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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · September 17, 1867

Notes on Genesis.

CHAP. xvii, 20. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.

It was not to be foreseen by human sagacity that a man's whole posterity should so nearly resemble him, and retain the same inclination, habits, and customs through all ages. These, and the Jews, have alone subsisted as a distinct people from the beginning. 1. The Arabs, as well as Jews, boast a common descent from the father of the faithful. 2. Both are circumcised, and profess to derive the custom from him. 3. Both had originally twelve patriarchs, who were their princes or governors. 4. Both marry among themselves, and in their own tribes. 5. Both are singular in several of their customs, and are standing monuments to all ages of the divine predictions. Seeing the particulars related of Abraham and Ishmael verified in their posterity, we have, as it were, ocular demonstration for our faith.—Bp. Newton.

Chap. xviii, 4, 5. Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree; and I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.

We read of cheese in Homer, Euripides, Theocritus, and others; yet they never mention butter; nor hath Aristotle a word about it, though he hath sundry observations about cheese. For butter was not then known among the Greeks.—Bp. Patrick.

Washing the feet was the first, shade the second, and bread the third requisite for the refreshment of the dusty, weary traveler; each offered in proper order; “for,” says Dr. A. Clarke, “eating immediately after exertion or fatigue is very unwholesome. The strong action of the lungs and heart should have time to diminish, before food is received into the stomach; as otherwise, concoction is prevented, and fever, in a greater or less degree, produced.”

Verse 6. And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.

“Nearly fifty-six pounds of bread were baked,” says Dr. A. Clarke, “whence we may conclude that they were great eaters in those days (see also Homer, Odyss.), used much exercise, were probably of larger stature, as well as longer lives than we.”

Verse 8. And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.

[Butter.] The Heb. word denotes rather cream, or more properly, sour or curdled milk. This last is a favorite beverage in the East to the present day. [In Palestine oil was used for butter, probably as in the south of Europe.]—Robinson.

Verse 23. And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?

Abraham does not plead that the wicked may be spared for their own sakes, or because it would be too severe to destroy them. This would be siding with sinners against God! Thus Christ makes intercession for sinners; not by arraigning the divine law, not by alleging aught in extenuation of human guilt; but by pleading his own obedience unto death.—Fuller in Scott.

Verse 32. And he said, O let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake.

[Ten.] Probably Abraham thought he had now got within the limits of Lot's family. Not a soul seems to have been won over, by Lot's residence in the place, to the worship of the true God.—Fuller.