27 And Abraham taketh sheep and oxen, and giveth to Abimelech, and they make, both of them, a covenant;
and Abram saith unto the king of Sodom, `I have lifted up my hand unto Jehovah, God Most High, possessing heaven and earth -- from a thread even unto a shoe-latchet I take not of anything which thou hast, that thou say not, I -- I have made Abram rich;
And they say, `We have certainly seen that Jehovah hath been with thee, and we say, `Let there be, we pray thee, an oath between us, between us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee; do not evil with us, as we have not touched thee, and as we have only done good with thee, and send thee away in peace; thou `art' now blessed of Jehovah.' And he maketh for them a banquet, and they eat and drink, and rise early in the morning, and swear one to another, and Isaac sendeth them away, and they go from him in peace.
And Jonathan maketh -- also David -- a covenant, because he loveth him as his own soul,
A stone of grace `is' the bribe in the eyes of its possessors, Whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth.
A man with friends `is' to show himself friendly, And there is a lover adhering more than a brother!
A gift in secret pacifieth anger, And a bribe in the bosom strong fury.
And he taketh of the seed of the kingdom, And maketh with him a covenant, And bringeth him in to an oath, And the mighty of the land he hath taken,
unintelligent, faithless, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Genesis 21
Commentary on Genesis 21 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 21
In this chapter we have,
Gen 21:1-8
Long-looked-for comes at last. The vision concerning the promised seed is for an appointed time, and now, at the end, it speaks, and does not lie; few under the Old Testament were brought into the world with such expectation as Isaac was, not for the sake of any great person eminence at which he was to arrive, but because he was to be, in this very thin, a type of Christ, that seed which the holy God had so long promised and holy men so long expected. In this account of the first days of Isaac we may observe,
Gen 21:9-13
The casting out of Ishmael is here considered of, and resolved on.
Gen 21:14-21
Here is,
Gen 21:22-32
We have here an account of the treaty between Abimelech and Abraham, in which appears the accomplishment of that promise (ch. 12:2) that God would make his name great. His friendship is valued, is courted, though a stranger, though a tenant at will to the Canaanites and Perizzites.
Gen 21:33-34
Observe,