8 And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had h ch. 19. 3. dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat. fowls six or eight hours before they are cooked, and say we are fond of eating chettareyche, i. e. dead flesh. He adds, 'There are some Englishmen who become so accustomed to these things, that they have the chicken grilled, and on their table, which a quarter of an hour before was playing in the yard.'' Pict. Bible. 8. He took butter. The continual mention of butter as an independent dish, and as a proverbial sign of plenty, is calculated to astonish an European reader. The word, as used in the Bible, implies butter and cream in various states of consistence. Annotators have discussed whether, in the present instance, the meat was dished up with butter, or that the latter formed an independent dish. It might well be both or either, if we judge from present Arab not unusual at their entertainments to serve up a lamb or kid that has been baked whole in a hole in the ground, which after being heated and having received the carcase, is covered over with stones. It is less usual now in the East to kill a calf than it seems to have been in the times of the Bible. The Arabs, Turks, and others think it monstrous extravagance to kill an animal which becomes so large and valuble when full grown. This consideration seems to magnify Abraham's liberality in being so ready to kill a calf for strangers.' Pict. Bible. - Gave it unto a young man. That is, to a servant. See Note on Gen. 14. 24. Hasted to dress it. That is, to cook it. Judging from our modern notions of cookery, it may seem strange to many readers that a calf just killed should be immediately roasted. But the Ori-usages, which furnish ample illustraentals are still fond of eating meat just killed. It is said then to be tender and juicy. 'It seems to us rather revolting that the meat should be dressed and eaten so immediately after being killed.it But it is still the custom in the East to dress meat very soon after the animal has been killed, and very often before the warmth of life has departed from it and in a journey we have ourselves often eaten boiled mutton in less than two hours after the sheep had been killed; and broiled mutton in a much shorter time. The custom doubtless originated in the heat of the climate, which precluded meat from being kept long; and, as a custom, came to be applied in seasons and regions where the originating cause did not immediately operate. Mr. Roberts, in a remark on 1 Sam. 28. 24, 25, observes, that in India the natives affect to be disgusted with the English for keeping : tions of the extraordinary use of butter among the Hebrews. The butter is usually made with the milk of sheep or goats, and is used to an excess which seems amazing that the human stomach can bear. All Arab food, considered well prepared, swims in butter, and large quantities are swallowed in dependently in a solid or liquid state. Burckl:ardt mentions that those who can afford such luxury swallow every morning a large cup full of butter before breakfast; and even snuff a good quantity up their nostrils. Some tribes welcome a guest by pouring a cup of melted butter on his head. Our way of spreading butter thinly on bread seems the height of absurdity to them, and indeed to other Asiatics. When they do eat it with bread at all, it is in the way which was taught us by a Bedouin, who observing us sitting on the ground and refreshing ourselves with buttered 6 From the frequent to bread and dates, looked compassion- | sweet milk is handed round after an ately on our ignorance of the true use Arab meal. They also make much use of butter, and to give us a valuable les- of butter-milk; and coagulated sour son on the subject, commenced break-milk, diluted with water, is in very gening off a thin bit of bread, about the eral use both among the Arabs and size of a crown piece, and heaping other inhabitants of Western Asia. Althereon as large a lump of butter as it though unpleasant at first to strangers, would support, threw it into his mouth the natives swallow it with avidity, and with great satisfaction. He pursued it is really famed to be very refreshing this instruction until his rapid progress in a warm climate. Either this or towards the bottom of our butter skin sweet milk is probably intended in the obliged us to declare ourselves suffi- text. They make cream by the usual ciently instructed. Burckhardt, in al- process, which is scarcely inferior to that lusion to the extraordinary use of but- of Devonshire. ter among the Arabs, observes, the mention which is made of milk, milk continual motion and exercise in which meals must have been very common they employ themselves, strengthen among the Hebrews, who seem their powers of digestion, and for the have been always, even in their settled same reason an Arab will live for state, more a pastoral than an agriculmonths together on the smallest al- tural people. In Prov. 27. 27, goat's lowance; and then, if an opportunity milk, of course understood in its preshould offer, he will devour at one sit-parations, is mentioned as a principal ting the flesh of half a lamb, without any injury to his health.' This in some degree accounts for the extraordinary quantity of food which here and elsewhere we find prepared for a very few persons; or a reason perhaps is found in the existing practice throughout Western Asia of producing at entertainments from five to ten times the quantity of food which the invited guests can consume, the residue going to feast the women and the host of servants and dependents which men of consideration support. It is the same in camps, where a great number of hungry Arabs or Tartars got some benefit from the feasts which their sheikh or some wealthy person provides for a stranger.' Pict. Bible.- -T And milk. 'Milk, in its various forms, constitutes a principal article of diet among the Arabs and other pastoral tribes; and also enters largely as an ingredient into the composition of their prepared dishes. Many tribes live almost exclusively on dates and milk meals. Butter has been mentioned, and cheese will claim a future notice. When pasturage is good article of diet in a Hebrew household. The milk of goats is perhaps there mentioned as being of the best quality. It is decidedly so considered in the East. The Arabs drink camel's milk (see note on ch. 32. 15); but all their butter and cheese is made with the milk of goats and sheep, which are milked by the women every morning before daybreak. Cow's milk, where it is to be had, is held in comparative little esteem, and is, in fact, much inferior to that which our cows produce; perhaps because these animals cannot thrive well upon the wild and often scanty pastures of those regions.' Pict. Bible. -T Stood by them. Heb. T omad, was standing. Chal. 'Ministered unto them.' 'Standing,' in the idiom of the Scriptures, is often equivalent to waiting upon, serving, or ministering unto. Thus, Neh. 12. 44, 'Judah rejoiced for the priests and the Levites that waited ;' Heb. ' that stood.' Jer. 52. 12, 'Neduzar-adan, captain of the guard, which served the king of Babylon.' Heb, 'stood before.' Jer. 40. 10, 'As for me, behold 1 will dwell at Mizpeh to ་ n 9 And they said unto him, | And Sarah heard it in the tentWhere is Sarah thy wife? And door, which was behind him. he said, Behold, in the tent. 10 And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and lo, m Sarah thy wife shall have a son. i ch. 21. 67. k ver. 14. 12 Kings, 4. 16. m ch. 17. 19, 21. & 21. 2. Rom. 9. 9." serve the Chaldeans; Heb. 'to stand before.' On the contrary, 'sitting' is a sign of supremacy or government. Ps. 29. 10, The Lord sitteth upon the flood;' i. e. reigneth over it. Is 16. 5, 'And in mercy shall the throne be established, and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David;' i. e. he shall reign upon it. Ps. 110. 11, 'Sit thou at my right hand;' i. e. reign thou. Mat. 23. 2, The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses's seat;' i. e. exercise authority in the name of Moses. Although the patriarch was now a great prince in the land, as princes were then accounted, and though he had not long before this vanquished kings, yet not only did he, upon the first sight of these his guests, bow himself to the ground, but while they sat at meat he thought it not beneath his dignity to stand and wait upon them. 9. And they said unto him where is Sarah thy wife. This question must have excited surprise; for how should these strangers know the name of Abraham's wife, and her new name too; and why should they inquire after her? The relations of the sexes are so peculiar in the East, that such inquiries are never made. Mr. Buckingham in his lectures remarks that one who should ask another of the health of his wife and family would be considered as offering him a downright insult. But if this inquiry must have struck Abraham with surprise, what followed must have astounded him still more. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of wo men. n ch. 17. 17. Rom. 4. 19. Heb. 11. 11, 12, 19. 0 ch. 31. 35. saying this he probably pointed with his finger to the tent. 10. And he said, I will certainly return unto thee. Heb. returning 1 will return, the strongest and most emphatic mode of affirma tion. The speaker in the former verse is not especially designated; but here he who was first in the train on their arrival, and whom he had addressed in terms of the highest respect, now speaks to Abraham respecting that promise as his own, which had been given in the foregoing chapter by the Almighty God; and he expressly engages for its accomplishment. This must have opened his eyes to the true character of the being who addressed him. He must have recognised in him no other than Jehovah under the ap pearance of a man. It is not however to be understood that the predicted 'return,' was to be made in the same visible or personal manner, but it was to be in the efficient fulfilment of the thing promised, called, ch. 21. 1, 'a visitation.' So the New Testament speaks of a 'coming of Christ,' which was to be not a personal return to the earth, but a spiritual coming, accomplished in the works of Providence, and in the power of the Holy Ghost, 2 Thess. 2. 8.- -T According to the time of life. Heb. accord ing to he living time. A singularly ambiguous phrase, upon which a great variety of interpretations has been -grafted. The most probable of these, And he said, Behold in the tent. That we think, is that of the Persic version; is, in the women's apartments. In 'According to the time of that which 12 Therefore Sarah Plaughed within herself, saying, 9 Aiter I p ch. 17. 17. q Luke 1. 18. is born, or the birth;' i. e. according to the time necessary for the production of a living child, or at the end of nine months. This is perhaps confirmed by ch. 21. 1, 2, 'And the Lord visited Sarah as he said; for Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.' Sarah heard it in the tent-door which was behind him. He probably sat in such a manner relatively to the door of Sarah's tent, that his back was turned towards it, so that if he had been a mere man he could not have noticed the fact of her laughing. That he was aware of it, showed his omniscience. The form of Abraham's tent, as thus described, seems to have been exactly like the one in which we sat; for in both, there was a shaded open front, in which he could sit in the heat of the day, and yet be seen from afar off; and the apartment of the females, where Sarah was, when he stated her to be within the tent, was immediately behind this, wherein she prepared the meal for the guests, and from whence she listened to their prophetic declaration.' Buckingham. · 12. Therefore Sarah laughed within hers lf Busied in her domestic engagements, and withheld by the etiquette of eastern society, Sarah was not present while these illustrious strangers partook of the refreshment provided for them; but being close at and, she overheard the inquiries made after her, and the assurance given to Abraham that she should bear him a son. Not able to credit these tidings, she laughed within herself, supposing that as it was to herself only that she laughed, the whole was unknown. But it was not. The Lord saw what passed in her heart and testified his displeasure on account of it. However secret may be the actings of sin, God will not fail to notice and reprove it. Sarah might indeed have said, that she had done nothing but what Abraham himself had done the very last time that the divine purpose respecting a son had been announced to him. But though the external act of laughing was the same in both cases, yet the principle from which it sprung was widely different. Abraham's was a laugh of admiration and joy; Sarah's was a laugh of unbelief and distrust. They did not more agree in their desire,' says Bp. Hall, 'than differ in their affection. Abraham laughed because he believed it would be so, Sarah because she believed it could not be so.' Her conduct, however, though exceedingly faulty, was not prompted by a profane or impious rejection of the proffered mercy, but by laying too much stress on the necessity of natural means to produce a natural effect, and thus failing to give glory to God as able to accomplish his purposes in spite of every opposing obstacle. buke, therefore, was comparatively gentle, and connected with a renewal of the promise. My lord being old also. This passage taken in connection with another which contains an allusion to it, affords a striking proof how ready God is to mark whatever is good in our actions, while he casts a veil over the evil with which it is accompanied. At the very time that Sarah yielded to unbelief, she exercised a reverential regard for her husband, and this fact is recorded to her honour by the apostle Peter and proposed as an example to all married women, while the infirmy that she betrayed on the same occasion is passed over in si The re 13 And the LORD said unto the LORD? Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? 8 14 Is any thing too hard for s Jer. 32. 17. Zech. 8. 6. Matt. 3. 9. & 19. 26. Luke 1. 37. At the time ap pointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. t ch. 17. 21. ver. 10. 2 Kings, 4. 16. the principle of it; it was saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, who lence; 'In this manner in the old time the holy women who trusted in God adorned themselves, being in sub-am old?' This principle he silences by jection to their own husbands, even as the present question, 'Is any thing too Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him hard for the Lord?' Unbelief is apt lord.' The Scriptures afford numerous to have respect to the power rather instances in which God has manifested than the veracity of God. It asks with the same condescension to his frail and Moses, Can he give bread also, can he sinful creatures. The existence of provide flesh for his people?' But God 'some good thing towards the Lord' has given such abundant evidences of often avails, as in the case of young his power, that no apparent impossibilAbijah, 1 Kings, 14. 13, to turn away ities ought at all to shake the steadfastthe eye of Jehovah from manifold im-ness of our faith. Did he not form the perfections in other respects. This is universe out of nothing by a simple act a great encouragement to us amidst all of his will? Did he not give laws to the weakness that we feel; and we all the heavenly bodies, and does he may be assured that if, on the one not still preserve them in their orbits? hand, the evils of our hearts will be Does he not also supply the wants of disclosed, so, on the other, there is not every living creature upon earth? How a good purpose or inclination that shall absurd then for Sarah to suppose that not be made manifest and abundantly her age, together with that of her husrewarded in the great day. band, was any effectual obstacle to the accomplishment of God's word. One moment's reflection on his omnipotence should banish unbelief forever from our hearts. At the time appointed will return, &c. It is humiliating to think what a necessity our unbelief imposes upon God to impart and renew his promises to us; and the earnestness with which the promise so often given is here repeated, shows the just dis 13. The Lord said unto Abraham wherefore, &c. Sarah may not at this time have come into the presence of the guests, and for that reason the interrogation may have been put to her husband. If she had, Abraham was perhaps called to answer for his wife in order to render the reproof more pointed to Sarah; for to an ingenuous mind nothing can be more galling than to hear an innocent person called in ques-pleasure which Sarah's incredulity had tion for our fault. 14. Is any thing too hard for the Lord? Heb. 127 17 3 is any word too wonderful for Jehovah ? That is, any thing which can be spoken of, any thing which is a matter for words. See Note on ch. 15. 1. In detecting the sinfulness of Sarah's laughter in the preceding verse, he points out excited in the bosom of God. We cannot indeed but be filled with amazement that he did not rather say, 'Since you treat my promises with secret derision, you shall never be made partaker of them.' But God well knows the weakness of the human heart, and therefore deals tenderly with offenders. Were he to suffer our unbelief to make |