13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety" that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that u Ex. 12. 40. Ps. 105. 23. Acts 7. 6. we are left in no doubt that such was indeed their real purport. By significant symbols he designed to give him a just conception of the manner in which the great end should be accomplished, and to indicate that it would be against much opposition, through many troubles, and after long delays. This calamitous scene of suffering was to be brought about mainly, though not exclusively, by the oppressive power of Egypt. From this indeed they were afterwards to be signally delivered and planted in the land of promise; but the darkness must precede the light; trial must pave the way for triumph. Egypt indeed is not named, for prophecy requires to be delivered with some degree of obscurity, or it might tend to defeat its own design; but the grand fact of a series of unparalleled sufferings is clearly disclosed, while it is left to time to develope the various related particulars. The Jerusalem Targum gives the symbol a somewhat more extended scope than most commentators; 'And as the sun was near to setting, a profound slumber seized upon Abraham, and behold four kingdoms stood up with a view to reduce his children into a state of bondage.' These kingdoms, as we elsewhere learn, were the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman, of which great account is made, as persecuting powers, by the Jewish writers. 13. Know of a surety, &c. Heb. knowing know. This can be understood only as God's own interpretation of the sign which he had vouchsafed to Abraham in the incidents above recorded. He here explains to him the manner in which he is to understand the sign that was now grant is not theirs, and shall serve them; and w they shall afflict them four hundred years; w Ex. 1. 11. Ps. 105, 25, ed in compliance with his request in v. 8.- T Shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs. The primary and principal reference here is to the land of Egypt, although from the language of Gen. 17. 8. Ps. 105. 9-12, it would seem that even the land of Canaan itself, which though theirs by promise, was not actually made over to them as a possession and inheritance till some generations afterwards, was also intended; and in the meantime was actually the scene of more or less persecution to the patriarchs, as is clear from Gen. 21. 9.-26. 7, 14, 15 et inf. 1739 they The T And shall serve them. Heb. 17. It is far from clear that our translation has given the right view of this clause. It is altogether more natural to suppose the nominative here is the people of the land in which they were to be strangers, and that the pronoun 'them' in both cases refers to the seed of Abraham. The word therefore we take for ph shall serve themselves of them. Sept. has dovλwoovoiv avrovs they shall enslave them; the Vulg. subjicient eos servituti, shall subject them to bondage, and equivalently the Syr. Arab. and Targums; all confirming the sense which we propose. They shall afflict them four hundred years. It is not entirely clear from what date this period is to be reckoned. Ainsworth, with great probability, computes it from the time of Ishmael's mocking Isaac, Gen. 21. 9. Gal. 4. 29, which occurred thirty years after the promise recorded Gen 12. 3. This promise was given 430 years before the giving of the law, Gal. 3. 17, and from Ex. 12. 41, it appears that their deliverance from bondage was also 430 years after that prom, 14 And also that nation whom | fathers in peace; b thou shalt be they shall serve, * will I judge: buried in a good old age. and afterward shall they come out with great substance. 15 And thou shalt go to thy x Ex. 6. 6. Deut. 6. 22. y Ex. 12. 36. Ps. 105. 37. z Job 5. 26. a Acts 13. 36. 16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again : for the iniquity of the Amorites ⚫ is not yet full. ise. The chronology may be stated Ps. 105. 37, 'He brought them forth thus: Abraham enters Canaan and receives the promise Isaac mocked by Ishmael Israel departs from Egypt B. C. The difference between the first and last of these dates is just 430 years. Of this period 215 years were passed in sojourning in Canaan, and 215 in Egypt. -It may here be remarked that according to the Hebrew accents, which we believe to be as correct indices of the sense as the Hebrew vowel points, the middle clause of this verse and they shall serve them, and they shall afflict them,' is to be considered as parenthetical, and we should therefore read it, 'Know of a surety, that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, four hundred years.' The actual period of their service and affliction was much less. with silver and gold.' The promise of blessings to the church often comes in very close connection with the threatening of judgments to its oppressors. 15. Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace. Shalt die a peaceful death. The consolation hitherto imparted to Abraham was of such a nature as to pertain in common to him and his seed; but here the divine discourse is directed to the patriarch in person for his own individual comfort. It could not but relieve the saddening influence of the above declarations to be assured, that his old age should be happy, and his end should be peace. Though he might not be favoured in his life-time with the actual possession of Canaan, his promised inheritance, yet he should not be wanting in the grounds of solid hope and joy in view of his departure to the world of spirits. With such an assurance from such a source, he will be content to forego the privilege of seeing all the promises fulfilled. T Thou shalt be buried in a good old age. Heb. in a good hoary-age. 14. That nation whom they shall serve, will I judge. That is, will punish by the infliction of such judgments as their sins deserve. These are particularly described Ex. ch. 7-11, and Ps. 78. 43--51.-27. 36. It goes to 16. In the fourth generation they counterbalance the announcement of shall come hither again. Or Heb. 777 grievous suffering to be assured that the fourth generathe eye of God is continually upon the persecutors, and that he will in due time avenge the wrong done to his own glory in the affliction of his unoffending people. They shall come out with great substance. Heb. 31, that is, great riches, both of their own and of the Egyptians, whose 'jewels of silver and gold, and garments,' they carried away, Ex. 12. 35, 36. So also tion shall return hither; but the present rendering 'in the fourth,' may be admitted, and in that case the phrase is probably to be understood as denoting the fourth age or century, equivalent to the 400 years in v. 13. It is remarkable, however, that the land of promise was actually entered upon and inherited by the fourth generation of the Israelites who went down into 17 And it came to pass, that | nace, and a burning lamp that when the sun went down, and it passed between those pieces. was dark, behold a smoking fur f Jer. 34. 18, 19. tinct words promiscuously rendered furnace,' in our common translation; and from this circumstance has arisen a confusion in the use of the term which can only be dispelled by a clear exhibition of the respective meanings of each. One of these words-that occurring here-is tannoor, which prop Egypt, as Caleb was the fourth from Judah, and Moses the fourth from Levi, and so doubtless of many others.¶ For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. Heb. the Amorite, collect. sing. Abraham was now indeed living among the Amorites, which made it natural that that people should be specified rather than any other; but the term properly includes all the other nations of Canaan whose iniquities had marked them out for destruction. The whole of these nations are seldom enumerated together; one or more usually standing for all. In-frame or support. Fire is made within stead of 'is not yet full,' a more correct version is probably, 'is not till then full.' It is evident from this that there is a certain measure of wickedness beyond which God will not spare a guilty people. See Note on Gen. 6. 3. ་ and portable oven, used by the orienerly signifies that kind of cylindrical tals for baking and other culinary purposes. This is an earthen vessel about inside with clay, and placed upon a three feet high, smeared outside and it and when the sides are sufficiently heated, thin layers of dough are spread when the process of baking is very on the inside, and the top covered, quickly completed. This word occurs The fifteen times in the Hebrew Bible, and 17. Behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. Heb. lit. an oven of smoke, or smoking oven. Our language does not perhaps afford a more intrinsically suitable word by which to render the original tannoor than furnace;' and yet it is certain that a degree of ambiguity attaches to it in this connection which has led to a very general misapprehension of the real scope of this part of the vision. silver, and ant The phrase here employed has been al-place for refining gold. In like manmost universally considered as parallel to the expression Deut. 4. 20, The Lord hath taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt' (comp. Jer. 11. 4), and the drift of the symbol has been understood to be nothing more nor less than to point to that well-known scene of the afflictions of Israel, while the 'burning lamp' has been regarded as an emblem of their joyful deliverance thence. But the fact is, the Hebrew has two dis ་ ner the iron furnace, men- of the two words in the original it is yea for the king is it prepared; he hath clear that they are not literally applied made it deep and large: the pile thereof to designate the same things, nor is is fire and much wood; the wrath of the present phrase 'sinoking furnace' the Lord, like a stream of brimstone intended to convey precisely the same doth kindle it.' Again, Is. 33. 10--14, idea with the phrase 'furnace of iron' when his own degenerate people are in Deuteronomy. The latter undoubt- more particularly the subject of the edly refers to Egypt as a scene of afflic- threatening, 'Now will I rise, saith the tion and bondage; but that the former Lord; now will I be exalted; now will has any such allusion is not to be gath- I lift up myself. Ye shall conceive ered from the import of the term itself, chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your nor is it in fact consistent with the de- breath as fire, shall devour you. And corum of the imagery. The smoking the people shall be as the burnings of furnace is described as passing between lime: as thorns cut up shall they be the parts of the slaughtered animals; burned in the fire :-The sinners in Zion but this was an action appropriate to are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised one of the covenanting parties, and to the hypocrites. Who among us shall him alone, or to his representative sym- dwell with the devouring fire? who bol: and with what propriety such an among us shall dwell with everlasting act could be attributed to the symbol burnings?' In the great scarcity of of persecuting Egypt, which was no wood for fuel throughout the East, the party in the transaction, we are utterly tannoor or oven is usually heated with at a lost to conceive. Yet that the ob- stubble or chaff, and the rebellious Isject seen in the vision had a mystical raelites are here represented as alarmimport of some kind is beyond ques-ed at the idea of being cast into the tion, and this we know no other mode oven of divine wrath which their own of determining than by comparing the sins have furnished the fuel, the chaff figurative use of the term in other pla- and the stubble, for heating. John ces. But here our resources are scan- the Baptist utters a clearly parallel inty, for there are not more than two or timation, Matt. 3. 12, 'He will thorthree passages in which any thing be-oughly purge his floor, and gather his yond the literal sense of the term, can wheat into his garner: but he will burn be detected. Of these the principal are up the chaff with unquenchable fire.' the following; Is. 31.9, ‘And he (the | The 'unquenchable fire' in this passage Assyrian) shall pass over to his strong answers plainly to the 'everlasting hold for fear, and his princes shall be burnings' in that of the Old Testament afraid of the ensign, saith the Lord, prophet, and has moreover a direct refwhose fire is in Zion and his furnace erence to the words of Malachi, ch. 4. 1, (tannoor) in Jerusalem.' As this where the coming of John the Baptist is a denunciation of wrath to the ene- is announced as the forerunner of the mies of Israel, the natural purport of great Messenger of the Covenant;' For the passage seems to be, that as the behold the day.cometh that shall burn divine presence dwelt in Jerusalem, this as an oven (7135 tannoor); and all the was the seat and source from whence proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, the judgments of Jehovah should issue shall be stubble: and the day that against his adversaries. With this it cometh shall burn them up, saith the may be well to compare the following Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them equivalent passages, 1s. 30. 33, speak- neither root nor branch.' So also Pa. ing of the same hostile power, the As- 21. 8, 9, Thine hand shall find out all syrians, 'For Tophet is ordained of old; thine enemies, thy right hand shall The find out those that hate thee. Thou the covenant and avenging God of his shalt make them as a fiery oven (seed, and that he now appeared in this tannoor) in the time of thine anger: the symbol in order to convey to him a preLord shall swallow them up in the time intimation of the peculiar manner in of his wrath, and the fire shall devour which his indwelling in the midst of his them.' From all this we cannot avoid posterity should be manifested. The the conclusion that the 'smoking oven' 'burning lamp' is probably to be conis a designed symbol of the divine pres- sidered merely as an equivalent symbol, ence viewed more especially in its vin- introduced in order more vividly to dedictive aspect; and in the passage be-pict to the mind's eye of the patriarch the fore us, instead of regarding it as point- character of that visible manifestation ing to the afflictions endured by Abra- by which the divine glory and majesty ham's seed in Egypt, we rather look was to be displayed under the economy upon it as mystically shadowing forth afterwards to be established among the divine judginents visited upon the chosen people. This is confirmed Egypt. As far as it has relation to that by a reference to the solemn rites witpersecuting power, it represents it rath-nessed at Sinai, where among other cirer as the subject than the agent of suf- cumstances of the sublime and awful fering. Nothing is more common with scene it is said Ex. 20, 18, that 'all the the sacred writers than to represent the people saw the thunderings, and the Deity in his avenging dispensations un-lightnings (Heb. 3 lappidim, der the emblem of a consuming fire, lamps), and the noise of the trumpet, and in this connection it will be proper and the mountain smoking.' to bear in mind that in Sinai he appear- mention of 'lamps' in connection with ed in mingled fire and smoke, in cir- the divine appearances is by no means cumstances of grandeur and terror, of infrequent, as may be seen by turning which the object seen in the vision of to Ezek. 1. 13. Dan. 10. 6. Rev. 1. 14. the patriarch was perhaps but a min- It has indeed been usual with commeniature adumbration; Ex. 19. 18, 'And tators, especially on the ground of Is. mount Sinai was altogether in a smoke, 62. 1, to consider the 'burning lamp' because the Lord descended upon it in in this place as an emblem of deliver.. fire and the smoke thereof ascended ance, but as it is represented as passing as the smoke of a furnace. So also between the parts of the victim, which when he manifested his wrath at the was the act of a covenanter, this sense destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, seems to be somewhat remote from the it is said ch. 19. 28, that Abraham in main scope of the vision, and therefore looking toward the burning cities 'be- improbable. On the whole, we conheld, and lo, the smoke of the country ceive the grand drift of this symbolical went up as the smoke of a furnace.' transaction to be, to disclose to AbraAdd to this, that the standing symbol ham the leading fortunes of his seed of Jehovah's presence in the wilder- through a long lapse of ages not only ness was the pillar of cloud (or smoke) their bondage and afflictions in Egypt, by day and of fire by night, and that but their subsequent establishment in on several occasions the temple is said the land of Canaan, the scene of the to have been filled with the smoke of vision, as a nation of sacrificers, among his glory, 1 Kings, 8. 10, 11. Is. 6. 4. whom the distinguishing symbols of Rev. 15. 8, and we can scarcely fail to the divine presence were to be fixed as perceive that the object here exhibited their glory and their defence. Thus to Abraham was a designed and appro- viewed the incidents here recorded aspriate symbol of the Most High, as sume a significancy and an interest of |