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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, October 1, 1867.

Notes on Genesis.

Chap. xxi, 8. And the child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.

Weaned.] At three years old probably. See Mac. vii.

Feast.] In Persia, the day a male child is weaned, they carry him to the mosque, and after having performed certain acts of devotion, return home, then collecting their friends and relations, they give a feast, of which they make the child partake.—Morier.

Verse 31. Wherefore he called that place Beer-sheba; because there they sware both of them.

The verb rendered ‘to swear’ is derived from the word translated seven; probably with reference to the number of the sacrifices frequently offered on these solemn occasions.—Scott.

Taylor inclines to the opinion, that Beer-sheba means the well of seven, from the circumstances related by Bruce of a similar oath, in which a Sheikh of the shepherds of Suakem, in Nubia, after binding himself and tribe, to the death of the last male child among them, joining hands (Prov. xi, 21.) and praying, concludes by sending seven sheep as a present. See Bruce’s Travels.—Rob. Calm.

Chap. xxii, 3. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.

The ready obedience exhibited by the patriarch to this call, evinces beyond question that he must have been perfectly satisfied of its emanating from God. The law of parental duty, the instincts of parental feeling, would inevitably have prevailed over a dubious revelation; and though we may be unable to determine how he could have been thus assured, yet of the fact there can be no doubt. His conduct was such as might have been expected under the unwavering conviction by which it was prompted. The command came during the night, and it was obeyed ‘early in the morning.’ There was no doubtful question of its reality or its obligation. There was no culpable communing with flesh and blood. Even Sarah seems not to have been informed of it, lest her affections should embarrass or overpower his faith. ‘That which he must do, he will do: he that hath learned not to regard the life of his son, had learned not to regard the sorrow of his wife.’ Bp. Hall.

¶ Saddled his ass. The saddles of that ancient period were doubtless a far more simple contrivance than those of modern times. Goguet remarks in his Origin of Laws that ‘no nation of antiquity knew the use of either saddles or stirrups;’ and even in our times Hasselquist, when at Alexandria, says, ‘I procured an equipage which I had never used before; it was an ass with an Arabian saddle, which consisted only of a cushion on which I could sit, and a handsome bridle.’ But even the cushion seems an improvement upon the ancient Eastern saddles, which were probably nothing more than a kind of rug or mat of straw girded to the beast.

Verse 4. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.

On the third day. It was not quite two days’ journey from Beersheba to Moriah, and though it is no doubt true that a loaded ass moves slowly, it is somewhat difficult to conceive why so long a time should have been consumed in traveling the distance of only 42 miles. The fact may be accounted for by supposing that, although he rose early in the morning, and went about the necessary preparations, yet he did not find himself in readiness actually to set forth till the middle of the day. This would leave but half a day’s journey for the first day. The second day might have been wholly occupied, and early on the third he may have reached the destined spot. But whatever may be thought of this, certain it is that the trial must have been rendered more aggravating to Abraham by the delay, and the distance which he had to travel. Had the oracle demanded an instant sacrifice, the struggle, though severe, would have been short and comparatively easy. But in three days’ journey, leisure was afforded for reflection; the powerful pleadings of nature would make themselves heard; parental affection had time to revive; and the sight, the society, the conversation of Isaac, could not but combine to shake the steadfastness of his faith, and urge him to return. But whatever may be the promptings of nature, faith such as Abraham’s, knew not what it is to relent. With steady step and unwavering purpose he advances to the fatal spot.