Expositor's Bible Commentary 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)

Paradoxically, when he got to “the promised land” of Canaan, Abraham lived in it, not as its owner, but as though “in a foreign country.” This earthly Canaan was a foretaste of God’s heavenly country (cf. v.10). He had no rights here. He and his household “lived” (GK 2997) “in tents,” i.e., in temporary dwellings. Right to the end of his life the only piece of the country he owned was the field he purchased as Sarah’s burial place (Genesis 23). God “gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground” (Acts 7:5).

Nor was it any better with Isaac and Jacob. They shared the same promises as the descendants through whom God’s purpose would be worked out. But all their lifetimes they had no more share in Canaan than Abraham did. Toward the end of Jacob’s life the clan went down to Egypt, and when they came back many years later, it was not as sojourners but as a mighty people who made the land their own. The lives of the three patriarchs thus cover the whole time of the temporary dwelling in the land.