8 And to you and to your seed after you, I will give the land in which you are living, all the land of Canaan for an eternal heritage; and I will be their God.
And the Lord came to Abram, and said, I will give all this land to your seed; then Abram made an altar there to the Lord who had let himself be seen by him.
Saying, To you will I give the land of Canaan, the measured line of your heritage:
For all the land which you see I will give to you and to your seed for ever.
The agreement which he made with Abraham, and his oath to Isaac;
And I will take you to be my people and I will be your God; and you will be certain that I am the Lord your God, who takes you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.
And may God give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your seed, so that the land of your wanderings, which God gave to Abraham, may be your heritage.
For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has taken you to be his special people out of all the nations on the face of the earth.
For is not my house so with God? For he has made with me an eternal agreement, ordered in all things and certain: as for all my salvation and all my desire, will he not give it increase?
And because of his love for your fathers, he took their seed and made it his, and he himself, present among you, took you out of Egypt by his great power;
And by this agreement, he and his sons after him have the right to be priests for ever; because, by his care for the honour of his God, he took away the sin of the children of Israel.
And said to me, Truly, I will make you fertile and give you increase and will make of you a great family of nations: and I will give this land to your seed after you to be their heritage for ever.
I am living among you as one from a strange country: give me some land here as my property, so that I may put my dead to rest.
And he said to him, I am the Lord, who took you from Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land for your heritage. And he said, O Lord God, how may I be certain that it will be mine? And he said, Take a young cow of three years old, and a she-goat of three years old, and a sheep of three years old, and a dove and a young pigeon. All these he took, cutting them in two and putting one half opposite the other, but not cutting the birds in two. And evil birds came down on the bodies, but Abram sent them away. Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep came on Abram, and a dark cloud of fear. And he said to Abram, Truly, your seed will be living in a land which is not theirs, as servants to a people who will be cruel to them for four hundred years; But I will be the judge of that nation whose servants they are, and they will come out from among them with great wealth. As for you, you will go to your fathers in peace; at the end of a long life you will be put in your last resting-place. And in the fourth generation they will come back here; for at present the sin of the Amorite is not full. Then when the sun went down and it was dark, he saw a smoking fire and a flaming light which went between the parts of the bodies. In that day the Lord made an agreement with Abram, and said, To your seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates: The Kenite, the Kenizzite, and the Kadmonite, And the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Rephaim, And the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Girgashite, and the Jebusite.
Then his master is to take him to the gods of the house, and at the door, or at its framework, he is to make a hole in his ear with a sharp-pointed instrument; and he will be his servant for ever.
And for this cause it is through him that a new agreement has come into being, so that after the errors under the first agreement had been taken away by his death, the word of God might have effect for those who were marked out for an eternal heritage.
When the Most High gave the nations their heritage, separating into groups the children of men, he had the limits of the peoples marked out, keeping in mind the number of the children of Israel.
And let this be an order for ever for you, so that the sin of the children of Israel may be taken away once every year. And he did as the Lord gave orders to Moses.
And the children of Israel are to keep the Sabbath holy, from generation to generation, by an eternal agreement. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever; because in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he took his rest and had pleasure in it.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Genesis 17
Commentary on Genesis 17 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 17
This chapter contains articles of agreement covenanted and concluded upon between the great Jehovah, the Father of mercies, on the one part, and pious Abram, the father of the faithful, on the other part. Abram is therefore called "the friend of God,' not only because he was the man of his counsel, but because he was the man of his covenant; both these secrets were with him. Mention was made of this covenant (ch. 15:18), but here it is particularly drawn up, and put into the form of a covenant, that Abram might have strong consolation. Here are,
Gen 17:1-3
Here is,
Gen 17:4-6
The promise here is introduced with solemnity: "As for me,' says the great God, "behold, behold and admire it, behold and be assured of it, my covenant is with thee;' as before (v. 2), I will make my covenant. Note, The covenant of grace is a covenant of God's own making; this he glories in (as for me), and so may we. Now here,
Gen 17:7-14
Here is,
Gen 17:15-22
Here is,
Gen 17:23-27
We have here Abraham's obedience to the law of circumcision. He himself and all his family were circumcised, so receiving the token of the covenant and distinguishing themselves from other families, that had no part nor lot in the matter.