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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, October 15, 1867

FromThe Advent Review & Sabbath Herald, Vol. XXX, No. 18

Notes on Genesis.

Chapter xxiii. 1. And Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years old; these were the years of the life of Sarah.

Sarah is the only woman whose entire age is recorded in Scripture.—She was ten years younger than Abraham, and died thirty-eight before him.—God often takes the youngest before the eldest.—Fuller.

It is somewhat remarkable that Sarah is the only female mentioned in the Scriptures, whose age, death, and burial are distinctly noted. She was 65 at the period of Abraham’s departure from Haran, lived with him in his pilgrim state 62 years, and died 38 years before him. She is always spoken of in the sacred writings as the pattern of conjugal fidelity and love, and her example is held forth by the apostle, 1 Pet. 3, 6, as the highest model for Christian women, and the title of her “daughters” as their most honorable distinction. The very fact that so few of the incidents

speaks strongly in her favor; for there is little in the even tenor of female life, when that life is passed in the retired and noiseless path of devotedness to God, and in the peaceful round of domestic duties, which can or ought to form the subject of the historian’s pen. The very privacy of the Christian graces, manifested in such a walk and conversation, while it endears them the more to the select circle in which they move, and which alone can duly appreciate their unobtrusive amiableness and worth, is adverse to their gaining eclat. The traits of character which best entitle them to celebrity, are the very ones which prevent their attaining it.—Bush.

Chap. xxiv. 45. And before I had done speaking in mine heart, behold, Rebekah came forth with her pitcher on her shoulder; and she went down unto the well and drew water, and I said unto her, Let me drink, I pray thee.

Some things form more proper subjects for secret than for social prayer; Abraham’s servant therefore used mental prayer, and was silent, till the singularity of the answer required that it should be communicated.—Scott.

Chap. xxv. 6. Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.

The word, rendered “gave up the ghost,” means no more than expired, or ceased to breathe. A Greek word of similar import is used concerning Ananias and Sapphira. . . . The expression, “gathered to his people,” decides nothing concerning the eternal state of the persons spoken of, being used without any exact discrimination of characters.—Scott.

Verse 31. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.

Birth-right.] It is generally supposed that the rights of primogeniture were, 1. Authority and superiority over the rest of the family. 2. A double portion of the paternal inheritance. 3. The peculiar benediction of the father. 4. The priesthood previous to its establishment in Aaron’s family.

Chap. xxvi. 5. Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

Kept my charge.] Heb. my keeping, i. e. ordinances to be kept; a general term for whatever God commands or ordains for man’s observance. Commandments] i. e. moral precepts; as those of the decalogue, and also occasional directions or appointments, such as the command to leave the land of the Chaldees, to offer up Isaac, &c. Statutes.] i. e. Ceremonial institutes, rules and ordinances respecting ritual services, such as circumcision, sacrifice, distinction of clean and unclean, &c. These are founded solely on the will of God, and not upon the intrinsic nature or propriety of things. Laws.] i. e. Authoritative instruction in regard to the doctrines and duties of religion in general; moral teachings which bind the conscience.—Bush.

Verse 12. Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year a hundred-fold; and the Lord blessed him.

An hundred-fold.] If this be the meaning of the passage (for it is not without difficulty), it was an extraordinary increase, and an evident effect of the divine blessing.—Scott. Varro says, that in Syria, near Gadara, and in Africa, about Bizantium, they reaped a hundred bushels from one; nay, Bochart shows from several good authors, that some places in Africa produced two or three hundred-fold. So that what Moses mentions here as extraordinary is far from being incredible.—Stackhouse.

Chap. xxvii. 16. And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck.

The animals in those hot climates are not covered with so thick a coat of hair as they are in more northerly regions. [And Bochart observes, that in eastern countries goat’s hair was very like to that of men.]—Scott. Dr. A. Clarke thinks Isaac’s sense of feeling must also have been impaired by his malady.—Jenks.

Verse 27. And he came near and kissed him. And he smelled the smell of his raiment and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed.

The smell of his raiment.] The Orientals sprinkle their clothes with sweet-scented oils, extracted from spices; they fumigate them with the most valuable incense or scented wood, and also sew the wood of the aloe in their clothes. Dr. A. Clarke thinks aromatic herbs were used, as thyme, lavender, &c., to defend from moths, and remarks that he has seen sprigs and leaves of such plants put in eastern MSS. for the same purpose; and this would lead Isaac’s recollection to the fields where such plants grew. As the smell of a field.] Pliny observes that “the land after a long drought, moistened by the rain, exhales a delightful odor, with which nothing can be compared;” and “that it is a sign of a fruitful soil, if it emits an agreeable smell, when ploughed.”—Rosenm. in Burder. Ainsworth says, “this ‘goodly raiment’ was in all likelihood, the holy robes, received from their ancestors,” and thinks it probable “the first-born had such (Exod. xxxviii, 2-4.) to minister in. These were not in Esau’s keeping, but the mother of the family kept them in sweet chests, from moths and the like.” So also Bush, at large.—Jenks.