18 In that day hath Jehovah made with Abram a covenant, saying, `To thy seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Phrat,
and didst find his heart stedfast before Thee, so as to make with him the covenant, to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Jebusite, and the Girgashite, to give `it' to his seed. `And Thou dost establish Thy words, for Thou `art' righteous,
turn ye and journey for you, and enter the mount of the Amorite, and unto all its neighbouring places, in the plain, in the hill-country, and in the low country, and in the south, and in the haven of the sea, the land of the Canaanite, and of Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Phrat; see, I have set before you the land; go in and possess the land which Jehovah hath sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them, and to their seed after them.
and I have multiplied thy seed as stars of the heavens, and I have given to thy seed all these lands; and blessed themselves in thy seed have all nations of the earth;
for the whole of the land which thou are seeing, to thee I give it, and to thy seed -- to the age.
Jehovah, God of the heavens, who hath taken me from the house of my father, and from the land of my birth, and who hath spoken to me, and who hath sworn to me, saying, To thy seed I give this land, He doth send His messenger before thee, and thou hast taken a wife for my son from thence;
My terror I send before thee, and I have put to death all the people among whom thou comest, and I have given the neck of all thine enemies unto thee. `And I have sent the hornet before thee, and it hath cast out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee; I cast them not out from before thee in one year, lest the land be a desolation, and the beast of the field hath multiplied against thee; little `by' little I cast them out from before thee, till thou art fruitful, and hast inherited the land. `And I have set thy border from the Red Sea, even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness unto the River: for I give into your hand the inhabitants of the land, and thou hast cast them out from before thee;
and the border hath turned round from Azmon to the brook of Egypt, and its outgoings have been at the sea.
And Jehovah saith unto him, `This `is' the land which I have sworn to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, To thy seed I give it; I have caused thee to see with thine eyes, and thither thou dost not pass over.'
`Every place on which the sole of your foot treadeth, to you I have given it, as I have spoken unto Moses. From this wilderness and Lebanon, and unto the great river, the river Phrath, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great Sea -- the going in of the sun -- is your border.
Saying, `To thee I give the land of Canaan, The portion of your inheritance,'
And the God of the peace, who did bring up out of the dead the great shepherd of the sheep -- in the blood of an age-during covenant -- our Lord Jesus,
Brethren, as a man I say `it', even of man a confirmed covenant no one doth make void or doth add to, and to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed; He doth not say, `And to seeds,' as of many, but as of one, `And to thy seed,' which is Christ; and this I say, A covenant confirmed before by God to Christ, the law, that came four hundred and thirty years after, doth not set aside, to make void the promise,
`Thus said Jehovah: If ye do break My covenant of the day, And My covenant of the night, So that they are not daily and nightly in their season, Also My covenant is broken with David My servant, So that he hath not a son reigning on his throne, And with the Levites the priests, My ministers. As the host of the heavens is not numbered, Nor the sand of the sea measured, So I multiply the seed of David My servant, And the Levites My ministers.' And there is a word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah, saying: `Hast thou not considered what this people have spoken, saying: The two families on which Jehovah fixed, He doth reject them, And my people they despise -- So that they are no more a people before them! Thus said Jehovah: If My covenant `is' not daily and nightly, The statutes of heaven and earth I have not appointed -- Also the seed of Jacob, and David My servant, I reject, Against taking from his seed rulers For the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, For I turn back `to' their captivity, and have pitied them.'
and I have made for them a covenant age-during, in that I turn not back from after them for My doing them good, and My fear I put in their heart, so as not to turn aside from me;
Lo, days are coming, an affirmation of Jehovah, And I have made with the house of Israel And with the house of Judah a new covenant, Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers, In the day of My laying hold on their hand, To bring them out of the land of Egypt, In that they made void My covenant, And I ruled over them -- an affirmation of Jehovah. For this `is' the covenant that I make, With the house of Israel, after those days, An affirmation of Jehovah, I have given My law in their inward part, And on their heart I do write it, And I have been to them for God, And they are to me for a people. And they do not teach any more Each his neighbour, and each his brother, Saying, Know ye Jehovah, For they all know Me, from their least unto their greatest, An affirmation of Jehovah; For I pardon their iniquity, And of their sin I make mention no more.
Incline your ear, and come unto me, Hear, and your soul doth live, And I make for you a covenant age-during, The kind acts of David -- that are stedfast.
And it hath come to pass, in that day, Beat out doth Jehovah from the branch of the river, Unto the stream of Egypt, And ye are gathered one by one, O sons of Israel.
And God speaketh unto Noah, and unto his sons with him, saying, `And I, lo, I am establishing My covenant with you, and with your seed after you, and with every living creature which `is' with you, among fowl, among cattle, and among every beast of the earth with you, from all who are going out of the ark -- to every beast of the earth. And I have established My covenant with you, and all flesh is not any more cut off by waters of a deluge, and there is not any more a deluge to destroy the earth.' And God saith, `This is a token of the covenant which I am giving between Me and you, and every living creature that `is' with you, to generations age-during; My bow I have given in the cloud, and it hath been for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth; and it hath come to pass (in My sending a cloud over the earth) that the bow hath been seen in the cloud, and I have remembered My covenant which is between Me and you, and every living creature among all flesh, and the waters become no more a deluge to destroy all flesh; and the bow hath been in the cloud, and I have seen it -- to remember the covenant age-during between God and every living creature among all flesh which `is' on the earth.' And God saith unto Noah, `This `is' a token of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that `is' upon the earth.'
And Abram is a son of ninety and nine years, and Jehovah appeareth unto Abram, and saith unto him, `I `am' God Almighty, walk habitually before Me, and be thou perfect; and I give My covenant between Me and thee, and multiply thee very exceedingly.' And Abram falleth upon his face, and God speaketh with him, saying, `I -- lo, My covenant `is' with thee, and thou hast become father of a multitude of nations; and thy name is no more called Abram, but thy name hath been Abraham, for father of a multitude of nations have I made thee; and I have made thee exceeding fruitful, and made thee become nations, and kings go out from thee. `And I have established My covenant between Me and thee, and thy seed after thee, to their generations, for a covenant age-during, to become God to thee, and to thy seed after thee; and I have given to thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojournings, the whole land of Canaan, for a possession age-during, and I have become their God.' And God saith unto Abraham, `And thou dost keep My covenant, thou and thy seed after thee, to their generations; this `is' My covenant which ye keep between Me and you, and thy seed after thee: Every male of you `is' to be circumcised; and ye have circumcised the flesh of your foreskin, and it hath become a token of a covenant between Me and you. `And a son of eight days is circumcised by you; every male to your generations, born in the house, or bought with money from any son of a stranger, who is not of thy seed; he is certainly circumcised who `is' born in thine house, or bought with thy money; and My covenant hath become in your flesh a covenant age-during; and an uncircumcised one, a male, the flesh of whose foreskin is not circumcised, even that person hath been cut off from his people; My covenant he hath broken.' And God saith unto Abraham, `Sarai thy wife -- thou dost not call her name Sarai, for Sarah `is' her name; and I have blessed her, and have also given to thee a son from her; and I have blessed her, and she hath become nations -- kings of peoples are from her.' And Abraham falleth upon his face, and laugheth, and saith in his heart, `To the son of an hundred years is one born? or doth Sarah -- daughter of ninety years -- bear?' And Abraham saith unto God, `O that Ishmael may live before Thee;' and God saith, `Sarah thy wife is certainly bearing a son to thee, and thou hast called his name Isaac, and I have established My covenant with him, for a covenant age-during, to his seed after him. As to Ishmael, I have heard thee; lo, I have blessed him, and made him fruitful, and multiplied him, very exceedingly; twelve princes doth he beget, and I have made him become a great nation; and My covenant I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah doth bear to thee at this appointed time in the next year;' and He finisheth speaking with him, and God goeth up from Abraham. And Abraham taketh Ishmael his son, and all those born in his house, and all those bought with his money -- every male among the men of Abraham's house -- and circumciseth the flesh of their foreskin, in this self-same day, as God hath spoken with him. And Abraham `is' a son of ninety and nine years in the flesh of his foreskin being circumcised; and Ishmael his son `is' a son of thirteen years in the flesh of his foreskin being circumcised; in this self-same day hath Abraham been circumcised, and Ishmael his son; and all the men of his house -- born in the house, and bought with money from the son of a stranger -- have been circumcised with him.
and lo, Jehovah is standing upon it, and He saith, `I `am' Jehovah, God of Abraham thy father, and God of Isaac; the land on which thou art lying, to thee I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed hath been as the dust of the land, and thou hast broken forth westward, and eastward, and northward, and southward, and all families of the ground have been blessed in thee and in thy seed.
and the land which I have given to Abraham and to Isaac -- to thee I give it, yea to thy seed after thee I give the land.'
and I go down to deliver it out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to cause it to go up out of the land, unto a land good and broad, unto a land flowing with milk and honey -- unto the place of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
and also I have established My covenant with them, to give to them the land of Canaan, the land of their sojournings, wherein they have sojourned;
and the name of the third river `is' Hiddekel, it `is' that which is going east of Asshur; and the fourth river is Phrat.
`Command the sons of Israel, and thou hast said unto them, When ye are coming in unto the land of Canaan -- this `is' the land which falleth to you by inheritance, the land of Canaan, by its borders -- then hath the south quarter been to you from the wilderness of Zin, by the sides of Edom, yea, the south border hath been to you from the extremity of the Salt Sea, eastward;
`When Jehovah thy God doth bring thee in unto the land whither thou art going in to possess it, and He hath cast out many nations from thy presence, the Hittite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations more numerous and mighty than thou,
And these `are' kings of the land whom the sons of Israel have smitten, and possess their land, beyond the Jordan, at the sun-rising, from the brook Arnon unto mount Hermon, and all the plain eastward. Sihon, king of the Amorite, who is dwelling in Heshbon, ruling from Aroer which `is' on the border of the brook Arnon, and the middle of the brook, and half of Gilead, and unto Jabok the brook, the border of the Bene-Ammon; And the plain unto the sea of Chinneroth eastward, and unto the sea of the plain (the salt sea) eastward, the way to Beth-Jeshimoth, and from the south under the springs of Pisgah. And the border of Og king of Bashan (of the remnant of the Rephaim), who is dwelling in Ashtaroth and in Edrei, and ruling in mount Hermon, and in Salcah, and in all Bashan, unto the border of the Geshurite, and the Maachathite, and the half of Gilead, the border of Sihon king of Heshbon. Moses, servant of Jehovah, and the sons of Israel have smitten them, and Moses, servant of Jehovah, giveth it -- a possession to the Reubenite, and to the Gadite, and to the half of the tribe of Manasseh. And these `are' kings of the land whom Joshua and the sons of Israel have smitten beyond the Jordan westward, from Baal-Gad, in the valley of Lebanon, and unto the mount of Halak, which is going up to Seir; and Joshua giveth it to the tribes of Israel -- a possession according to their divisions; in the hill-country, and in the low country, and in the plain, and in the springs, and in the wilderness, and in the south; the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite: The king of Jericho, one; The king of Ai, which `is' beside Bethel, one; The king of Jerusalem, one; The king of Hebron, one; The king of Jarmuth, one; The king of Lachish, one; The king of Eglon, one; The king of Gezer, one; The king of Debir, one; The king of Geder, one; The king of Hormah, one; The king of Arad, one; The king of Libnah, one; The king of Adullam, one; The king of Mekkedah, one; The king of Beth-El, one; The king of Tappuah, one; The king of Hepher, one; The king of Aphek, one; The king of Lasharon, one; The king of Madon, one; The king of Hazor, one; The king of Shimron-Meron, one; The king of Achshaph, one;
and passed over `to' Azmon, and gone out `at' the brook of Egypt, and the outgoings of the border have been at the sea; this is to you the south border.
And the second lot goeth out for Simeon, for the tribe of the sons of Simeon, for their families; and their inheritance is in the midst of the inheritance of the sons of Judah, and they have in their inheritance Beer-Sheba, and Sheba, and Moladah, and Hazar-Shual, and Balah, and Azem, and Eltolad, and Bethul, and Hormah, and Ziklag, and Beth-Marcaboth, and Hazar-Susah, and Beth-Lebaoth, and Sharuhen; thirteen cities and their villages. Ain, Remmon, and Ether, and Ashan; four cities and their villages; also all the villages which `are' round about these cities, unto Baalath-Beer, Ramoth of the south. This `is' the inheritance of the tribe of the sons of Simeon, for their families; out of the portion of the sons of Judah `is' the inheritance of the sons of Simeon, for the portion of the sons of Judah hath been too much for them, and the sons of Simeon inherit in the midst of their inheritance. And the third lot goeth up for the sons of Zebulun, for their families; and the border of their inheritance is unto Sarid, and their border hath gone up towards the sea, and Maralah, and come against Dabbasheth, and come unto the brook which `is' on the front of Jokneam, and turned back from Sarid eastward, at the sun-rising, by the border of Chisloth-Tabor, and gone out unto Daberath, and gone up to Japhia, and thence it hath passed over eastward, to the east, to Gittah-Hepher, `to' Ittah-Kazin, and gone out `to' Rimmon-Methoar to Neah; and the border hath gone round about it, from the north to Hannathon; and its outgoings have been `in' the valley of Jiphthah-El, and Kattath, and Nahallal, and Shimron, and Idalah, and Beth-Lehem; twelve cities and their villages. This `is' the inheritance of the sons of Zebulun, for their families, these cities and their villages. For Issachar hath the fourth lot gone out, for the sons of Issachar, for their families; and their border is `at' Jezreel, and Chesulloth, and Shunem, and Haphraim, and Shihon, and Anaharath, and Rabbith, and Kishion, and Abez, and Remeth, and En-Gannim, and En-Haddah, and Beth-Pazzez; and the border hath touched against Tabor, and Shahazimah, and Beth-Shemesh, and the outgoings of their border have been `at' the Jordan; sixteen cities and their villages. This `is' the inheritance of the tribe of the sons of Issachar, for their families, the cities and their villages. And the fifth lot goeth out for the tribe of the sons of Asher, for their families; and their border is Helkath, and Hali, and Beten, and Achshaph, and Alammelech, and Amad, and Misheal; and it toucheth against Carmel westward, and against Shihor-Libnath; and hath turned back, at the sun-rising, `to' Beth-Dagon, and come against Zebulun, and against the valley of Jiphthah-El toward the north of Beth-Emek, and Neiel, and hath gone out unto Cabul on the left, and Hebron, and Rehob, and Hammon, and Kanah, unto great Zidon; and the border hath turned back to Ramah, and unto the fenced city Tyre; and the border hath turned back to Hosah, and its outgoings are at the sea, from the coast to Achzib, and Ummah, and Aphek, and Rehob; twenty and two cities and their villages. This `is' the inheritance of the tribe of the sons of Asher, for their families, these cities and their villages. For the sons of Naphtali hath the sixth lot gone out, for the sons of Naphtali, for their families; and their border is from Heleph, from Allon in Zaanannim, and Adami, Nekeb, and Jabneel, unto Lakkum, and its outgoings are `at' the Jordan; and the border hath turned back westward `to' Aznoth-Tabor, and gone out thence to Hukkok, and touched against Zebulun on the south, and against Asher it hath touched on the west, and against Judah `at' the Jordan, at the sun-rising; and the cities of defence `are' Ziddim, Zer, and Hammath, Rakkath, and Chinnereth, and Adamah, and Ramah, and Hazor, and Kedesh, and Edrei, and En-Hazor, and Iron, and Migdal-El, Horem, and Beth-Anath, and Beth-Shemesh; nineteen cities and their villages.
And David smiteth Hadadezer son of Rehob, king of Zobah, in his going to bring back his power by the River `Euphrates;'
For -- not so `is' my house with God; For -- a covenant age-during He made with me, Arranged in all things, and kept; For -- all my salvation, and all desire, For -- He hath not caused `it' to spring up.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Genesis 15
Commentary on Genesis 15 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 15
In this chapter we have a solemn treaty between God and Abram concerning a covenant that was to be established between them. In the former chapter we had Abram in the field with Kings; here we find him in the mount with God; and, though there he looked great, yet, methinks, here he looks much greater: that honour have the great men of the world, but "this honour have all the saints.' The covenant to be settled between God and Abram was a covenant of promises; accordingly, here is,
Gen 15:1
Observe here,
Gen 15:2-6
We have here the assurance given to Abram of a numerous offspring which should descend from him, in which observe,
Gen 15:7-11
We have here the assurance given to Abram of the land of Canaan for an inheritance.
Gen 15:12-16
We have here a full and particular discovery made to Abram of God's purposes concerning his seed. Observe,
Gen 15:17-21
Here is,