soil, to which they sometimes add a have often invaded their country with little patch of corn, furnishes them with powerful armies, determined to extirmeans of subsistence, amply sufficient pate, or at least to subdue them to their for their moderate desires; and the lib- yoke; but they always return baffled erty of ranging at pleasure their inter- and disappointed. The savage freeminable wilds, fully compensates in booters, disdaining every idea of subtheir opinion for the want of all other mission, with invincible patience and accommodations. Mounted on their resolution, maintained their independfavourite horses, they scour the waste ence; and they have transmitted it unin search of plunder, with a velocity impaired to the present times. In spite surpassed only by the wild ass. They of all their enemies can do to restrain levy contributions on every person that them, they continue to dwell in the happens to fall in their way; and fre- presence of all their brethren, and to quently rob their own countrymen, assert their right to insult and plunder with as little ceremony as they do a every one they meet with on the borstranger or an enemy; their hand is ders, or within the limits of their dostill against every man, and every man's mains.' Paxton. To the same purpose hand against them. But they do not the editor of the Pict. Bible on this pasalways confine their predatory excur- sage remarks:-' Even in the ordinary sions to the desert. When booty is sense of the epithet 'wild,' there is no scarce at home, they make incursions people to whom it can be applied with into the territories of their neighbours, more propriety than to the Arabs, and having robbed the solitary travel- whether used in reference to their charler, or plundered the caravan, immedi-acter, modes of life, or place of habitaately retire into the deserts far beyond tion. We have seen something of the reach of their pursuers. Their Arabs and their life, and always felt character, drawn by the pen of inspi- the word wild to be precisely that by ration Job, 24. 5, exactly corresponds which we should choose to characterwith this view of their dispositions and ize them. Their chosen dwelling-place conduct : 'Behold, as wild asses in the is the inhospitable desert, which offers desert, go they forth to their work be- no attractions to any other eyes but times for a prey: the wilderness yield- theirs, but which is all the dearer to eth food for them and for their children.' them for that very desolation, inasmuch Savage and stubborn as the wild ass as it secures to them that independence which inhabits the same wilderness, and unfettered liberty of action which they go forth on the horse or the drom- constitutes the charm of their existedary with inconceivable swiftness in ence, and which render the minute quest of their prey. Initiated in the boundaries and demarcations of settled trade of a robber from their earliest districts, and the restraints and limitayears, they know no other employment; tions of towns and cities, perfectly they choose it as the business of their hateful in their sight. The simplicity life, and prosecute it with unwearied of their tented habitations, their dress, activity. They start before the dawn, and their diet, which forms so perfect to invade the village or the caravan; a picture of primitive usages as describmake their attack with desperate cour-ed by the Sacred Writers, we can also age, and surprising rapidity; and, plunging instantly into the desert, escape from the vengeance of their enemies. Provoked by their continual insults, the nations of ancient and modern times characterize by no more fitting epithet than 'wild' and that epithet claims a still more definite application when we come to examine their continual wanderings with their flocks and herds, their constant readiness for action, and | could not recollect this to be the case their frequent predatory and aggressive with any one among the numerous excursions against strangers or against tribes with which he was acquainted. each other.' But this point resolves it- Such wars, however, are seldom of long self into the ensuing clause.- - His duration; peace is easily made, but hand will be against every man, and broken again upon the slightest preevery man's hand against him. It is tence.' Pict. Bible.- - He shall evident that one man could not sub- dwell in the presence of all his brethren, shall על פני כל אחיו ישכן .sist alone in open enmity with all the | Heb world, nor could one man's hand be dwell before, or over against, the faces literally against every man's. There is, of his brethren. The original word for moreover, not the slightest hint in dwell ( shakan) properly signifies Scripture, nor any reason to believe to dwell in tents, or to tabernacle, that Ishmael lived personally in a state whence a portion of the Arab tribes are of opposition to his brethren. Bear- denominated Scenites, tent-dwellers, ing in mind what we have already answering to the modern Bedouins, in said respecting the collective import of opposition to those who inhabit cities. the name Ishmael in this prediction, we The meaning undoubtedly is, that he can have no difficulty in understanding i. e. his descendants, shall pitch his this as a declaration, that his posterity tents near to and in sight of his brethshould exist in an attitude of perpetual ren, and shall maintain his independhostility with the rest of mankind. ence in spite of all attempts to conquer And there is certainly no people to or dispossess him. There is some whom this applies with greater truth doubt as to the latitude in which the than to the Arabs; for there is none of term 'brethren' is here to be underwhom aggression on all the world is so stood; some taking it in a more reremarkably characteristic. 'Plunder stricted sense for the other descendants in fact forms their principal occupation, of Abraham, viz. the Israelites, Midianand takes the chief place in their ites, Edomites, &c. while others, as all thoughts; and their aggressions upon mankind are brethren in a larger sense, settled districts, upon travellers, and consider it as equivalent to saying that even upon other tribes of their own peo- the race of Ishmael should still subsist, ple, are undertaken and prosecuted with notwithstanding the universal enmity a feeling that they have a right to what of all nations, as an independent people they seek, and therefore without the in the face of the whole world. From least sense of guilt or degradation. the general tenor of Scriptural usage, Indeed the character of a successful and we think the former the most probaenterprising robber invests a Bedouin ble interpretation. It is unquestionawith as high a distinction in his own ble, as an historical fact, that they have eyes and in the eyes of his people, as the ever been mainly surrounded by the most daring and chivalrous acts could above nations, or their posterity, and win among the nations of Europe. The nothing is more notorious than that operation of this principle would alone they have never been effectually subsuffice to verify the prediction of the dued. Although continually annoying text. But besides this, causes of vari the adjacent countries with their robance are continually arising between beries and incursions, yet all attempts the different tribes. Burckhardt as-made to extirpate them have been absures us that there are few tribes which ortive; and even to this day travellers are ever in a state of perfect peace with are forced to go armed, and in caravans all their neighbours, and adds, that he or large companies, and to march and 13 And she called the name of Have I also here looked after him the LORD that spake unto her, | * that seeth me? Thou God seest me: for she said, x ch. 31. 42. that the Heb. word roi rendered keep watch like a little army, to defend themselves from the assaults of these roving freebooters of the desert. These robberies they justify, according to Mr. Sale (Prelim. Dissert. to the Koran) by alleging the hard usage of their father Ishmael; who being turned out of doors by Abraham had the open plains and deserts given him by God for his good or fair of visage or sight).' patrimony, with permission to take Job, 33. 21, 'His flesh is consumed whatever he could find there. On this away that it cannot be seen (Heb. account they think they may, with a from sight, from visibility).' Comp. safe conscience, indemnify themselves, Job, 7. 8. The purport of her words is as well as they can, not only on the undoubtedly that of a grateful recogniposterity of Isaac, but on every one tion of the fact, that God had condeelse; and in relating their adventures of scended, in the person of the Angel to this kind, deem themselves warranted, make himself graciously visible in instead of saying, 'I robbed a man of the hour of her extremity. - Have such a thing,' to say, 'I gained it.' In- I also looked after him that seeth me, deed from a view of the character and Or Heb. ¬¬¬ have 1 lookhistory of this remarkable people du-ed upon the back parts of my seer, bering a period of 4000 years, as compar-holder. Although the letters of the oried with this prediction, we may say ginal are the same as in the pre with Dr. A. Clarke, that 'it furnishes ceding clause, yet the vowel-pointing an absolute demonstrative argument of is different, so as to give the sense not the divine origin of the Pentateuch. To of seeing in the abstract, but of a seer attempt its refutation, in the sight of in the concrete. Again, the other imreason and common sense, would con- portant word in the clause renvict of most ridiculous presumption dered after is the same as that applied and excessive folly.' to the view of the divine glory which Moses enjoyed in the cleft of the rock, Ex. 33. 23. After the full brightness of the Shekinah had passed by, the prophet saw the mitigated or shaded glories of the Godhead, the 'back-part,' as it were, of the sacred vision. It is not unlikely that a similar import is to be affixed to the word here; yet there is such a vast variety in the renderings of the ancient versions, that nothing positive can be affirmed respecting it. We have suggested that which seems to us most probable. If this be not satisfactory to the reader, he is left at liberty to exercise his choice among the fol me. 13. She called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest Heb. thou (art) the God of vision, or rather of visibility; i. e. the God that sufferest thyself to be seen. The Gr. indeed renders differently; Ev & Oɛs & εñidov μe thou art the God that seeth me, i. e. who careth for me, who pondereth and pitieth my afflictions; a sense which the original word for see often bears in the Scriptures, as Ex. 3. 7. Ps. 9. 14.-25. 18. This rendering, after the example of the Lat. Vulgate, has been followed by our translation. But there is little doubt 14 Wherefore the well was son's name, which Hagar bare, called › Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it | ↳ Ishmael. is between Kadesh and Bered. 16 And Abram was fourscore 15 ¶ And Hagar bare Abram and six years old, when Hagar a son and Abram called his bare Ishmael to Abram. y ch. 24. 62. & 25. 11. z Numb. 13. 26. a Gal. 4. 22. b ver. 11. Chal. 15. Abram called his son's name lowing variety of versions. Gr. For I well of the living one, my seer. have openly seen him that appeared the well of the angel of life, who apunto me.' Chal. 'Lo, I begin to see peared there.' According to this renafter that he appeared unto me.' Syr. dering of Onkelos, the active sense of 'Lo, I have beheld a vision, after he be-life-giving or quickening, in allusion to held me.' Arab. Erp. 'Even here I have her wondrous preservation, is involved seen, after his seeing me.' Arab. Saad. in the epithet ♬ living here employed, "Truly I have here seen thy compas- and this perhaps is not far from the sion, after I had seen affliction.' Targ. truth. Jon. 'Behold, here is revealed the glory of the divine majesty after the vision.' In several of them it will be observed that the leading idea is that of devout wonder on the part of Hagar, that she had been permitted to live to see any thing else, after being favoured with 16. Abram was fourscore and six such a glorious vision; and this is years old. Heb. 'Son of eighty-six strikingly in accordance with the gen-years; according to the usual idiom of eral belief prevalent in those early days, that such a view would be followed by the immediate extinction of life. See Ex. 24. 11. Judg. 13. 32. But whether this were the real sense of the words we are not prepared to decide. Ishmael. Having previously heard from Hagar the various particulars of the divine apparition above recited. He named his son 'according to the prophecy that went before upon him.' the original. For this long period had Abraham lived childless, and yet as a trial to his faith, he is required to wait fourteen years longer before the sight of the child of promise gladdens his aged eyes. During thirteen years of that period it would seem that all those delightful personal manifestations of the Almighty which he had hitherto enjoyed were suspended: but whether this was designed, as some have suggested, as a token of the divine displeasure for so easily acquiescing in the sinful expedient proposed by Sarah, or whether it is simply to be referred to the sovereign good pleasure of him who giveth not account of any of his matters, it is not for us to say. It is certain however as a general fact that similar conduct is productive of similar results, and that if we find that it is not with us as in times past, that 14. The well was called. Heb. he called, i e. one called, every one called; this became its general appellation. This impersonal kind of phrase in which the active is used for the passive voice, is very common both in the Heb. of the Old Testament and the Gr. of the New. Thus, Ex. 10. 21, 'Even darkness which may be felt.' Heb. 'which one may feel.' Ps. 9. 6, 'And his name shall be called.' Heb. 'one shall call his name.' Luke 12. 20, 'Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee.' Gr. 'they shall require.' 1 Cor. 15. 27, 'But when he saith, all things are put under him;' i. e. when it is said, &c.- Beer- communion with God is more than lahai-roi. Heb. the usually difficult, that our intercourse CHAPTER XVII. unto him, I am the Almighty AND when Abram was ninety God; walk before me, and be years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said a ch. 12. 1. d thou a perfect. b ch. 28. 3. & 35. 11. Ex. 6. 3. Deut. 10. 17. c ch. 5. 22. & 48. 15. 1 Kings. 2. 4. & 8. 25. 2 Kings 20. 3. d ch. 6. 9. Deut. 18. 13. Job. 1. 1. Mat. 5. 48. with heaven is sadly impeded, our ty-nine years,' i. e. going on in his prayers hindered and our praises dead-ninety-ninth year. This was thirteen ened, the cause is to be sought in our years after the birth of Ishmael. From selves. It is not a mere sovereign | the effect produced on Abraham's mind withdrawal of the light of God's coun- by the annunciation, v. 15-17, that tenance, but a merited rebuke of some he should yet have a son by Sarah, secret offence, some unrestrained tem-it is probable that he had long settled per, some unholy compliance, some down in the belief that Ishmael was unchecked and unchastened desire, the destined seed, and consequently which is suffered to remain undetected had renounced all hopes of farther in the heart and to rob us of the promissue.-I am the Almighty God. ised blessing. A single additional re- Heb. 3 El Shaddai, God allmark may close our exposition of the sufficient; able to accomplish with inpresent chapter. We are here impres- finite ease all his purposes, whether of This was a sively taught that we are not to judge judgment or of mercy. of the greatness and importance of truth which he needed to have re-imthe designs of providence, by any pressed upon his mind. It was for worldly marks of distinction. The want of considering this, that he had posterity of Ishmael, though later pre- had recourse to crooked devices in dicted, was earlier brought forward, and order to accomplish the promise. In has been much longer established, and view therefore of the physical impoexisted in a far higher degree of nation-tency of Abraham's body and of Sarah's al dignity and consequence, than the posterity of Isaac. Yet it was not in the line of Ishmael, but in that of Isaac that the promises of life and sal-plication that no obstacles whatever vation were to run. To Isaac, and not could stand in the way of the comto his elder brother, pertained plete fulfilment of the word of promise. adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises,' and of him 'as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all God blessed for ever.' The things which are highly esteemed among men, are often of no price in the sight of Him who hath chosen the foolish, the weak, and the base things of the world to confound the wise, the mighty, and the magnificent. the womb, the Most High is pleased to announce himself under this august title, which evidently carried with it the im התהלך .Heb - Walk before me. set thyself to walk; a peculiarly_emphatic mode of expression. See Note on Gen. 13. 17.- - Be thou perfect. Heb. a perfect, i. e, upright, sincere. Gr. 'Walk p'easingly before me and be blameless.' Chal. 'Serve before me and be perfect.' See notes on Gen. 5. 25. & 6. 9. Integrity is true scriptural perfection; and without that every thing in our religion is defective, and all profession vain. We may not indeed attain to absolute perfection on earth, but we should study 1. When. Abram was ninety years as nearly as possible to approach it, old and nine. Heb. 'the son of nine- I which is only to be done by 'walking CHAPTER XVII. |