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9 And Abram journeyed, a going on still toward the south. 10 And there was in the land and Abram

a famine
went

q ch. 13. 3. r ch. 26. 1. s Ps. 105. 13.

down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.

t ch. 43. 1.

atonement, and together worshipping
the true and only Jehovah. Thus Abra-
ham acted the part of a patriarchal mis-
sionary, and thus every part of the earth
through which he passed possessed the
edifying opportunity of beholding the
worship of the true God in its purity, and
of viewing those sacrifices which were
appointed to keep up a perpetual re-
membrance of the 'Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world.'-By his
'calling upon the name of the Lord' is
meant in general his performing the
various duties of sacred worship. That
this embraced the offering of sacrifices,
as well as the paying of thanks, is
altogether probable, though not so ex-

an altar, and called upon the name of the Lord. According, it would seem, to his constant practice wheresoever he sojourned. 'Wherever he had a tent, God had an altar, and an altar sanctified by prayer.' Henry. He erected his own altar that he might not participate with idolaters in the worship offered upon theirs, and it is not improbable that his steadfast singularity in this respect drew upon him the ill will, if not the persecution, of his heathen neighbours. Men will usually brook any thing more easily than a slight cast upon their religion, and yet the worship of Abraham was a standing rebuke of theirs. It is plain from the inspired narrative that the Canaan-pressly mentioned. Comp. Gen. 8.20. ites were a proud, fierce, and vindictive people, and it was perhaps owing to the cause now mentioned that the patriarch was obliged to make such frequent removals. But like every other good man he chose to put his life in peril rather than deny his God or forsake his service. He was now travelling as an eastern prince or emir, as a person of more than ordinary distinction, for we hear shortly after of his having three hundred and eighteen trained servants, born in his own house;' and he was passing through a country, the inhabitants of which were idolaters. How instructive then must have been the example thus held forth by the father of the faithful. Wherever he stopped, though it were but for a night, there he was seen, unawed by the opposition, unmoved by the ridicule, of the idolaters around him, building his temporary altar, assembling his family and his household, and together offering their sacrifices as types of the great

But certain it is, that the whole system of the divinely prescribed worship from the time of the fall, was built upon the recognition of an atoning sacrifice to be afterwards offered, and the more distinctly the religious services of the ancient believers avowed this fact, the more acceptable they must have been in the eyes of Jehovah.

9. And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south. Heb. 7-0

broke up going and breaking up; that is, advancing forwards by degrees; now removing to one point and now to another, according to the nomade custom, but on the whole moving on towards the south. The allusion is plain to the habits of those who dwell in tents, and as dweiling in tents is opposed to dwelling in houses, 1 Chron. 17. 1, 5, and implies that unsettled migratory kind of life which the apostle1 Cor. 4. 11, calls asarovμevov unfixed, we see with how much propriety he represents Abraham as 'sojourning in

11 And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon :

u ver. 14. ch. 26. 7.

12 Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they w will kill me, but they will save thee alive.

w ch. 20. 11. & 26. 7.

the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles (tents) with Israel and Jacob.' In the present state of society the people of God are in a great measure exempted from such a necessity and made to possess quiet and permanent abodes, but our mansions below are still sufficiently moveable to remind us that our rest is not here, but in heaven, whither, if Christians, all our removes are rapidly conducting us.

instead of evincing the spirit of his unbelieving descendants in the times of Moses, and saying, 'Would God we had remained at Haran, if not in Ur; surely this is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof,' he merely goes to Egypt as a place of temporary sojourning, with the firm purpose of returning whenever the rigor of the famine should abate. In the midst of all our changes and buffetings in this world we should still retain our hold upon the promise of a better and an eternal inheritance.

10. And there was a famine in the land. Another trial of his faith the 11. I know that thou art a fair wopatriarch is here called to encounter. A man to look upon. Heb. mæ ` famine arises in the very land of prom- fair of aspect. The original implies ise and of plenty. In the fertile plains fairness of complexion, and one thereof Chaldea he had doubtless been a fore likely to attract the attention of stranger to want, and his large estab- the darker coloured Egyptians. Though lishment in Haran, makes it probable, Sarah was now probably upwards of that no difficulty of subsistence was sixty, yet, considering the longevity there experienced. But now he is and robust health of the patriarchs, she made to lack and suffer hunger,' and might still retain her personal attracby being constrained to leave the land tions, especially as she had as yet exof his sojourning, undergoes the hard-perienced none of the effects of matership of a double exile. He went down nity in weakening their force. into Egypt,' a country lying relatively somewhat lower than Canaan, and the fertility of which, owing to the annual overflow of the Nile, seems to have entitled it, from the very earliest periods, to be considered as the granary of the world. But even here his faith holds him steadfast in the assurance of finally possessing the promised inheritance. He manifests no regret at having forsaken the land of his nativity nor any disposition to return thither, though now 'if he had been mindful of that country from whence he came out, he might have had opportunity to have returned.' But

12. They will kill me but they will save thee alive. Whether the apprehension here expressed was grounded upon any thing more than a knowledge of the general evil promptings of our corrupt nature, particularly in a lax state of society, is uncertain. This alone would doubtless form a sufficient warrant for his fears, and the result shews that they were well founded. Still he might have had special reasons for such an anticipation arising from the known character and habits of the people, of which we are ignorant. The opinion expressed by him gives the Egyptians

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credit for being less scrupulous about murder than adultery; which shews their distorted views of right and wrong, and the fearful influence that unhallowed passions exert upon our moral judgments.

13. Say, 1 pray thee, thou art my sister. Heb. say, now; where the original term for 'now' has the import, not of time, but of request and entreaty, as rightly rendered in our version. It is often used in English in an equivalent sense Here was obviously a failure, on the part of Abraham, in the very point in which he might have been supposed, a priori, most likely to have remained steadfast. She was indeed his step-sister, the daughter of his father, but not the daughter of his mother, Gen. 20. 12. This, therefore, though a truth in terms, has generally been considered as a moral untruth; because it was intended to convey the impression that Sarah was nothing more than a sister to him; and if the essence of a falsehood consists in the purpose to deceive, it is contended that his affirming her to be his sister was virtually denying her to be his wife, and so was tantamount to a direct falsehood. But it must be admitted that there is an important difference between uttering a lie and concealing a truth, or a part of the truth, and as Abraham himself rested the defence of his conduct on this distinction, Gen. 20. 11-13, it is right that he should have the benefit of whatever validity may belong to the plea. That modes of speech giving but a partial view of the truth were often blamelessly adopted by good men in the Scriptures is indubitable. Moses led Pharaoh to under

14 And it came to pass, that when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.

y ch. 39. 7. Matt. 5. 28.

stand that he wished to go with the children of Israel but three days' journey into the wilderness to sacrifice, Ex. 3. 18, and David certainly misled Achish as to the real motives with which he entered into his service, 1 Sam. 29. 17. In like manner Paul told but a part of the truth, Acts, 23. 6, when he cried out in the assembly, 'Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee; of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.' Yet no fault is found with him for adopting this stroke of policy. In the case of Abraham it should be considered also that he looked upon himself as the depositary of a future seed in which all the families of the earth should be blessed. The preservation of his life would of course seem to him essential to the performance of the promise, and we can easily see that a peculiar solicitude in regard to it would in such circumstances be natural, and one to which his faith itself would give rise. Some allowance may doubtless be made for him on this score. Still his conduct is not to be approved, and when he adopts an expedient which went directly to rob the honour of his wife of the protection which her relation to a husband threw around it, we behold a faltering in the faith of a strong believer and an affecting instance of human infirmity. He would have acted far more wisely, as well as more worthily of his character, had he told the whole truth without disguise, committing the disposal of the affair entirely to the providence of God, relying on his promises, and confident of his protection. He was authorized to believe that he would in some way in

15 The princes also of Pharaoh | fore Pharaoh: and the woman saw her and commended her be- was taken into Pharaoh's house.

Z ch. 20. 2.

terpose for his deliverance from the threatened peril, but failing in this, he had recourse to a carnal policy which taught him, as similar conduct always will those who practise it, that there is a 'fear of man which bringeth a snare.' The simple, straight-forward, honest course of truth, candour, and pious dependence on God is always safest and best. However strongly tempted to resort to the stratagems of fleshly wisdom to extricate ourselves from difficulty, it is better to hold fast our integrity, and taking 'Jehovah-jireh' (the Lord will provide) for our motto, cast ourselves implicitly upon his guidance for direction. My soul shall live because of thee. Heb. naphshi. As the original term for 'soul' is often used for the person, the phrase is evidently equivalent to, 'I shall live, or my life shall be spared, because of thee.' In like manner the soul is said to die (see note on Judg 16. 30) when a person expires.

15. The princes also of Pharaoh sau her. The leading men about his court; officers and dignitaries attending upon his person and occasionally despatched upon business over the provinces. 'Pharaoh' is not a proper name, but a title applied, like Cæsar among the Romans, or Czar among the modern Russians, to the kings of Egypt. Indeed if we may believe Josephus its true import is that of king. It is applied in the Scriptures to at least eight different individuals who filled the throne of Egypt. Gen. 12. 15.-28. 36. Ex. 1. 8, 19. 1 Kings, 11. 19-21.-16. 24. 2 Kings, 23. 29, 30. Jer. 44. 30.

-T And commended her before Pharaoh. Shewing in this the spirit of true courtiers and sycophants, a class of men who in all ages have been notori

ous for ministering to the unhallowed passions of their royal masters. Parasite and pander are nearly equivalent terms, and to what an extent corruption in this respect has reigned in the courts of kings from the most ancient times to the present, the day of final disclosure can alone reveal. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house. The intention of the Egyptian king in this step is too obvious to be mistaken; but whether it was at once carried into execution may admit of doubt. Judging solely from the purport of the narrative, we should perhaps infer that it was. But as he seems to have designed, in a formal way, to make Sarah his wife, and as eastern usage prescribed certain ceremonies and purifications preparatory to such an event, which required considerable time, it is not unlikely that it was in this interval that 'the Lord plagued Pharaon and his house with great plagues;' so that she might have been restored before being fully received as an inmate of the harem. This opinion is confirmed by a comparison of the present with the incident recorded in a subsequent chapter. When a similar train of circumstances, Gen. 20. 2-18, had put her in the power of Abimelech, king of Gerar, we are expressly informed that God interposed for the protection of her person, and restored her intact to her husband. But why should a first indignity have been permitted when a second was prevented? Were not the views of Pharaoh as honorable as those of Abimelech ? And was not Abraham's dissimulation deserving of as severe a punishment on his second offence as on the first? On the whole we cannot but conclude, that though Sarah seems to have remained some time in

16 And he "entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he-asses, and men-servants, and maid-servants, and she-asses, and camels.

a ch. 20. 14.

17 And the LORD b plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

b ch. 20. 18. 1 Chron. 16. 21. Ps. 105. 14. Heb. 13. 4.

sion to his property and his household establishment. But whatever acts of munificence were exhibited towards Abraham, they could not compensate him for the privation he suffered, nor prevent the interval from seeming to

the house of Pharaoh, yet she was riched him with gifte. These marks of kindly make the object of a watchful his kindness are more particularly exProvidence, and that Abraham was re-pressed in what follows, where the adbuked by no other cause of grief than a ditions made to his possessions are temporary separation from the partner severally specified. The words doubtof his bosom.-The following remarks less convey the idea of a somewhat proas to Eastern usage in respect to simi-tracted residence and a gradual acceslar cases of abduction are worthy of notice. 'Of course Abraham could not have been a consenting party in this transaction; and yet it does not appear that the king intended to act, or was considered to act, oppressively in taking away a man's sister without thinking|hịm long, dreary, and afflictive. The his consent necessary. The passage 18 illustrated by the privilege which royal personages still exercise in Persia and other countries of the East, of claiming for their harem the unmarried sister or daughter of any of their subjects. This exercise of authority is rarely, if ever, questioned or resisted, however repugnant it may be to the father or brother: he may regret, as an inevitable misfortune, that his relative ever attracted the royal notice, but since it has happened, he does not hes itate to admit the right which royalty possesses. When Abimelech, king of 17. And the Lord plagued Pharaoh Gerar, acted in a similar manner to- and his house with great plagues. Heb. wards Sarah, taking her away from great strokes or blows. her supposed brother, Gen. 20. 2, it is admitted that he did so 'in the integrity of his heart and innocency of his hands, which allows his right to act as he did, if Sarah had been no more than Abraham's sister.' Pictorial Bible.

16. Entreated Abram well for her sake, Heb. did good to Abram. Gr. ε sxonar used well. Showed him many tokens of respect, conferred many favours upon him, en

companion of his youth and of his age, of his journeyings and his perils, was torn from his arms, and how worthless in his sight must have been all the favours which were heaped upon him with a view to reconcile him to his loss, or win his consent to parting with her for ever? Shall we not suppose that in this trying period he was brought seriously and penitently to reflect upon his prevarication, and that in answer to his prayers a door was opened for the deliverance unharmed of his beloved wife?

What these plagues were, or how Pharaoh learned that they were sent in consequence of his intended conduct in relation to Sarah, we are not informed. The Egyptians, it appears, thought highly of the sanctity of the marriage connection, for as soon as he ascertained who Sarah was, he restored her to her husband and dismissed them both with kindness. Indeed according to the standard then acknowledged his conduct

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