--- title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible" author: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 10 of 927 url: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/10/ cite: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, section 10. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/10/" --- # Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible *Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown* The Victorian standard commentary, critical and practical, from Genesis to Revelation. ## 10. Genesis · 10 of 21 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/10/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/10/#p-N ### Ge 18:9-15. Reproof of Sarah. An inquiry about his wife, so surprising in strangers, the subject of conversation, and the fulfilment of the fondly cherished promise within a specified time, showed Abraham that he had been entertaining more than ordinary travellers (He 13:2) [¶1] 10. Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him--The women's apartment is in the back of the tent, divided by a thin partition from the men's. [¶2] 12. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself--Long delay seems to have weakened faith. Sarah treated the announcement as incredible, and when taxed with the silent sneer, she added falsehood to distrust. It was an aggravated offense ([Ac 5:4]), and nothing but grace saved her ([Ro 9:18]). ### Ge 18:16-22. Disclosure of Sodom's Doom [¶4] 16. the men rose ... Abraham went with them--It is customary for a host to escort his guests a little way. [¶5] 17. the Lord said, Shall I hide--The chief stranger, no other than the Lord, disclosed to Abraham the awful doom about to be inflicted on Sodom and the cities of the plain for their enormous wickedness. [¶6] 21. I will go down ... and see--language used after the manner of men. These cities were to be made examples to all future ages of God's severity; and therefore ample proof given that the judgment was neither rash nor excessive ([Eze 18:23]; [Jr 18:7]). ### Ge 18:23-33. Abraham's Intercession [¶8] 23. Abraham drew near, and said, &c.--The scene described is full of interest and instruction--showing in an unmistakable manner the efficacy of prayer and intercession. (See also [Pr 15:8]; [Jas 5:16]). Abraham reasoned justly as to the rectitude of the divine procedure ([Ro 3:5], ), and many guilty cities and nations have been spared on account of God's people ([Mt 5:13]; ). [¶9] 33. the Lord ... left communing ... and Abraham returned unto his place--Why did Abraham cease to carry his intercessions farther? Either because he fondly thought that he was now sure of the cities being preserved ([Lu 13:9]), or because the Lord restrained his mind from further intercession ([Jr 7:16]; ). But there were not ten "righteous persons." There was only one, and he might without injustice have perished in the general overthrow ([Ec 9:2]). But a difference is sometimes made, and on this occasion the grace of God was manifested in a signal manner for the sake of Abraham. What a blessing to be connected with a saint of God! ### Chapter 19 ### Ge 19:1-38. Lot's Entertainment [¶12] 1. there came two angels--most probably two of those that had been with Abraham, commissioned to execute the divine judgment against Sodom. [¶13] Lot sat in the gate of Sodom--In Eastern cities it is the market, the seat of justice, of social intercourse and amusement, especially a favorite lounge in the evenings, the arched roof affording a pleasant shade. [¶14] 2. turn in, I pray you ... tarry all night--offer of the same generous hospitalities as described in [Ge 18:2-8], and which are still spontaneously practised in the small towns. [¶15] And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night--Where there are no inns and no acquaintance, it is not uncommon for travellers to sleep in the street wrapped up in their cloaks. [¶16] 3. entered into his house--On removing to the plain, Lot intended at first to live in his tent apart from the people [Ge 13:12]. But he was gradually drawn in, dwelt in the city, and he and his family were connected with the citizens by marriage ties. [¶17] 4. men of Sodom, compassed the house--Appalling proofs are here given of their wickedness. It is evident that evil communications had corrupted good manners; otherwise Lot would never have acted as he did. [¶18] 12-13. Hast thou here any besides? ... we will destroy this place--Apostolic authority has declared Lot was "a righteous man" ([2Pe 2:8]), at bottom good, though he contented himself with lamenting the sins that he saw, instead of acting on his own convictions, and withdrawing himself and family from such a sink of corruption. But favor was shown him: and even his bad relatives had, for his sake, an offer of deliverance, which was ridiculed and spurned ([2Pe 3:4]). [¶19] 15-17. The kindly interest the angels took in the preservation of Lot is beautifully displayed. But he "lingered." Was it from sorrow at the prospect of losing all his property, the acquisition of many years? Or was it that his benevolent heart was paralyzed by thoughts of the awful crisis? This is the charitable way of accounting for a delay that would have been fatal but for the friendly urgency of the angel. [¶20] 18-19. Lot said ... Oh, not so, my Lord ... I cannot escape to the mountain--What a strange want of faith and fortitude, as if He who had interfered for his rescue would not have protected Lot in the mountain solitude. [¶21] 21. See, I have accepted thee concerning this ... also--His request was granted him, the prayer of faith availed, and to convince him, from his own experience, that it would have been best and safest at once to follow implicitly the divine directions. [¶22] 22. Haste ... for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither--The ruin of Sodom was suspended till he was secure. What care God does take of His people ([Re 7:3])! What a proof of the love which God bore to a good though weak man! [¶23] 24. Then the Lord rained ... brimstone and fire from ... heaven--God, in accomplishing His purposes, acts immediately or mediately through the agency of means; and there are strong grounds for believing that it was in the latter way He effected the overthrow of the cities of the plain--that it was, in fact, by a volcanic eruption. The raining down of fire and brimstone from heaven is perfectly accordant with this idea since those very substances, being raised into the air by the force of the volcano, would fall in a fiery shower on the surrounding region. This view seems countenanced by Job [Job 1:16; 18:15]. Whether it was miraculously produced, or the natural operation employed by God, it is not of much consequence to determine: it was a divine judgment, foretold and designed for the punishment of those who were sinners exceedingly. [¶24] 26. Lot was accompanied by his wife and two daughters. But whether it was from irresistible curiosity or perturbation of feeling, or that she was about to return to save something, his wife lingered, and while thus disobeying the parting counsel, "to look not back, nor stay in all the plain" [Ge 19:17], the torrent of liquid lava enveloped her so that she became the victim of her supine indolence or sinful rashness. [¶25] 27. Abraham gat up early in the morning, &c.--Abraham was at this time in Mamre, near Hebron, and a traveller last year verified the truth of this passage. "From the height which overlooks Hebron, where the patriarch stood, the observer at the present day has an extensive view spread out before him towards the Dead Sea. A cloud of smoke rising from the plain would be visible to a person at Hebron now, and could have been, therefore, to Abraham as he looked toward Sodom on the morning of its destruction by God" [Hackett]. It must have been an awful sight, and is frequently alluded to in Scripture ([De 29:23]; [Is 13:19]; Jude 7). "The plain which is now covered by the Salt or Dead Sea shows in the great difference of level between the bottoms of the northern and southern ends of the lake--the latter being thirteen feet and the former thirteen hundred--that the southern end was of recent formation, and submerged at the time of the fall of the cities" [Lynch]. [¶26] 29. when God destroyed the cities, &c.--This is most welcome and instructive after so painful a narrative. It shows if God is a "consuming fire" to the wicked [De 4:24; He 12:29], He is the friend of the righteous. He "remembered" the intercessions of Abraham, and what confidence should not this give us that He will remember the intercessions of a greater than Abraham in our behalf. ### Chapter 20 ### Ge 20:1-18. Abraham's Denial of His Wife [¶29] 1. Abraham journeyed from thence ... and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur--Leaving the encampment, he migrated to the southern border of Canaan. In the neighborhood of Gerar was a very rich and well-watered pasture land. [¶30] 2. Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister--Fear of the people among whom he was, tempted him to equivocate. His conduct was highly culpable. It was deceit, deliberate and premeditated--there was no sudden pressure upon him--it was the second offense of the kind [see on Ge 12:13]--it was a distrust of God every way surprising, and it was calculated to produce injurious effects on the heathen around. Its mischievous tendency was not long in being developed. [¶31] Abimelech (father-king) ... sent and took Sarah--to be one of his wives, in the exercise of a privilege claimed by Eastern sovereigns, already explained (see on [Ge 12:15]). [¶32] 3. But God came to Abimelech in a dream--In early times a dream was often made the medium of communicating important truths; and this method was adopted for the preservation of Sarah. [¶33] 9. Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said ... What hast thou done?--In what a humiliating plight does the patriarch now appear--he, a servant of the true God, rebuked by a heathen prince. Who would not rather be in the place of Abimelech than of the honored but sadly offending patriarch! What a dignified attitude is that of the king--calmly and justly reproving the sin of the patriarch, but respecting his person and heaping coals of fire on his head by the liberal presents made to him. [¶34] 11. And Abraham said ... I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place--From the horrible vices of Sodom he seems to have taken up the impression that all other cities of Canaan were equally corrupt. There might have been few or none who feared God, but what a sad thing when men of the world show a higher sense of honor and a greater abhorrence of crimes than a true worshipper! [¶35] 12. yet indeed she is my sister--(See on [Ge 11:31]). What a poor defense Abraham made. The statement absolved him from the charge of direct and absolute falsehood, but he had told a moral untruth because there was an intention to deceive (compare [Ge 12:11-13]). "Honesty is always the best policy." Abraham's life would have been as well protected without the fraud as with it: and what shame to himself, what distrust to God, what dishonor to religion might have been prevented! "Let us speak truth every man to his neighbor" [Zec 8:16; Ep 4:25]. ### Chapter 21 ### Ge 21:1-13. Birth of Isaac [¶38] 1. the Lord visited Sarah--The language of the historian seems designedly chosen to magnify the power of God as well as His faithfulness to His promise. It was God's grace that brought about that event, as well as the raising of spiritual children to Abraham, of which the birth of this son was typical [Calvin]. [¶39] 3-4. Abraham called the name of his son ... Isaac ... and circumcised--God was acknowledged in the name which, by divine command, was given for a memorial (compare [Ge 17:19]), and also in the dedication of the child by administering the seal of the covenant (compare [Ge 17:10-12]). [¶40] 8. the child grew, and was weaned--children are suckled longer in the East than in the Occident--boys usually for two or three years. [¶41] Abraham made a great feast, &c.--In Eastern countries this is always a season of domestic festivity, and the newly weaned child is formally brought, in presence of the assembled relatives and friends, to partake of some simple viands. Isaac, attired in the symbolic robe, the badge of birthright, was then admitted heir of the tribe [Rosenmuller]. [¶42] 9. Sarah saw the son of Hagar ... mocking--Ishmael was aware of the great change in his prospects, and under the impulse of irritated or resentful feelings, in which he was probably joined by his mother, treated the young heir with derision and probably some violence ([Ga 4:29]). [¶43] 10. Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman--Nothing but the expulsion of both could now preserve harmony in the household. Abraham's perplexity was relieved by an announcement of the divine will, which in everything, however painful to flesh and blood, all who fear God and are walking in His ways will, like him, promptly obey. This story, as the apostle tells us, in "an allegory" [Ga 4:24], and the "persecution" by the son of the Egyptian was the commencement of the four hundred years' affliction of Abraham's seed by the Egyptians. [¶44] 12. in all that Sarah hath said--it is called the Scripture ([Ga 4:30]). [¶45] 13. also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation--Thus Providence overruled a family brawl to give rise to two great and extraordinary peoples.