2 And I will make my cov-face: and God talked with him, enant between me and thee, and saying, • will multiply thee exceedingly. 3 And Abram fell on his e ch. 12. 2. & 13. 16. & 22. 17. f ver. 17. 4 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. g Rom. 4. 11, 12, 16. posture assumed by Abraham on this occasion probably resembles one of the several postures used by the Mohammedans in their worship. It consists in placing the body on the hands and knees-or on all fours, as we should say-while the head is bent down, the forehead touching the ground. This posture is highly expressive of the deepest humility and the most profound adoration. It also resembles the kotow usually performed before the emperor of China; and which is so well known to us in consequence of the refusal of Lords Macartney and Amherst to submit to it.' Pict. Bible. with God,' by a steady course of prayer 4. Thou shalt be a father of many for or to a father of a multitude of nations. This promise was fulfilled both in a literal and a spiritual sense. In the former, not to mention the many tribes which sprang from his children by Keturah, Arabia, Idumea, and Canaan were peopled by the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael. But from the language of Paul, Rom. 4. 16, 17, it is evi-, dent that a far higher sense is to be assigned to this promise; that it is to be understood not merely of Abraham's 2. I will make my covenant between me and thee. Heb. will give, i. e. will fix, appoint, confirm; as we have before explained the term, Gen. 1. 29. It is not of course the annunciation of a new purpose, but simply the renewal, the confirmation, of one of long stand-natural posterity, but of his spiritual ing. It is in fact the fifth declaration or utterance of the same gracious design of making Abraham the father of an innumerable seed. The words, however, in this connection probably have reference more particularly to the establishment of that external sign or token of the covenant which the writer goes on to describe in the ensuing verses, and which is afterwards expressly called a covenant, v. 10. 3. Abram fell on his face. 'The seed also, composed of all true believers of every age and country. They, by the exercise of genuine faith, become heirs of the righteousness of faith, and all its accompanying blessings, and so are rendered adoptively the children of Abraham, the father of the faithful, The promise therefore went to make him the father of the church of God in all future ages, or, as the Apostle calls him, 'the heir of the world.' Accordingly for all that the Christian world enjoys or ev 6 And I will make thee exceed 5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram; but thying fruitful, and I will make naname shall be Abraham; i for a tions of thee; and kings shall father of many nations have I come out of thee. made thee. h Neh. 9. 7. i Rom. 4. 17. er will enjoy, it is indebted instrumentally to Abraham and his seed. The high honour then of being the stock from which the Messiah should spring, and on which the church of God should grow, is here conferred upon Abraham. It was this honour that Esau despised when he sold his birthright; and here lay the profaneness of that act, which involved a contempt of the most sacred of all objects, the Messiah and his everlasting kingdom. k ch. 35. 11. 1 ver. 16. ch. 35. 11. Matt. 1. 6, &c. 'Peter,' Matt. 16. 18, and 'Saul' for 'Paul,' Acts, 13. 9. In like manner the promise to all true believers is, Is. 62. 2, 'Thou shalt be called by a new name, which the Lord thy God shall name. Again, Rev. 3. 12, 'He that overcometh, I will write upon him my new name.' Isaac's name was not changed, because it was given him by God himself before he was born. In allusion to this promise the Apostle says, Rom. 4. 17, God calleth those things which be not as though they were,' i. e. he called or denominated Abraham the father of a multitude, because he should finally become so, though now he had but one child, and he not the child of 5. Thy name shall be called Abraham. The change is greater in sense than in sound. 'Abram' (□), the former name, is composed of ab, father, and ram, high or eminent. 'Abraham' (N) is formed by drop-promise. The custom of changing ping the last letter of the last member, and inserting the first syllable, of 112 hamon, multitude. The constituent elements of the name, therefore, are 1 Abram-hamon, high father of a multitude, which for convenience' sake is abbreviated to a Abraham. It is proper however to observe that Jerome and some few others suppose the latter name to be formed simply by the insertion of the letter h, one of the letters of 'Jehovah,' into the former. But the mass of critics adopt the formation given above. This change of names, of which Abraham's is the first on record, imported some kind of change in the relative state of the subject, with a renewal or increase of the tokens of the Divine favour towards him. Accordingly the name of 'Jacob' was changed to that of 'Israel' from the circumstance related Gen. 32. 28. The name of 'Cephas' also was authoritatively exchanged for that of names still obtains in the East. In Persia, frequent examples of this kind occur. One of the most striking is that of the Persian king Shah Solyman, whose reign commenced in 1667 under his proper name of Suffee. But its first years being marked by public and private calamities, he was persuaded that there was a fatality in the name he bore, and that a change of it was necessary to turn the tide of misfortune. He accordingly assumed, with great solemnity, the name of Solyman. He was crowned anew under that name, and all the seals and coins which bore that of Suffee were broken, as if one king had died and another succeeded. Chardin, who was present, has given a particular account of this coronation. The constant change of name by the popes on their election, is perhaps quite as good an illustration.' Pict. Bible. Have I made thee. Heb. have I given thee; i. e. put, ap -- establish my 8 And PI will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and *I will be their God. 7 And I will covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant; "to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. m Gal. 3. 17. n ch. 26. 24. & 28. 13. Heb. 11. 16. o Rom. 9. 8. pointed, constituted; as explained on Gen. 1. 29. Gr. Tebɛika, Rom. 4. 17. of good to creatures can be set forth. All the privileges of the covenant of mercy, its richest joys and most glorious hopes, are summed up in this assurance. He that comes within its scope, as does every believer, can desire nothing more to make him happy. It is as if he had said, 'Whatever I am or have, or purpose in a way of grace to do, all that will I be to thee and to thy seed; all that shall be employed for thy protection, consolation, and sal 6. Kings shall come out of thee. This has been most signally fulfilled. No one in any age can be compared with Abraham, as far as relates to his numerous progeny of kings. From him were descended the chiefs of the twelve tribes of the Hebrews, and after their separation, the kings of Judah, as well as the kings of Israel. From him sprang the ancient monarchs of Edom, and the Saracen kings in Arabia, Bab-vation.' ylon, and Egypt, trace back their origin to him. If we pass from the literal" to the spiritual fulfilment of the predic- land of thy sojournings, or tion, we find the heavenly Messiah, the king of kings, descending from the same stock, and not only so, but all true Christians, his seed by faith, made 'kings and priests unto God,' Rev. 1. 6. 7. For an everlasting covenant. Heb. 8. I will give unto thee-the land wherein thou art a stranger. Heb. peregrinations; not of thy permanent abode; the land in which thou hast not a settled but a migratory kind of residence.- - For an everlasting possession. Here again the original word olam, everlasting, is to be undercovenant of eternity. The stood in the restricted sense explained phrases 'everlasting,' 'to eternity,' 'for-above, although no precise limitation ever,' &c. it is well known are often to is assigned to it. Indeed it may be adbe taken in a limited sense, implying mitted, that as their enjoyment of the not an absolutely eternal, but an in- promised blessings of the covenant dedefinite duration. Here, however, al- pended on their observance of its conthough the outward sign and adminis-ditions, had they continued in a course tration of the covenant were to be tem- of devout obedience, they might have porary, circumcision being afterwards been in possession of their earthly insuperseded by baptism, Col. 2. 11, 12, heritance at the present day. But they yet the covenant itself, in its spiritual forfeited the blessing by failing to comimport, is rightly termed by the Apos-ply with their stipulated engagements, tle, Heb. 13. 20 'everlasting covenant,' and the consequence has been, that as it secures everlasting blessings to all they are now scattered to the four winds those that by faith become interested of heaven. Yet there are many who in it.- -¶ To be a God unto thee, and contend that this covenant grant seto thy seed after thee. The highest ex-cured to the seed of Abraham the right pression by which the communication of a perpetual inheritance of the land 9 And God said unto Abra- ye shall keep, between me and ham, Thou shalt keep my cove-you, and thy seed after thee; nant therefore, thou, and thy seed Every man-child among you shall be circumcised. after thee, in their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which of Canaan, and that in virtue of this they are to be restored and reinstated in their ancient possession, and to flourish with more than their pristine glory. It is only in this way, they affirm, that the splendid predictions respecting the later fortunes of Israel are to be fulfilled. But until the great principles of prophetic interpretation are more definitively settled than they are at present, we cannot but deem this a very hazardous theory to maintain, and one which has a bearing far from favourable upon the conversion of the Jews. 9. Thou shalt keep my covenant. To keep a covenant is faithfully to perform the conditions imposed upon the covenanting parties. The grand condition in the present case was the observance of the rite of circumcision, which God goes on to specify and enjoin in a more particular manner in the ensuing verse. 10. This is my covenant, &c. i. e. the sign of my covenant, as explained v. 11. From this phraseology the usage arose of denominating a sacramental sign by the name of the sacrament itself. Thus, Ex. 12. 11, 'Ye shall eat it in haste; it is the Lord's passover ;' i. e. the sign of the passover. Luke 22. 19, 20, This cup is the New Testament in my blood;' i. e. the sign of the New Testament, Mat. 26. 17, 'Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover.?' i. e. the lamb, the sign of the passover. Here the covenant, properly so called, is couched in the preceding words, 'I will be a God unto thee,' &c.- -T Every man-child among you shall be circumcised. Heb. yimmol, shall be cut round about; i. e. there shall be an excision of the prepuce or foreskin of the flesh of all males. We have s Acts 7. 8. in here the first mention of an stitution which, however revolting to European or American feelings, is held in such veneration to this day by no less than 150 millions of the earth's population, that they look down with the utmost contempt and execration upon every male uncircumcised. As to the origin of the rite, whether it had existed in the world prior to this command, it is a point which has occasioned. much controversy among the learned. Herodotus speaks of it, as a custom ancient even in his time, and which existed among several nations, particularly the Egyptians and Ethiopians. This has led some to suppose that the practice was adopted from the Egyptians; but it is to be borne in mind that Moses lived more than a thousand years before Herodotus, and from his account it is certain that the ancestors of the Israelites were already circumcised, when they went down into Egypt, and did not therefore first adopt the practice during their continuance in that country. The presumption is rather that the Egyptians borrowed the rite from the Israelites, perhaps from the belief that the remarkable fecundity of the Hebrew race, as mentioned Ex. 1. 7, 12, was in some way dependent upon it, or connected with it, There are, moreover, other considerations which make it highly probable that the custom was utterly unknown to the Egyptians prior to the sojourning of the Israelites among them, (1.) It was twenty years after Abraham's return from that country before God enjoined upon him the rite of circumcision, and then, we are told, he administered the rite upon every male in his house, v. 23. Now it is certain that when he came out of Egypt he | SEAL. (1.) Its first and most obvious brought with him a numerous train of design was to serve as a sign of the men-servants and maid-servants; and covenant into which the posterity of therefore unless we suppose that all Abraham were, in the person of their these Egyptian men-servants died with- father, to enter; or in other words, to in twenty years, or that when they died fix upon the persons of all his natural none of them left any male issue be- descendants a distinguishing mark, hind them, we can scarcely doubt that separating them from the rest of the circumcision was not known in Egypt world and denoting their peculiar relain Abraham's time; for it is expressly tion to the true God. The wisdom of said that 'every male among the men such a badge will be evident at once of Abraham's house was circumcised,' when it is remembered, that God had at the same time that he himself was, promised to multiply the seed of Abrawhich could never have been the case ham to an innumerable multitude. This had they undergone the operation be- promise it is true, he might have verifore. (2.) The conduct and expressions fied even though he had suffered them of Pharaoh's daughter upon finding the to be mingled promiscuously with the infant Moses in the ark go to establish other nations of the earth. But in orthe same point. Ex. 2. 6, 'And when der to afford a visible attestation to his she had opened it, she saw the child; veracity it was necessary that they and behold the babe wept (Heb. and should be distinguished by some mark behold, a male-child weeping). And of peculiarity, and for this purpose, as she had compassion on him, and said, we shall soon see, nothing could be This is one of the Hebrews' children.' more suitable than the rite here preIt is plain that she noted the sex of the scribed. But such an end, it is obvichild, and the inference is fair, if not ous, could not have been answered, inevitable, that she knew him to be a had the practice at this time generally Hebrew child by the sign of circum- prevailed among other nations; for in cision—a mark which distinguished the that case its distinctive character would Hebrew from the Egyptian children. have been lost. We can see then with (3.) The language of the inspired wri- how much propriety this rite is afterter, Ezek. 31. 18, would seem to imply wards v. 11, termed the 'token of the that, although the practice may have covenant.' But this was not all. It obtained, as Michaelis contends, to some served also to Abraham and his seed, extent among the priests, yet that it (2.) As a memorial of their engagewas so far from being universal, that it ments. When they submitted to this could not even be deemed a general ordinance, whether it were in infancy characteristic of the nation;-Thou or at an adult age, they were no longer shalt lie in the midst of the uncircum- to consider themselves their own, or at cised, with them that be slain by the their own disposal, but as dedicated to sword: this is Pharaoh and all his mul- the service of their God. As Paul in titude, saith the Lord God.' But waiv-reference to the scars and bruises which ing the farther discussion of this point, his body had received in the service of or rather taking it for granted that the his Lord, said, 'I bear in my body the custom was now expressly ordained of marks of the Lord Jesus,' so might Heaven, it is a matter of more impor- the same language with propriety be tance to determine the grand ends which used by every Jew in reference to this the divine Institutor had in view in es- sacred memorial; for having in his own tablishing it. It may be viewed under person the appointed sign of his relathe twofold aspect of a SIGs and altion to God, he must be continually re |