Albert Barnes Commentary Hebrews 11:9

"By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a [land] not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:" — Hebrews 11:9 (ASV)

By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country. The land of Canaan that had been promised to him and his posterity. He resided there as if he were a stranger and sojourner. He had no possessions there that he did not procure by honest purchase; he owned no land in fee-simple, except the small piece that he bought for a burial place.

See Genesis 23:7-20. In all respects, he lived there as if he had no special right in the soil, as if he never expected to own it, and as if he were in a country wholly owned by others.

He exercised only those privileges that any foreigner might have exercised and that were regarded as a right of common—such as feeding his cattle in any unoccupied part of the land; and he would have had no power to eject any other persons, except for the right anyone might have enjoyed by prior occupation of the pasture grounds.

To all intents and purposes, he was a stranger. Yet he seems to have lived in the confident and quiet expectation that the land would, at some point, come into the possession of his posterity. It was a strong instance of faith that he should cherish this belief for so long, when he was a stranger there—when he gained no right in the soil, except in the small piece purchased as a burial place for his wife—and when he saw old age coming on, and still the whole land was in the possession of others.

Dwelling in tabernacles. He lived in tents, the common way of living in countries where the principal occupation is keeping flocks and herds. His dwelling thus in movable tents looked little like it was his permanent possession.

With Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. That is, the same thing occurred with them as it had with Abraham. They also lived in tents. They acquired no fixed property and no title to the land, except for the small portion purchased as a burial place. Yet they were heirs of the same promise as Abraham: that the land would be theirs. Though it was still owned by others and filled with its native inhabitants, yet they adhered to the belief that it would come into the possession of their families. In their movable habitations—in their migrations from place to place—they seem never to have doubted that the fixed habitation of their posterity was to be there, and that all that had been promised would certainly be fulfilled.