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Matthew Henry on Genesis 22:11-14
It was not God's intention that Isaac should actually be sacrificed, yet nobler blood than that of animals, in due time, was to be shed for sin, even the blood of the only begotten Son of God. But in the mean while God…
Isaac Rescued. (b. c. 1872.)
ISAAC RESCUED. (B. C. 1872.) Hitherto this story has been very melancholy, and seemed to hasten towards a most tragical period; but here the sky suddenly clears up, the sun breaks out, and a bright and pleasant scene op…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 22:15-19
There are high declarations of God's favour to Abraham in this confirmation of the covenant with him, exceeding any he had yet been blessed with. Those that are willing to part with any thing for God, shall have it made…
Abraham's Blessing Confirmed. (b. c. 1872.)
ABRAHAM'S BLESSING CONFIRMED. (B. C. 1872.) Abraham's obedience was graciously accepted; but this was not all: here we have it recompensed, abundantly recompensed, before he stirred from the place; probably while the ra…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 22:20-24
This chapter ends with some account of Nahor's family, who had settled at Haran. This seems to be given for the connexion which it had with the church of God. From thence Isaac and Jacob took wives; and before the accou…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 22:20-24
This is recorded here, 1. To show that though Abraham saw his own family highly dignified with peculiar privileges, admitted into covenant, and blessed with the entail of the promise, yet he did not look with contempt a…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 23:1-13
The longest life must shortly come to a close. Blessed be God that there is a world where sin, death, vanity, and vexation cannot enter. Blessed be his name, that even death cannot part believers from union with Christ.…
The Death of Sarah. (b. c. 1857.)
THE DEATH OF SARAH. (B. C. 1857.) We have here, 1. Sarah's age, Genesis 23:1. Almost forty years before, she had called herself old, Genesis 18:12. Old people will die never the sooner, but may die the better, for recko…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 23:1
And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old (literally, and the lives of Sarah were an hundred and twenty and seven years); so that Isaac must have been thirty-seven, having been born in his mother's ninetie…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 23:1-20
EXPOSITION
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 23:1-20
The death and burial of Sarah. I. THE DEATH OF SARAH. 1. The mournful event. The death of— 2. The attendant circumstances. Sarah died— II. THE BURIAL OF SARAH. 1. The days of mourning. "Abraham came to mourn and to weep…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 23:2
And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba—or city of Arba, Abraham having again removed thither after an absence of nearly forty years, during which interval Murphy thinks the reign of Arba the Anakite may have commenced, though K…
The Cave of Machpelah. (b. c. 1857.)
THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. (B. C. 1857.) Here is, I. The humble request which Abraham made to his neighbours, the Hittites, for a burying-place among them, Genesis 23:3-4. It was strange he had this to do now; but we are to…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 23:3
And Abraham stood up—during the days of mourning he had been sitting on the ground; and now, his grief having moderated (Calvin), he goes out to the city gate—from before (literally, from over the face of) his dead,—"Sa…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 23:4
I am a stranger and a sojourner with you. Ger, one living out of his own country, and Thoshabh, one dwelling in a land in which he is not naturalized; advena et peregrinus (Vulgate); πάροικος καὶ παρ ἐπίδημος (LXX.)…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 23:7
And Abraham stood up (the customary posture among Orientals in buying and selling being that of sitting), and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Hath—an act of respect quite accordant with…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 23:10
And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth. Not habitabat (Vulgate), in the sense of resided amongst, but sedebat, ἐκάθητο (LXX.); was then present sitting amongst the townspeople (Rosenmüller), but whether in the ca…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 23:11
Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee—an Oriental mode of expressing willingness to sell. Ephron would make a present of cave and field to the patriarch,—"and just so…
Matthew Henry on Genesis 23:14-20
Prudence, as well as justice, directs us to be fair and open in our dealings; cheating bargains will not bear the light. Abraham, without fraud or delay, pays the money. He pays it at once in full, without keeping any p…
Sarah's Funeral. (b. c. 1857.)
SARAH'S FUNERAL. (B. C. 1857.) We have here the conclusion of the treaty between Abraham and Ephron about the burying-place. The bargain was publicly made before all the neighbours, in the presence and audience of the s…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 23:16
And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron (either as knowing that the price he asked was reasonable, or as being in no humor to bargain with him on the subject); and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver,—"Even this is still com…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 23:19
And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife—with what funeral rites can only be conjectured. Monumental evidence attests that the practice of embalming the dead existed in Egypt in the reign of Amunophth I., though pr…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 23:20
And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a burying-place by the sons of Heth. The palpable discrepancy between the statements of the Hebrew historian in this chapter c…
The Pulpit Commentary on Genesis 23:20
Lessons from the sepulcher. "And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a burying-place." Abraham's first and only possession in Canaan, a sepulcher. The importance of t…