Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - Genesis 17:5
Abraham, i.e. the father of a multitude; Ham in the Hebrew being put for Hamon, which signifies a multitude, by a figure called apocope, which is usual in proper names. read more
Genesis 17
Matthew Poole
Matthew Poole
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - Genesis 17:6
So did the kings of Israel and Judah, of Edom, of the Saracens, and the Messias, who is King of kings, and Lord of lords. read more
Matthew Poole
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - Genesis 17:7
i.e. Whatsoever I am or have, all that shall be thine, and shall be employed for thy protection, consolation, and salvation. This phrase contains in it the confluence of all blessing, temporal, spiritual, and eternal. See Leviticus 26:12; Psalms 33:12; Psalms 144:15; Jeremiah 31:33. read more
Matthew Poole
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - Genesis 17:8
And to thy seed; unto thee, not in thy own person, but in thy seed. See Genesis 13:15,Genesis 13:17. For an everlasting possession; upon condition of their obedience to God, as is oft expressed; wherein seeing they so notoriously failed, it is no wonder if they possessed it but a little while, as the prophet complains, Isaiah 63:18. read more
Matthew Poole
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - Genesis 17:9
The agreement is mutual: my part was expressed before; now follows thy part, and the condition to which my promise and blessing is annexed. read more
Matthew Poole
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - Genesis 17:10
Circumcision is here called the covenant by a usual metonomy, because it is the condition, sign, and seal of the covenant, the pledge of God’s promise and man’s duty. And upon the same grounds the cup, i.e. the wine, is called the new testament in Christ’s blood, Luke 22:20; or, which is all one, Christ’s blood in the new testament, Matthew 26:28. It is evident that women as well as men were comprehended in this covenant, from Genesis 34:14; Exodus 12:3,Exodus 12:4; Joel 2:15,Joel 2:16. Yet... read more
Matthew Poole
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - Genesis 17:11
The flesh of your foreskin, i.e. by a usual hypallage, the foreskin of your flesh; and the word flesh is here put for the genital part, as it is Leviticus 15:2,Leviticus 15:19; Ezekiel 16:26; Ezekiel 23:20, and elsewhere. This part God singled out for this ordinance, because it is and was a great instrument both in the commission of actual sins, and in the propagation of original sin; and therefore it was very proper to apply to it the seal of God’s gracious covenant for the remission of sins... read more
Matthew Poole
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - Genesis 17:12
Eight days; not before that time, because of the child’s weakness and imperfection, and impurity too, Exodus 22:30; Leviticus 12:3, for which reason also beasts were not to be offered to God before the eighth day, Exodus 22:30. Every man-child in your generations, successively, until the Messias come, who shall circumcise your hearts, and change this ordinance for another. Bought with money of any stranger: these were of two sorts. 1. Children, who being entirely his possession, and having not... read more
Matthew Poole
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - Genesis 17:13
So it was, and is properly in regard of the thing signified to all true believers; and for the sign, it is so called because it was to endure through all generations till the coming of the Messias; the word olam, here and elsewhere rendered everlasting, or for ever, being oft used to express not only simple eternity, but any long continuance, for many ages, yea, sometimes for a man’s life. See Exodus 21:6; Deuteronomy 15:17; 1 Kings 9:3. read more
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Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - Genesis 17:4
Both literally, or after the flesh, of the Israelites, Ishmaelites, Edomites, &c., and spiritually, of all believers of all nations, to whom Abram hath in some sort the place of a father, Romans 4:12,Romans 4:17. Not only as he was the great example and teacher of that faith by which they are all saved, (as the instructors of others are called their fathers, both in Scripture, as Genesis 4:20-21, and in profane authors,) but as he was made by God the head of the covenant, by or through whom... read more