Hebrews 11:13-16

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Hebrews 11:4-31

The apostle, having given us a more general account of the grace of faith, now proceeds to set before us some illustrious examples of it in the Old-Testament times, and these may be divided into two classes:?1. Those whose names are mentioned, and the particular exercise and actings of whose faith are specified. 2. Those whose names are barely mentioned, and an account given in general of the exploits of their faith, which it is left to the reader to accommodate, and apply to the particular... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Hebrews 11:13-16

11:13-16 All these died without obtaining possession of the promises. They only saw them from far away and greeted them from afar, and they admitted that they were strangers and sojourners upon the earth. Now people who speak like that make it quite clear that they are searching for a fatherland. If they were thinking of the land from which they had come out, they would have had time to return. In point of fact they were reaching out after something better, I mean, the heavenly country. It... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hebrews 11:13

These all died in faith ,.... Not all the seed of Abraham, but all the believers in the preceding verses, excepting Enoch, particularly the three patriarchs, with Sarah; these died a corporeal death, which is common to all, to the righteous, and to the wicked; and yet saints die not as other men; they die in faith, having the grace itself, which being once implanted, can never be lost; and sometimes in the exercise of it, as these believers did: they died in the faith of their posterity... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hebrews 11:14

For they that say such things ,.... That they are strangers and pilgrims on earth: declare plainly that they seek a country ; heaven, so called, for the largeness of it; it is a good land, a land of uprightness; a pleasant land, a land of rest, though a land afar off; here the Father of Christ, and Christ himself, and all his people dwell: the Syriac version renders it, "their own city"; the place of their nativity, of which they were citizens: the act of "seeking" it supposes some... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hebrews 11:15

And truly if they had been mindful of that country ,.... Chaldea, which was Abraham's country: from whence they came out ; as Abraham and Sarah did, in person, and their posterity in them: they might have had opportunity to have returned : for the way from Canaan or Egypt, where they sojourned, was short and easy: and though Abraham sent his servant thither to take a wife for his son Isaac, yet he would not go thither himself, nor suffer his son; nay, made his servant swear that he... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Hebrews 11:16

But now they desire a better country ,.... Which is not to be understood of the then present time, in which the apostle wrote; for the patriarchs, of whom he speaks, were not then on earth, nor in any third place between heaven and earth; they were then in heaven; and though there are indeed in heaven desires after perfect happiness, in soul and body; yet this intends the desires of these saints when on earth, and which are common to all believers in the present state of things; who, as the... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 11:13

These all died in faith - That is, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob, continued to believe, to the end of their lives, that God would fulfill this promise; but they neither saw the numerous seed, nor did they get the promised rest in Canaan. Strangers and pilgrims - Strangers, ξενοι , persons who are out of their own country, who are in a foreign land: pilgrims, παρεπιδημοι , sojourners only for a time; not intending to take up their abode in that place, nor to get naturalized in that... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 11:14

Declare plainly that they seek a country - A man's country is that in which he has constitutional rights and privileges; no stranger or sojourner has any such rights in the country where he sojourns. These, by declaring that they felt themselves strangers and sojourners, professed their faith in a heavenly country and state, and looked beyond the grave for a place of happiness. No intelligent Jew could suppose that Canaan was all the rest which God had promised to his people. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 11:15

If they had been mindful of that country - They considered their right to the promises of God as dependent on their utter renunciation of Chaldea; and it was this that induced Abraham to cause his steward Eliezer to swear that he would not carry his son Isaac to Chaldea; see Genesis 24:5-8 . There idolatry reigned; and God had called them to be the patriarchs and progenitors of a people among whom the knowledge of the true God, and the worship required by him, should be established and... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Hebrews 11:16

But now they desire a better - They all expected spiritual blessings, and a heavenly inheritance; they sought God as their portion, and in such a way and on such principles that he is not ashamed to be called their God; and he shows his affection for them by preparing for them a city, to wit, heaven, as themselves would seek no city on earth; which is certainly what the apostle has here in view. And from this it is evident that the patriarchs had a proper notion of the immortality of the... read more

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