성경 주석서

Here in Sichem Jehovah appeared to him, and assured him of the possession of the land of Canaan for his descendants. The assurance was made by means of an appearance of Jehovah, as a sign that this land was henceforth to be the scene of the manifestation of Jehovah. Abram understood this, “ and there builded he an altar to Jehovah, who appeared to him, ” to make the soil which was hallowed by the appearance of God a place for the worship of the God who appeared to him.

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“ Then birds of prey ( העיט with the article, as Genesis 14:13) came down upon the carcases, and Abram frightened them away.” The birds of prey represented the foes of Israel, who would seek to eat up, i.e., exterminate it. And the fact that Abram frightened them away was a sign, that Abram's faith and his relation to the Lord would preserve the whole of his posterity from destruction, that Israel would be saved for Abram's sake (Psalms 105:42).

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When the sun had gone down, and thick darkness had come on ( היה impersonal), “ behold a smoking furnace, and (with) a fiery torch, which passed between those pieces, ” - a description of what Abram saw in his deep prophetic sleep, corresponding to the mysterious character of the whole proceeding. תּנּוּר , a stove, is a cylindrical fire-pot, such as is used in the dwelling-houses of the East. The phenomenon, which passed through the pieces as they lay opposite to one another, resembled such a smoking stove, from which a fiery torch, i.e., a brilliant flame, was streaming forth. In this symbol Jehovah manifested Himself to Abram, just as He afterwards did to the people of Israel in the pillar of cloud and fire. Passing through the pieces, He ratified the covenant which He made with Abram. His glory was enveloped in fire and smoke, the produce of the consuming fire, - both symbols of the wrath of God (cf. Psalms 18:9, and Hengstenberg in loc.), whose fiery zeal consumes whatever opposes it (vid., Exodus 3:2). - To establish and give reality to the covenant to be concluded with Abram, Jehovah would have to pass through the seed of Abram when oppressed by the Egyptians and threatened with destruction, and to execute judgment upon their oppressors (Exodus 7:4; Exodus 12:12). In this symbol, the passing of the Lord between the pieces meant something altogether different from the oath of the Lord by Himself in Genesis 22:16, or by His life in Deuteronomy 32:40, or by His soul in Amos 6:8 and Jeremiah 51:14. It set before Abram the condescension of the Lord to his seed, in the fearful glory of His majesty as the judge of their foes. Hence the pieces were not consumed by the fire; for the transaction had reference not to a sacrifice, which God accepted, and in which the soul of the offerer was to ascend in the smoke to God, but to a covenant in which God came down to man. From the nature of this covenant, it followed, however, that God alone went through the pieces in a symbolical representation of Himself, and not Abram also. For although a covenant always establishes a reciprocal relation between two individuals, yet in that covenant which God concluded with a man, the man did not stand on an equality with God, but God established the relation of fellowship by His promise and His gracious condescension to the man, who was at first purely a recipient, and was only qualified and bound to fulfil the obligations consequent upon the covenant by the reception of gifts of grace.

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“The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah, yea it is great; and their sin, yea it is very grievous.” The cry is the appeal for vengeance or punishment, which ascends to heaven (Genesis 4:10). The כּי serves to give emphasis to the assertion, and is placed in the middle of the sentence to give the greater prominence to the leading thought (cf. Ewald, §330).

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Here Abraham planted a tamarisk and called upon the name of the Lord (vid., Genesis 4:26), the everlasting God. Jehovah is called the everlasting God, as the eternally true, with respect to the eternal covenant, which He established with Abraham (Genesis 17:7). The planting of this long-lived tree, with its hard wood, and its long, narrow, thickly clustered, evergreen leaves, was to be a type of the ever-enduring grace of the faithful covenant God.

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From this interposition of God, Abraham called the place Jehovah-jireh, “ Jehovah sees,” i.e., according to Genesis 22:8, provides, providet; so that ( אשׁר , as in Genesis 13:16, is equivalent to כּן על , Genesis 10:9) men are still accustomed to say, “ On the mountain where Jehovah appears ” ( יראה ), from which the name Moriah arose. The rendering “on the mount of Jehovah it is provided” is not allowable, for the Niphal of the verb does not mean provideri, but “appear.” Moreover, in this case the medium of God's seeing or interposition was His appearing.

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“ The man, wondering at her, stood silent, to know whether Jehovah had made his journey prosperous or not.” משׁתּאה , from שׁאה to be desert, inwardly laid waste, i.e., confused. Others derive it from שׁאה = שׁעה to see; but in the Hithpael this verb signifies to look restlessly about, which is not applicable here.

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After Abraham's death the blessing was transferred to Isaac, who took up his abode by Hagar's well, because he had already been there, and had dwelt in the south country (Genesis 24:62). The blessing of Isaac is traced to Elohim, not to Jehovah; because it referred neither exclusively nor pre-eminently to the gifts of grace connected with the promises of salvation, but quite generally to the inheritance of earthly possessions, which Isaac had received from his father.

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