---
title: "Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah"
author: "Adam Clarke"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 24 of 914
url: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/24/
cite: "Adam Clarke, Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah, section 24. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/24/"
---

# Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible · Volume 1: Genesis to Jeremiah

*Adam Clarke*

Clarke's learned notes on the Hebrew and Greek, verse by verse, from Genesis to Revelation: volume 1 of 2.

## 24. Genesis · 24 of 67

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/24/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/adam-clarke-commentary-volume-1-genesis-to-jeremiah/24/#p-N

[¶0] 6. The precept, the promise, and the rite, were prefaced with, "I am God all-sufficient; walk before me, and be thou perfect." God, who is the sole object of religious worship, has the sole authority to prescribe that worship, and the rites and ceremonies which shall be used in it; hence he prescribed circumcision and sacrifices under the old law, and baptism and the eucharist under the Gospel; and to render both effectual to the end of their institution, faith in God was indispensably necessary.

[¶1] 7. Those who profess to believe in him must not live as they list, but as he pleases. Though redeemed from the curse of the law, and from the rites and ceremonies of the Jewish Church, they are under the law to Christ, and must walk before him - be in all things obedient to that moral law which is an emanation from the righteousness of God, and of eternal obligation; and let it ever be remembered that Christ is "the author of eternal salvation to all that obey him." Without faith and obedience there can be no holiness, and without holiness none can see the Lord. Be all that God would have thee to be, and God will be to the"' all that thou canst possibly require. He never gives a precept but he offers sufficient grace to enable thee to perform it. Believe as he would have thee, and act as he shall strengthen thee, and thou wilt believe all things savingly, and do all things well.

### Introduction

[¶3] The Lord appears unto Abraham in Mamre, [Gen 18:1]. Three angels, in human appearance, come towards his tent, [Gen 18:2]. He invites them in to wash and refresh themselves, [Gen 18:3-5]; prepares a calf, bread, butter, and milk, for their entertainment; and himself serves them, [Gen 18:6-8]. They promise that within a year Sarah shall have a son, [Gen 18:9], [Gen 18:10]. Sarah, knowing herself and husband to be superannuated, smiles at the promise, [Gen 18:11], [Gen 18:12]. One of the three, who is called the Lord or Jehovah, chides her, and asserts the sufficiency of the Divine power to accomplish the promise, [Gen 18:13], [Gen 18:14]. Sarah, through fear, denies that she had laughed or showed signs of unbelief, [Gen 18:15]. Abraham accompanies these Divine persons on their way to Sodom, [Gen 18:16]; and that one who is called Jehovah informs him of his purpose to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, because of their great wickedness, [Gen 18:17-21]. The two former proceed toward Sodom, while the latter (Jehovah) remains with Abraham, [Gen 18:22]. Abraham intercedes for the inhabitants of those cities, entreating the Lord to spare them provided fifty righteous persons should be found in them, [Gen 18:23-25]. The Lord grants this request, [Gen 18:26]. He pleads for the same mercy should only forty-five be found there; which is also granted, [Gen 18:27], [Gen 18:28]. He pleads the same for forty, which is also granted, [Gen 18:29]; for thirty, with the same success, [Gen 18:30]; for twenty, and receives the some gracious answer, [Gen 18:31]; for ten, and the Lord assures him that should ten righteous persons be found there, he will not destroy the place, [Gen 18:32]. Jehovah then departs, and Abraham returns to his tent, [Gen 18:33].

### Verse 1

[¶5] And the Lord appeared - See note on [Gen 15:1].

[¶6] Sat in the tent door - For the purpose of enjoying the refreshing air in the heat of the day, when the sun had most power. A custom still frequent among the Asiatics.

### Verse 2

[¶8] Three men stood by him - נצבים עליו nitstsabim alaiv, were standing over against him; for if they had been standing by him, as our translation says, he needed not to have "run from the tent door to meet them." To Abraham these appeared at first as men; but he entertained angels unawares, see [Heb 13:2].

### Verse 3

[¶10] And said, My Lord, etc. - The word is אדני Adonai, not יהוה Yehovah, for as yet Abraham did not know the quality of his guests. For an explanation of this word, See note on [Gen 15:8].

### Verse 4

[¶12] Let a little water - be fetched, and wash your feet, etc. - In these verses we find a delightful picture of primitive hospitality. In those ancient times shoes such as ours were not in use; and the foot was protected only by sandals or soles, which fastened round the foot with straps. It was therefore a great refreshment in so hot a country to get the feet washed at the end of a day's journey; and this is the first thing that Abraham proposes.

[¶13] Rest yourselves under the tree - We have already heard of the oak grove of Mamre, [Gen 12:6], and this was the second requisite for the refreshment of a weary traveler, viz., rest in the shade.

### Verse 5

[¶15] I will fetch a morsel of bread - This was the third requisite, and is introduced in its proper order; as eating immediately after exertion or fatigue is very unwholesome. The strong action of the lungs and heart should have time to diminish before any food is received into the stomach, as otherwise concoction is prevented, and fever in a less or greater degree produced.

[¶16] For therefore are ye come - In those ancient days every traveler conceived he had a right to refreshment, when he needed it, at the first tent he met with on his journey.

[¶17] So do as thou hast said - How exceedingly simple was all this! On neither side is there any compliment but such as a generous heart and sound sense dictate.

### Verse 6

[¶19] Three measures of fine meal - The סאה seah, which is here translated measure, contained, according to Bishop Cumberland, about two gallons and a half; and Mr. Ainsworth translates the word peck. On this circumstance the following observations of the judicious and pious Abbe Fleury cannot fail to be acceptable to the reader. Speaking of the frugality of the patriarchs he says: "We have an instance of a splendid entertainment in that which Abraham made for the three angels. He set a whole calf before them, new bread, but baked on the hearth, together with butter and milk. Three measures of meal were baked into bread on this occasion, which come to more than two of our bushels, and nearly to fifty-six pounds of our weight; hence we may conclude that men were great eaters in those days, used much exercise, were probably of a much larger stature as well as longer lives than we. Homer (Odyss. lib. xiv., ver. 74, etc). makes his heroes great eaters. When Eumaeus entertained Ulysses, he dressed two pigs for himself and his guest. 'So saying, he girded quick his tunic close,

[¶20] And issuing sought the styes; thence bringing two,

[¶21] Of the imprisoned herd, he slaughtered both,

[¶22] Singed them and slash'd and spitted them, and placed

[¶23] The whole well roasted, banquets spits, and all,

[¶24] Reeking before Ulysses.'

[¶25] Cowper.

[¶26] On another occasion a hog of five years old was slaughtered and served up for five persons: - ' - His wood for fuel he prepared,

[¶27] And dragging thither a well-fatted brawn

[¶28] Of the fifth year:

[¶29] Next piercing him, and scorching close his hair,

[¶30] The joints they parted,' etc.

[¶31] Cowper. Ibid. ver. 419.

[¶32] Homer's heroes wait upon themselves and guests in the common occasions of life; the patriarchs do the same. Abraham, who had so many servants, and was nearly a hundred years old, brought the water himself to wash the feet of his guests, ordered his wife to make the bread quickly, went himself to choose the calf from the herd, and came again to serve them standing. I will allow that he was animated on this occasion with a desire of showing hospitality, but the lives of all the rest of the patriarchs were similar to this."

[¶33] Make cakes upon the hearth - Or under the ashes. This mode is used in the east to the present day. When the hearth is strongly heated with the fire that has been kindled on it, they remove the coals, sweep off the ashes, lay on the bread, and then cover it with the hot cinders.

### Verse 8

[¶35] And he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat - Nothing is more common in Hindostan than to see travelers and guests eating under the shade of trees. Feasts are scarcely ever held in houses. The house of a Hindoo serves for sleeping and cooking, and for shutting up the women; but is never considered as a sitting or dining room - Ward.

### Verse 10

[¶37] I will certainly return - Abraham was now ninety-nine years of age, and this promise was fulfilled when he was a hundred; so that the phrase according to the time of life must mean either a complete year, or nine months from the present time, the ordinary time of pregnancy. Taken in this latter sense, Abraham was now in the ninety-ninth year of his age, and Isaac was born when he was in his hundredth year.

### Verse 11

[¶39] It ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women - And consequently, naturally speaking, conception could not take place; therefore if she have a son it must be in a supernatural or miraculous way.

### Verse 12

[¶41] Sarah laughed - Partly through pleasure at the bare idea of the possibility of the thing, and partly from a conviction that it was extremely improbable. She appears to have been in the same spirit, and to have had the same feelings of those who, unexpectedly hearing of something of great consequence to themselves, smile and say, "The news is too good to be true;", see [Gen 21:6]. There is a case very similar to this mentioned [Psa 126:1], [Psa 126:2]. On Abraham's laughing, See note on [Gen 17:17].

### Verse 13

[¶43] And the Lord (Jehovah) said, etc. - So it appears that one of those three persons was Jehovah, and as this name is never given to any created being, consequently the ever-blessed God is intended; and as he was never seen in any bodily shape, consequently the great Angel of the covenant, Jesus Christ, must be meant. See note on [Gen 16:7].