auiri1stiue), but c:rnse,1 o1hcrs tu kuo1v s11~11 gather on tl1is mo1111t:l\n for worship CB. XXII. 1-19,J THE BOOK OF GEXESIS. 286