loved her to fuch a degree, that he could deny her nothing, yet he could not forbear looking on her requeft as cruel and unreasonable; but GoD confirming what Sarah had faid, and promifing moreover to protect Ishmael, and to make him a great nation out of regard to him, Abraham Is fent a-was at laft prevailed upon to fend him and his mother away with away the very next morning. What befel them after bis mother. wards is foreign to our prefent subject. braham. Abime- ABRAHAM, in the mean time, entered into a folemn lech makes league of friendship with Abimelech, king of the Phia covenant liftines, as we have related elsewhere a; upon which ocwith A- cafion that place was called Beershebah, or the well of the oath, because of the covenant which they had fworn there. The pleasantnefs of the place, and the friendship of the king, invited Abraham to fojourn there many years. He planted here a ftately grove, and built an altar to the LORD, refolving to end his days in this part, unless GOD fhould otherwife determine b. Abraham BUT GOD had yet a further trial to make of Abraham's command- faith and obedience, and fuch an one as would put it to ed to facri- the utmoft proof. Ifaac, the fon of his old age, the fice his fan promifed head of a new and numerous race, the founIfaac: tain of fo many promifed bleffings, and the dear and Year of only object of fo much affection; this very Ifaac was now flood at length commanded to be brought unto a mountain 477. GOD was to point out to him, and there to be offered up Bef. Chr. a burnt-facrifice, by the hands of his own father (B). 1871. Abraham, Abraham, without expoftulating about the illegality or feverity of the command, refolved to obey and leaving it to GOD to make good his own promifes, fet out the very next morning; and on the third day difcovered mount Moriah, the place appointed by GoD for the dreadful facrifice (C). There, leaving his fervants behind, he goes up to the mount, whilft Ifaac, being laden with the wood, and other materials for a burnt-offering, and obferving nothing of a victim, could not forbear queftioning him about it in fuch fubmiffive terms as might have staggered a heart lefs firm than Abraham's, who only answered calmly, that GOD would provide himself with one. He little thought how prophetically he fpoke; for he had no But counfooner bound his fon upon the wood, and ftretched out termanded his hand to give the fatal blow, but GOD was pleafed to by an anftop him, being fully fatisfied with this laft trial of hisgel. obedience. He renewed all his promifes and covenants afresh, and bound them with an oath; and Abraham looking about, found a ram, the victim GoD was to provide, caught by the horns in a thick bufh; and, with the help of his fon, offered it up inftead of him: in memory of which, he called that place Jehovah-jire, the LORD will look to, or provide, alluding to the answer he had given to Ifaac's queftion. He rejoined his fervants, and returned home to Beersheba. Soon after this he heard the joyful news, that Milcah, his brother Nahor's wife, had born him a numerous iffue (D), which determined him to fend thither for a wife for his fon Isaaca. ABRAHAM live in great peace with his fon for some time; but it was at length difturbed by the death of Sarah, which happened in the hundredth and twenty-feventh year of her age, in the city of Arbab, Year of alias Hebron (E). Abraham came thither to mourn for flood 488. her, Sarah's death. Bef. Chr. 1860. e Vid. fup. vol. ii. p. 199 others befides, from a concubine named Reumah (79). Huz, the first-born, is fuppofed by fome, to have peopled and given name to the land of Huz (80), where Job dwelt (81); but it is not improbable, that it was already fo ́ called from Huz the son of Aram (82). From Buz came the Buzites; of which family, Elisha, one of Job's friends, probably was (83). Kemuel, called in the text the father of Aram, is therefore thought the father of the Aramites or Syrians, perhaps the same with the Camuelite of Strabo (84), in the land of Haram (85): but we are inclined to believe, that by this Aram is only meant a fon of Kemucl, and not a race of defcendents, much lefs of the Syrians, as the LXX and Vulgate read it; or of Aram Nabarim, as fome; or Aram Seba, as others think (86); for the city of Nabor was in Aram. This city and nation therefore feem to have been more antient than Kemuel, and to have been so called from Aram the fon of Shem (87). As for Chezed, if he was the father of the Chafdim, or Chaldees, at leaft of thofe who dwelt on this fide Babylon, as is fuppofed by the fame author (88), 'tis certain, there were others more antient on the other fide; for Abraham came from Chaldea. However, thofe fons of Nabor gave names to some cities and families of Syria, such as Buzan, &c. mentioned by a Latin author (89). The children of his concubine were Tebah, Gabam, Thabash, and Maachah. From this laft the city of Maachah, or Abel Beth Maachah (90),whose territories are fuppofed to have been fituate between the two Lebanons, might probably receive its name (91). (E) The text is fomewhat obfcure in this place. Sarah is faid to die at Arbab; and yet no mention is made of Abra (80) Calmet, bift. Vet. Teft. p. 148. Vid. Hieron. in loc. (83) Job (85) Calm. ubi fupr. (86) To(87) Gen. x. 22. (88) Calmet, I. i. (89) Ammian. Marc. 1. xviii. (90) Deut, (91) Calmet, ibid. p. 148. iii. 14, &feqq. See before vol. ii. p. 455. ham's her, and to pay his laft devoirs to fo dear a wife; and, having given a fufficient vent to his grief, his next care was to procure her an honourable burial. He therefore went to the gates of Hebron (F), in order to purchase a burying ham's removing from BeerSheba thither; only he is faid to have gone thither to mourn for her and bury her. Some therefore are of opinion, that they might be parted upon fome occafion or other, and that Sarab went to Arbab whilft her husband kept his old dwelling. Others, not brooking fuch a feparation, think that he came only from his own tent into that of Sarah to weep over her; for, in thofe days, perfons of his rank kept feparate apartments for their wives and maid-servants, whether they dwelt in houfes or tents. (F) The gates of cities in thofe days, and for many centuries after, were the places of judicature and common refort. Here the governors, or elders of the city, met to hear complaints, adminifter juftice (92), make conveyances of titles and eftates, and to tranfact all the affairs of the place (93). Whence that verfe in the Pfalms (94), They shall not be afhamed, when they speak to their enemies in the gate; i. e. when they are accused by them before the court of magiftrates. It is probable, that the room or hall, where the magistrates fat, was over the gates, because Boaz is faid to go up to the (92) Gen. xxxiv. 20. 33. (96) gate. The like did David, when he went to weep for the death of Abfalom (95). How confiderable they became in time for largenefs and fumptuoufnefs, appears by the two kings of Ifrael and Judah being prefent at one of them in all their royal fplendor, and convening thither four hundred priests of Baal, befides their own guards and officers (96). It seems as if these places had been at first chosen for the conveniency of the inhabitants, who, being all hufbandmen, and forced to pafs and repafs, morning and night, as they went and came from their labour, might be more eafily called as they went by, whenever they were wanted to appear in any bufinefs. Thefe gates were likewife markets for provifions, like thofe of the Romans, as appears by the prophet Elisha's foretelling an incredible plenty to happen the next day, in the midst of a famine, at the gates of Samaria (97). What the number of thefe magiftrates were, how far their power extended, and how many orders of them there were, is not to be gathered from Scripture; only it is plain there could be but few of the latter, fince in the time of Jofbua(98)we can find but four (93) Ruth iv. 1, & feqq. 2 Sam. xviii. (95) 2 Sam. xviii. 33. (97) 2 Kings vii. 1, 31. (94) Pfal. cxxvii. ver. ult. Kings xxii. 10. 2 Chron. xviii. (98) Josh. xxiv. 1, forts burying-place from the fons of Heth, who dwelt in that city, and were probably the moft confiderable in that place. He had no fooner declared the occafion of his coming, but they one and all told him, with the utmost civility and refpect, that he might make choice of the best fepulcre in the whole land; affuring him, that none of them fhould withhold his own from him. Abraham reAbraham turned their civilities, but begged to be permitted to buy buys the the cave of Machpelah from Ephron the Hittite, who was cave of then one of the affembly, and immediately made him a free offer of it f. But Abraham ftill infifting upon paying the full value of it, they agreed for four hundred pieces of filver (G), which he paid down in full weight: and, being become poffeffor of the cave, field, and trees belonging to it, he foon after depofited the dear remains of his beloved wife in the cave 8. Machpelah. Year of By this time Abraham was well advanced in years, and the flood Ifaac in the fortieth year of his age. He thought it 491. therefore high time to marry him to fome of his own Bef. Chr. family during his life, which he then imagined could not 1857. laft much longer. To this end he called one of his chief and moft faithful fervants, and, having made him take Abraham an oath to get his fon a wife out of his own kindred (H), fends his fervant to get a wife for Ifaac. f Vid. fup. vol. ii. p. 199, & feqq. per tot. forts of them, viz. the ra- (G) The learned Prideaux, (97) Connect. pref. p. 22. gave * Gen. xxiii. will amount to fixty pounds fterling (97). (H) The text tells us, that the fervant took the oath by putting his hand under his mafter's thigh, or upon his privities. This is the first time we read of that ceremony, but it was afterwards used by the patriarch Jacob (98), in Egypt, when he was dying. The oddnefs of it has inclined fome judicious writers to think, that it implied a more folemn mystery than men are aware of, viz. a fwearing by the (98) Gen. xlvii. 29. great |