Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 12

Now the Lord had said unto Abram.—The Hebrew text reads, And Jehovah said unto Abram. This is not a new beginning; but having briefly sketched the family from which Abram sprang, and indicated that he had inherited from them the right of primogeniture, the narrative next proceeds to the primary purpose of the Tôldóth Terah, which is to show how in Abram Jehovah prepared for the fulfillment, through Israel, of the protevangelium contained in the promise made to Eve at the fall (Genesis 3:15). The rendering “had said” was doubtless adopted because of St. Stephen’s words (Acts 7:2); but it is the manner of the biblical narrative to revert to the original starting point.

Thy country. —A proof that Abram and his father were no new settlers at Ur, but that the race of Shem had at this time long held sway there, as is now known to have been the case.

Thy kindred. —This rendering is supported by Genesis 43:7; but it more probably means your birthplace. It is the word translated “nativity” in Genesis 11:28, where its meaning is settled by the prefixed “land”; and the sense is probably the same here. If so, the command certainly came to Abram at Ur, though most of the versions suppose that it happened at Haran.

A land that I will shew thee. —In Genesis 11:31 it is expressly said that the land was Canaan, but possibly this knowledge was concealed from the patriarch himself for a time, and neither he nor Terah knew on leaving Ur what their final destination would be.

Thou shalt be a blessing. — More correctly, Be thou a blessing. The promises made to Abram are partly personal and partly universal, embracing the whole world. In return for all that he abandons, he is to become the founder of a powerful nation, who will honour his name and teach the inheritors of their spiritual privileges to share in their veneration for him.

But in the command to “be” or “become a blessing,” we reach a higher level. It is the glory of Abram’s faith that it was not selfish. In return for his consenting to lead the life of a stranger, he was to be the means of procuring religious privileges, not only for his own descendants, but also for all families of the earth (Hebrew, of the ground — the adâmâh).

This blessing was not for the earth as the material universe, but solely in its connection with humanity. Wherever people make their home upon it, there, through Abram, spiritual blessings will be offered them.

I will bless ... — These words indicate relations mysteriously close between Jehovah and Abram, through which the friends and enemies of the one become equally so to the other. But in the second clause, our version has not noticed an essential difference between the verbs used. They occur together again in Exodus 22:28 and are more correctly rendered there by “revile” and “curse.” One word signifies to treat lightly and contemptuously; the other, to pronounce a curse, usually in a judicial manner. We might, therefore, translate, “I will curse—pass a sentence of rejection upon—him that speaks lightly of, or reviles you.”

In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. — Some authorities translate, “shall bless themselves;” but there is a different conjugation to express this meaning, and no reason exists for forcing it upon the text.

Henceforth, Abram and the nation that originated from him were to be the intermediaries between God and humankind; accordingly, revelation was virtually confined to them. But though the knowledge of God’s will was to be given through them, it was for the benefit of all the families of every race and people distributed throughout the habitable world, the adâmâh (Romans 3:29; Romans 10:12, and elsewhere).

Abram ... departed out of Haran. —The command given him in Ur may have been repeated in Haran; but more probably Abram had remained there only on account of Terah. At his death (see note on Genesis 11:26) he resumed his migration northward.

Their substance that they had gathered. —Not cattle only, but wealth of every kind. As we have no data about the migration of Terah, except that it was after the death of Haran and that Haran left children, we cannot tell how long the family rested at their first halting place; it was probably a period of several years. And since Abram was very rich in silver and in gold, he had apparently engaged in trade there and thus possibly knew the course the caravans took.

The souls that they had gotten. —Hebrew, had made. Onkelos and the Jewish interpreters explain this as referring to proselytes, and persons whom they had converted to the faith in one God. Such individuals were probably in Abram’s company; but most of them were his dependents and slaves , though the word 'slave' suggests a very different relationship to us than the one that existed between Abram and his household. Their descendants were most certainly incorporated into the Israelite nation, and we have direct testimony that Abram gave them careful religious training (Genesis 18:19). Thus, the Jewish traditions record a fact, and by acknowledging Abram’s household as proselytes, they admit their claim to incorporation with the race.

Into the land of Canaan they came. —Slowly and leisurely, as the cattle with their young and the women and children could travel, Abram would make his way along the 300 miles that separated him from Canaan. The ford by which he crossed the Euphrates was probably that at Jerabolus, the ancient Carchemish, as this route is both more direct and more fertile than either the one leading to the ferry of Bir or that by Thapsacus. The difficulty of crossing so great a river with so much substance, and people, and cattle would give fresh importance to his title of 'the Hebrew,' the passer over, already his by right of descent from Eber, so named from the passage of the Tigris.

More correctly, these names are ‘Eber’ and ‘Ebrew,’ and have nothing in common with “Heber the Kenite” (Judges 4:11). From Carchemish, Abram’s route would lie to the southwest, by Tadmor and Damascus. Josephus (Antiquities, 1.7) has preserved the legend that “Abram came with an army from the country beyond Babylon, and conquered Damascus, and reigned there for a short time, after which he migrated into the land of Canaan.” In Eliezer of Damascus, we have a reminiscence of Abram’s halt there (Genesis 15:2). But it could not have been long, for Mr. Malan (Philosophy or Truth, pp. 98-143) has conclusively shown by the dates in Holy Scripture that only about a year elapsed between Abram’s departure from Kharan and his settlement in Canaan.

The place of Sichern. —Hebrew, Shechem. This word signifies “shoulder,” and was the name of the ridge uniting Mounts Ebal and Gerizim, the summits of which are about two miles apart. As the name is thus taken from the natural conformation of the ground, it may be very ancient. The modern name of the place is Nablous, a contraction of Flavia Neapolis, a title given it in honour of Vespasian. Mr. Conder (Tent Work in Palestine, 1:61) describes the valley as an oasis of remarkable beauty and luxuriance, but set, like Damascus, in a desert, and surrounded by strong and barren mountains.

The plain of Moreh. —Hebrew, the oak of Moreh. It was here that Jacob buried the strange gods brought by his household from Haran (Genesis 35:4), and here, too, Joshua set up the stone of testimony (Joshua 24:26; Judges 9:6); but as in Deuteronomy 11:30 the oaks (wrongly translated in most places in our version “plains”) are described in the plural, it is probable that the word is to be taken as a collective term for an oak grove. Such shady spots were favourite places for the tents of the wandering patriarchs.

A famous terebinth, called after Abram’s name, long existed at Mamre, and under it, in the time of Vespasian, the captive Jews were sold as slaves. It disappeared about A.D. 330, and no tree now marks the site of Abram’s grove. The Hebrew word, however, for terebinth is elâh, while that used here is êlôn. It was probably the quercus pseudococcifera (see Tristram, Natural History of the Bible, page 369). This tree often grows to a vast size.

Moreh. —Literally, teacher (Isaiah 9:15). Probably in this cool grove some religious personage had given instruction to the people. In Judges 7:1 we find a place called the “teacher’s hill,” and it is thus possible that among a people so religious as the race of Shem, men from time to time arose who were revered by the people as teachers of holiness. Such a one was Melchisedech.

The Canaanite was then in the land. —This is no sign of post-Mosaic authorship, nor a later interpolation, as if the meaning were that the Canaanite was there at that time, but is no longer so. What really is meant is that Abram on his arrival found the country no longer in the hands of the old Semitic stock, but occupied by the Canaanites, who seem to have gained the ascendancy, not so much by conquest as by gradual and peaceful means.

We gather from the Egyptian records that this had taken place not very long before Abram’s time. In the early inscriptions we read only of the Sati and Aamu, both apparently Semitic races, the latter name being derived from the Hebrew am, “people.” Subsequently, we find frequent mention of the Amaor and the Kheta—that is, the Amorites and Hittites, evidently in Abram’s time the two most powerful races of Canaan (see Tomkins’ Studies, 82 and following). For their previous wanderings, see the commentary on Genesis 10:15-19.