Bible Commentaries

CHAP. XXV.

Abraham takes Keturah to wife: the sons of Keturah. Isaac is confirmed in the inheritance of Abraham's property: Abraham dies. The sons of Ishmael: Ishmael dies. Rebekah brings forth twins: Esau sells his birth-right to Jacob.

Before Christ 1853.

Genesis 25:4. All these were the children, &c.— If we reckon these, and the Ishmaelites, and the Edomites, it is probable, that this posterity of Abraham equalled that of the Israelites. If Abraham's name and history were so well known in the East, and by the Persians, it might be partly by reason of this numerous posterity, and partly because he beat Chedorlaomer king of Elam, of whom came the Persians.

Genesis 25:8. An old man, and full— There is nothing for, of years, in the Hebrew: the word is שׂבע sabang, full, satiated, satisfied: having completed the business of his life, and being fully satisfied with it. Perhaps the metaphor is taken from an entertainment, where the guests, after they have fared liberally, rise from table fully satisfied, and thankful for the feast. The Greek and Latin poets have thus applied it; and, after them, Mr. Pope, in one of his epitaphs, says,

From nature's temperate feast rose satisfied, Thank'd Heaven that he had liv'd, and that he died.

The death of Abraham is mentioned here a little out of time, in order to finish his history without interruption; for Esau and Jacob were born fifteen years before his death. Isaac was born when his father Abraham was a hundred years old, ch. Genesis 21:5. and he married when his father was one hundred and forty. It was twenty years before his wife bare him any children, Genesis 21:26. Abraham died at the age of one hundred and seventy-five, Genesis 21:7 so that he lived fifteen years after Esau and Jacob were born.

And was gathered to his people— The same is said of Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, &c. and in other places of Scripture the faithful are said to be gathered to their fathers, Judges 2:10. Acts 13:36. Genesis 15:15 expressions which must refer to the soul, not to the body. Jameson has very justly observed, that the phrase here used cannot refer to Abraham's body, for that was deposited among strangers in Canaan, and not in Chaldea among his ancestors. It must therefore belong to the soul, which by this expression is plainly intimated to be immortal, and to subsist in a separate state, after its union with the body is dissolved. Accordingly, by Abraham's being gathered to his people, it is reasonable to understand, his being joined to the spirits of just men made perfect, those kindred souls, whose tempers and manners he imitated while on earth. So it is explained by some of the fathers, particularly Theodoret. Neither does it make any thing against this explication, that the phrase is applied promiscuously to good and bad men; for each may be gathered to his own people, and yet these two sorts of people, or societies, to which they are joined, be extremely different.

Le Clerc thinks the expression might take its original from a prevailing opinion, that the souls of the dead were joined to the souls of their ancestors, or to those of their own nation and family. This, I doubt not, is true in respect to the faithful: and the Scripture condescends to the common modes of expression, as far as the truth will allow. To the above mentioned opinion, Le Clerc thinks that Ezekiel alludes, ch. Genesis 32:22. where, speaking of the world of spirits, he says, Ashur is there, and all her company. To shew the general opinion even of the heathens on this subject, he quotes Lucian, who, in his vision of the Acherusian plains, says, there we found the demi-gods and heroines, and all the classes of departed spirits, distributed according to their nations and tribes. And indeed the desire of meeting again in the other world with our friends and those whom we highly loved and esteemed on earth, is perhaps almost as natural to mankind as the desire of immortality itself. Hence it is, that Cicero is so transported with the view of death, and breaks forth into that beautiful exclamation at the end of his book de Senectute (on old age); "O glorious day, when I shall be joined to that divine assembly and congregation of souls, when I shall leave this impure promiscuous throng, and be ranked not only with those brave men I now mentioned, but with my Cato, &c."

Genesis 25:10. There was Abraham buried, &c.— Here concludes the sacred history of Abraham. It is remarkable, that such was the veneration of a great part of the world for the memory of this venerable patriarch, that Jews, Arabians, and Indians, have united after their manner to embellish his history with numberless fictions, which the curious reader may find recounted in the Universal History, vol. 3: p. 271. 8vo. edit. The Mussulmen have so great a veneration for the place of Abraham's burial, that they make it one of their four pilgrimages, the three others being that of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. The Christians built a church over the cave, which the Turks afterwards turned into a mosque.

REFLECTIONS.—Having brought the patriarch with glory to the end of the days of his pilgrimage, we have here the conclusion.

1. His last marriage, and perhaps the most fruitful.

2. His disposal of his goods among his children. Isaac is his heir, and the son of his house: as the promises are entailed upon him, he has the first and great portion; the rest have each a portion bestowed on them, and are sent to settle eastward, where they too became a great people: thus fulfilling the promise made to Abraham. Note; (1.) In the disposition of our effects to our children, we should be careful there may be no disputes when we are dead. (2.) It is lawful for every parent to distinguish those of his children, who he has reason to think will make the best use of their portion.

3. His death. Full of days; after a long life and happy old age, the taper of life burnt out, rather than extinguished, he is gathered to his fathers. Note; Death is the way of all flesh: it is happy for those who, by it, are gathered to Abraham their father.

4. His burial by his two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. They were now reconciled, and with filial duty lay him by the side of his beloved Sarah. Note; They who have lived together in love, may innocently desire to lie together in the grave, especially when heirs together of the grace of life, and expectants of a glorious resurrection.

Genesis 25:11-12. And it came to pass, &c.— Moses here enters upon the history of Isaac and Ishmael; and having just mentioned the blessing, the spiritual blessing, continued to Isaac, he goes on to shew, that the temporal blessings promised to Ishmael were also fully accomplished.

Genesis 25:16. By their towns— Villages, composed of tents pitched together, Jeremiah 49:31. Some of these people however dwelt in walled towns. See Numbers 31:10. They had also castles, fortified places, erected in the desarts, to which they repaired in time of danger, Isaiah 42:11 such castles are among them to this day. See note on ch. Genesis 17:20.

Genesis 25:18. He died in the presence— In the Hebrew it is, he, or it fell: some therefore think, that it refers to the lot or inheritance of Ishmael: and his lot fell, or lay in the presence or midst of all his brethren. The LXX and Onkelos render it, he dwelt, agreeably to what is foretold, ch. Genesis 16:12. to which we refer. I humbly believe the translation last mentioned is the best. Houbigant very judiciously observes, that the plural word rendered they dwelt, at the beginning of the verse, should be read in the singular, he dwelt, as the discourse is only concerning Ishmael: the Seventy have it in the singular. Thus the whole is clear, and the prophecies exactly fulfilled: Genesis 25:17. Ishmael died; and when living, he dwelt from Havilah, &c. In the last clause the "and" is redundant, and is not in the Hebrew, he dwelt in the presence of all his brethren.

Genesis 25:19. These are the generations— i.e.. This is the account of Isaac and his family.

Genesis 25:22. The children struggled, &c.— Instances of this kind have been recorded in prophane history. The exact mode or time of this struggling cannot be ascertained. Rebekah was alarmed at it, and said, "Since this is so, or as it is so, [that these children thus struggle in my womb,] why am I thus? for what reason am I in this situation? wherefore is this struggle in my womb?" Conceiving it, no doubt, to intend something prophetic, she went to satisfy this doubt, by inquiring of the Lord. This seems to me the most reasonable interpretation of Rebekah's words, and it is agreeable to the original, and far more proper, I humbly presume, than the supposition that they are the words of murmuring and complaint. Her going to inquire of the Lord proves, that the words imply religious doubt and anxiety. At this time, as some eminent men have observed, those who were said to inquire of the Lord, went to a prophet or seer of God to inquire concerning the event of any matter: if they themselves were prophets, they inquired for themselves. See Exodus 18:15. 1 Kings 14:5; 1 Kings 22:7-8. 2 Kings 22:18. 1 Samuel 9:9. Some have imagined, that the prophet to whom Rebekah applied was Melchizedek; others suppose it was Abraham, who was alive at that time; and others that she addressed herself to the Shechinah, or to the priest who attended there upon the Divine Presence. Others are of opinion, that she applied herself in silence and secrecy to the Lord himself, who heard and answered her prayer. But the words of the text seem plainly to express, that she went to consult some other person; she went to inquire of the Lord, most probably, by the priest, whoever he was, that attended upon the service of the altar, which service, we suppose, was established from the beginning.

Genesis 25:23. And the Lord said, two nations, &c.— We have in the prophecies delivered respecting these sons of Isaac, more ample proof of what has been before asserted, that these prophecies were meant not so much of single persons, as of whole nations and people descended from them: for what is predicted concerning Esau and Jacob was not verified in themselves, but in their posterity. The Edomites were the offspring of Esau, as the Israelites were of Jacob; and who but the Author and Giver of life could foresee, that two children in the womb would multiply into two nations? Jacob had twelve sons, and their descendants were all united and incorporated into one nation. What an over-ruling Providence then was it, that two nations should arise from the two sons only of Isaac? But they were not only to grow up into two nations, but into two very different nations: two kinds of people were to be separated from her bowels. And have not the Israelites and Edomites been all along two very different people in their manners, customs, and religions, which made them to be perpetually at variance one with the other? The children struggled together in the womb, which was an omen and token of their future disagreement: and when they were grown up to manhood, they manifested very different inclinations. Esau was a cunning hunter, and delighted in the sports of the woods: Jacob was more mild and gentle, dwelling in tents, and minding his sheep and his cattle, Genesis 25:27. Our English translation, agreeably to the Septuagint and the Vulgate, has it, that Jacob was a plain man. The word in the original ( תם tam) signifies perfect, which is a general term; but being put in opposition to the rough and rustic manners of Esau, it must particularly import that Jacob was more humane and gentle, as Philo the Jew understands it, and as Le Clerc translates it. Esau slighted his birth-right, and those sacred privileges of which Jacob was desirous, and is therefore called, Hebrews 12:16 the profane Esau; but Jacob was a man of better faith and religion. The like diversity ran through their posterity. The religion of the Jews is very well known: but whatever the Edomites were at first, in process of time they became idolaters. Josephus mentions an Idumean deity named Koze: and Amaziah king of Judah, after he had overthrown the Edomites, 2 Chronicles 25:14 brought their gods, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them; which was monstrously absurd, as the prophet remonstrates in the next verse, Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand? Upon these religious differences, and other accounts, there was a continual grudge and enmity between the two nations. The king of Edom would not suffer the Israelites, in their return out of AEgypt, so much as to pass through his territories, Numbers 20. And the history of the Edomites afterwards is little more than the history of their wars with the Jews. See Bp. Newton.

And the one people shall be stronger, &c.— The family of Esau was the elder, and for some time the greater and more powerful of the two. But David and his captains made an entire conquest of the Edomites, slew several thousands of them, 1 Kings 11:16. 1 Chronicles 18:12 compelled the rest to become his tributaries and servants, and planted garrisons among them to secure their obedience, 2 Samuel 8:14. And he put garrisons in Edom, throughout all Edom put he garrisons, and all they of Edom became David's servants. In this state of servitude they continued without a king of their own, being governed by viceroys or deputies appointed by the kings of Judah. In the reign of Jehoshophat king of Judah, it is written, there was then no king in Edom; a deputy was king, 1 Kings 22:47. But in the days of Jehoram his son, they revolted, and recovered their liberties, and made a king over themselves, 2 Kings 8:20. But afterwards Amaziah king of Judah slew of Edom in the valley of salt ten thousand, and took Selah by war, and called the name of it Joktheel unto this day, says the sacred historian, 2 Kings 14:7. And other ten thousand left alive, did the children of Judah carry away captive, and brought them unto the top of the rock, whereon Selah was built, and cast them down from the top of the rock, that they were broken all in pieces, 2 Chronicles 25:12. His son Azariah, or Uzziah, likewise took from them Elath, that commodious haven on the Red-Sea, and fortified it anew, and restored it to Judah, 2 Kings 14:22. 2 Chronicles 26:2. Judas Maccabeus attacked and defeated them several times, killed no fewer than twenty thousand at one time, and more than twenty thousand at another, and took their chief city Hebron, and the towns thereof, and pulled down the fortress of it, and burnt the towers thereof round about, 1 Maccabees 5 : 2 Maccabees 10 : At last his nephew Hyrcanus, the son of Simon, took others of their cities, and reduced them to the necessity of embracing the Jewish religion, or of leaving their country, and seeking new habitations elsewhere; whereupon they submitted to be circumcised, and became proselytes to the Jewish religion, and ever after were incorporated into the Jewish church and nation.

The elder shall serve the younger— This passage serves for a key to explain the ninth chapter to the Romans, where the words are quoted: for it proves to a demonstration that this cannot be meant of God's arbitrary predestination of particular persons to eternal happiness or misery, without any regard to their holiness or unholiness: a doctrine which some have most impiously fathered upon God, who is the best of beings, and who cannot possibly have hated from eternity, far less have absolutely and unconditionally doomed to everlasting misery, any creature that he has made: but that it means only his bestowing greater external favours, or, if you please, higher opportunities for knowing and doing their duty upon some men, or upon some families or nations of men, than he does upon others, and that merely according to his own wise purpose.

Genesis 25:25. Red all over like an hairy garment— With his head and body covered all over with a red hair, or down, like an hairy garment; whence he was called Esau, or hairy, by his parents. Jacob taking hold of his brother's heel was thence named a supplanter, one that trips up the heel, or displaces by stratagem, &c.

Genesis 25:26. Isaac was threescore years old, &c.— It has been asked, why God permitted Sarah and Rebekah to continue so long barren? To which it is answered, not only to prove and exercise the faith of these patriarchs, but to render the propagation of the blessed Seed more remarkable. It prepared the way for the coming of the Son of God in the flesh, and, as St. Chrysostom expresses it, predisposed the world to the belief of the miraculous conception of the Blessed Virgin.

Genesis 25:28. Isaac loved Esau, &c.— Jacob was his mother's favourite; and it is not much to be wondered at, since the knew he was to inherit the blessing, see Genesis 25:23 which, by the way, gives us a key to all his subsequent behaviour. She could not forbear intrusting Jacob, it is probable, with the secret, though she seems all along to have concealed it from her husband, whose favourite Esau was, not only as being the first-born, but as promising (in the father's opinion) to prove a great person, by the valour and activity of his temper; and also because he furnished his table with variety of venison, which he loved. These two brothers were not above twenty years old, when Jacob gave a proof of his being acquainted with the secret delivered to his mother, by making Esau swear away his birthright; and this he did, very probably, from some previous general directions given him by his mother.

REFLECTIONS.—After being married near twenty years, Isaac, like his father before him, is exercised with discouragement, and sees no prospect of the promised Seed; yet he waits, and takes no other wife; and faith will be rewarded. He applies to God in prayer, and God now grants his request, and Rebekah conceived. Note; (1.) Though we pray twenty years for a mercy, we should not be weary. (2.) Husbands and wives should unite their supplications. We have in this history of these twins,

1. Their struggling in the womb, and Rebekah's anxiety thereupon. 2. The course she took hereupon: she inquired of the Lord. Note; To spread our griefs and cares before a throne of Grace, is a great relief. 3. The birth of the twins; the one hairy, the other smooth; and as from their birth different, so in their lives and occupations. Note; In the education of our children, we should consult their turn and temper. 4. The different regard they met with from their parents. Isaac loved the brave spirit of Esau, and the venison he caught him, while Rebekah's fondness fixes on the more domestic Jacob. Note; Though it is almost impossible for parents internally to regard each child with the same affection, it is dangerous to have favourites or to appear partial.

Genesis 25:29. Jacob sod pottage, &c.— This pottage was red, or yellowish, and made of lentils, Genesis 25:34 from AEgypt; a food highly prized by the ancients. By Esau's saying with so much eagerness, give me that red, red, as it is in the original, some suppose he knew what it was, while others conceive that it expresses the impatience of his appetite. He was from this event called Edom afterwards, which signifies red.

Genesis 25:31. Sell me thy birth-right— To judge rightly of the profaneness of Esau, (Hebrews 12:16.) we must consider what rights were attached to primogeniture. Now these were, 1st, Pre-eminence over the rest of the family; 2nd, A double portion of the paternal inheritance; 3rdly, The priesthood; 4thly, The paternal blessing, the blessing which contained the promise of the seed, in which all the nations of the earth were to be blessed; privileges not confined to a person's self, but descending to his posterity. Whatever doubt there may be among the learned concerning the former, the latter incontestibly belonged to the birth-right; and in this view, we want no further proof of Esau's profaneness. "The Apostle to the Hebrews," says Bishop Sherlock, "accounts it profaneness in Esau, that he sold his birth-right; it must be because he sold the blessing of Abraham, and the promises of God: upon any other account there is no room for his charge; for it was never reckoned profaneness to sell mere temporal rights, nor was Esau excluded from the blessings of the temporal promises by that scandalous bargain." See Use and Intent of Prophecy, p. 117.

Genesis 25:32. I am at the point to die, &c.— One cannot have a stronger picture of a profane, thoughtless sensualist, who, for a present momentary gratification, was willing to give up the most important spiritual blessings. His language was in the strain of the Epicureans, Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die; and the careless manner in which he behaves, Genesis 25:34 serves still to shew the baseness of his mind.

Genesis 25:33. Jacob said, Swear, &c.— Jacob's conduct, however pious in other instances, is not to be justified in this particular; for he ought not to have taken advantage of his brother's necessity; and if he saw him profanely offering to sell the privileges of his birth-right, it was his duty to have dissuaded him from it: and therefore, it is remarkable, that although God had determined to confine his grand spiritual covenant to the Israelites, and to prefer them in many things to the Edomites; yet Jacob himself enjoyed no personal advantage, as to temporal things, above Esau. Let it be observed, that though the sacred historian relates this account, he does not commend Jacob, or propose it at all for imitation.

REFLECTIONS.—As in the womb Jacob caught his brother by the heel, and got thereby the name of Jacob, we here see how well he deserved it in his dealing with Esau. Jacob knew the value of the birth-right; and the promise which Rebekah must before in love have told him, might embolden him to attempt obtaining it. Now therefore, when occasion offers, he seizes it. Observe,

1. The critical time. When Esau returned hungry from hunting, and, seeing Jacob with a delightful red mess of pottage, begs to have it; then he proposes the bargain; if he would sell his birth-right, the mess should be his own. Note; It was bad in Jacob to take advantage of his brother's necessity. Though it might not be pride that made him covet the birth-right, but regard for the spiritual blessings, yet we may not seek even good things by wrong means.

2. Esau's consent to the bargain. Hunger pleaded; and though in no danger of death, the strength of his appetite suggested so weak an excuse. The birth-right is trivial in his eyes; and there is little or no doubt but he thought that he was safe in Isaac's regard, and therefore should lose nothing by the pretended sale. Thus profaneness is his character. Note; (1.) Gratifying sensual appetites is the ruin of men's souls. (2.) The pleasures of sense for a moment will ill repay the loss of God's blessing and favour.

3. Esau's carelessness afterward. As if nothing had happened, he went his way, and never troubled himself about the matter. Note; To be negligent about spiritual blessings is the sure way to be deprived of them.

Reflections on the death of Abraham.

One perceives nothing at first here which can either strike the eyes or shock our reason. Abraham dies: what can be more common? He dies at the age of one hundred and seventy-five years. There is more cause to be surprized at his having attained to such an age, than that he did not go beyond it. His children bury him. This is the duty of a pious family; a duty which is numbered even among heathen virtues. They chose for his sepulchre that cave of Machpelah, of which we have made mention before, and which he bought of the Hittites. It was the only place which belonged to him in all the land of Canaan, and the most proper to receive his precious remains.

Nevertheless this event (in which, at first sight, there appears nothing extraordinary) opens either a source of difficulties which seem to run counter to the greatest truths of religion, or a fruitful source of evidences for establishing the same, according to the different views in which we consider it.

This Abraham, whom we see expiring, and his body going to be interred, was the favourite of Heaven, to whom God himself was pleased to say, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward, ch. Genesis 15:1. Who would have thought that the land of Canaan (though flowing with milk and honey) should exhaust the whole meaning of the promise made to Abraham by the mouth of God himself?

I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. It is GOD that says this: it is GOD who says it to the most faithful of men: and yet we find nothing in all the temporal blessings showered upon Abraham, comparable either with the greatness of that God who made the promise, or with the faithfulness of that servant to whom the promise was made.

The God who made the promise was the God of nature; he that made the world, and whose voice alone can produce a thousand new worlds, and cause them to appear with splendour. What! shall a few oxen, a few sheep, a few acres of land, a few years of life, exhaust the liberality of a God so mighty and so bountiful?

The servant to whom the promise is made, is a man, and therefore a sinner; and consequently in no condition to pretend to a reward, strictly so called, for his pains and labour: but, on the other hand, he is the father of believers; he is the pattern of faith and obedience to all ages. For God, he forsook his estate, his country, his family; for God, he believed that which was above belief, and hoped against hope; for God, he sacrificed his only son Isaac; he surmounted that invincible tenderness of parents for their children; he prepared the funeral pile, he drew the knife, he lifted up his arm, and was going to pierce the breast of that innocent victim, if the God who pronounced the decree had not himself revoked it. Who can think, after all this, that the land of Canaan (though flowing with milk and honey) was the blessing wherewith a God, so mighty and so bountiful, did crown the life of a servant so faithful and so obedient?

Nay more; that promise made by God to Abraham, to give him the possession of the land of Canaan, if taken in a literal sense, was not even fulfilled. 'Tis true, Abraham had great riches; but his life was crossed with thousands of afflictions; the division of his kindred, domestic quarrels, and continual fatigues in his travels. Let a man search the life of that patriarch for a period in which the promise made to him was accomplished, he will find none; he will find, indeed, that Abraham was a stranger, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; testifying even hereby that they waited for a better country than that of which the possession had been expressly promised them. But we shall see, that, of all that country, he did not possess but a few inches of ground for a sepulchre, and that too he bought for a sum of money.

A sepulchre, bought by Abraham for a sum of money. One cannot too much observe this circumstance of the Sacred History: those great promises made to Abraham; those conquests which he himself was to make; that possession which seemed to be secured to him; that country of which he was to be the sovereign; all this ended in a little parcel of land, to make a burying-place. Is it thus, O my God, that thou fulfillest thy promises!—Or rather, who cannot deduce, even from all these difficulties, convincing proofs of the immortality of Abraham's soul, and for the resurrection of his body? I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. This promise cannot be fulfilled in the grave, among worms, infection, and rottenness; it must therefore be Abraham immortal in his soul, and Abraham raised again, who must verify the accomplishment: God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

It is true, this way of reasoning seems liable at least to one objection of another kind, and only to prove at most the immortality of Abraham's soul, but not the resurrection of his body. The body is, by its nature, incapable of happiness—the seat of that is in the soul alone. God will have been sufficiently freed from his promise, by bestowing upon Abraham all that happiness whereof his soul is susceptible, without being obliged to raise the body of that patriarch from the dust; since that did not contribute, even here below, to the happiness of Abraham, but by a particular dispensation of Providence.

This objection is not to be despised: it tends to make us know the true greatness of man, and to convince us that what is the most noble and most sublime in us is not this material flesh, which is an ingredient in our being, but the soul, which exalts us to the nature of pure spirits, not clothed with mortal bodies.

Men are not pure spirits. A pure spirit is capable of perfect happiness without the concurrence of matters forasmuch as it has no natural connection therewith. But man is not such a pure spirit. God, in composing him of these two substances, has even thereby decreed, that the one cannot be perfectly happy without the other. Accordingly, it is to be presumed, that whatever happiness we enjoy in the interval between our death and resurrection, though that same happiness may infinitely exceed all that we could have upon earth, yet we shall not be completely happy till after the re-union of the soul and the body. It is upon this account that so many passages of the Scripture refer the perfection of our happiness to that period.

Wherefore the promise, by which Abraham was assured of perfect happiness, does equally require that his soul should be capable of immortality, and his body of resurrection; of which high blessings if we wish to partake with him, and to have a place in his bosom, in the paradise of God, we must diligently walk in the steps of his faith, and cheerfully resign all things, however dear, at the call of that God who is able to reward all those who diligently seek him. See Saurin's Dissertat.