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Daniel Whedon

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 12:1

1. The Lord had said Rather, the Lord said . The pluperfect rendering was adopted by our translators from a supposed necessity of harmonizing this verse with Acts 7:2. But it is not necessary to suppose the writer here refers to a second call, which Abram received in Haran . According to a usage often noticed in these pages, the writer goes back and takes up his narrative at a point previously recorded so we may believe, with Stephen, that this call of Abram occurred “before he dwelt... read more

Daniel Whedon

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 12:1-3

THE CALL OF ABRAM, Genesis 12:1-3. The history now narrows again to a single branch of the family of Terah Abram and his descendants. The other branches, which are only incidentally alluded to hereafter as they are connected with the fortunes of the covenant people, remained in Chaldea at least for generations, and a large portion of them settled around the wells of Haran, where, in the days of Isaac and Jacob, we find them forming a community which furnished these patriarchs wives of their... read more

Daniel Whedon

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 12:2

2. I will make of thee a great nation Great promises correspond with the great sacrifices commanded . 1) He left his nation, but should himself be the founder of a great nation. 2) He sacrificed kindred, but should be blessed with a spiritual kinship, as yet by him unimagined and inconceivable, but hailed afar off by faith. Hebrews 11:13. Hebrews 11:3) He broke away from ancestral ties, but his own name should be illustrious as father of the faithful, ancestor of the Hebrew people, and... read more

Daniel Whedon

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 12:3

3. I will bless… curse The promise is here expanded Abram, as the man of faith, is to be identified with the divine plan for human redemption; his friends are, therefore, God’s friends, his enemies God’s enemies . Faith makes man one with God; takes up his plans into the divine plan . Thus “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called [as was Abram] according to his purpose,” who elects, as sons of God, those in whom this faith is foreknown . Romans... read more

Daniel Whedon

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible - Genesis 12:4

ABRAM IN CANAAN, Genesis 12:4-9. 4. Departed Abram obeys, and goes forth from Haran, westward, over the river, as it was ever called by the Hebrews, the great Euphrates, afterwards the boundary of the kingdom of David and Solomon, separating Aram from Padan-Aram, the fertile Mesopotamian plain from the Syrian desert, and henceforth he was Abram, the Hebrew, the man who had crossed the border from beyond the great river, ( ο περατης , LXX of Genesis 14:13,) the emigrant, the ... read more

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