Abram's call and first blessing 1 And the Lord said to Abram: Go forth out of your country, and from your kindred, and out of your father's house, and come into the land which I shall show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and magnify your name, and you shalt be blessed. 3 I will bless them that bless you, and curse them that curse you, and IN YOU shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed:
Abram enters Chanaan 4 So Abram went out as the Lord had commanded him, and Lot went with him: Abram was seventy-five years old when he went forth from Haran. 5 And he took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all the substance which they had gathered, and the souls which they had gotten in Haran: and they went out to go into the land of Chanaan. And when they were come into it, 6 Abram passed through the country into the place of Sichem, as far as the noble vale: now the Chanaanite was at that time in the land.
Abram builds an altar to God 7 And the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him: To your seed will I give this land. And he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 And passing on from there to a mountain, that was on the east side of Bethel, he there pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east; he built there also an altar to the Lord, and called upon his name. 9 And Abram went forward, going, and proceeding on to the south.
Abram dwells in Egypt during a famine 10 And there came a famine in the country; and Abram went down into Egypt, to sojourn there: for the famine was very grievous in the land. 11 And when he was near to enter into Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife: I know that you are a beautiful woman: 12 And that when the Egyptians shall see you, they will say: She is his wife: and they will kill me, and keep you. 13 Say, therefore, I pray, that you are my sister: that I may be well used for you, and that my soul may live for your sake. 14 And when Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw the woman that she was very beautiful. 15 And the princes told Pharao, and praised her before him: and the woman was taken into the house of Pharao. 16 And they used Abram well for her sake. And he had sheep and oxen, and he asses, and menservants and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.
Great plagues afflict Pharao 17 But the Lord scourged Pharao and his house with most grievous stripes for Sarai, Abram's wife. 18 And Pharao called Abram, and said to him: What is this that you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife. 19 For what cause did you say, she was your sister, that I might take her to my wife? Now therefore, there is your wife, take her, and go your way. 20 And Pharao gave his men orders concerning Abram: and they led him away, and his wife, and all that he had.
Commentary on Genesis 12
12:1-2 In order to gather together scattered humanity God calls Abram from his country, his kindred and his father's house, and makes him Abraham, that is, "the father of a multitude of nations". "In you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed."(Gal 3:8) The people descended from Abraham would be the trustee of the promise made to the patriarchs, the chosen people, called to prepare for that day when God would gather all his children into the unity of the Church.(Rom 11:28; Jn 11:52) They would be the root on to which the Gentiles would be grafted, once they came to believe.(Rom 11:17-18, 24) (Catechism of the Catholic Church 59-60)
12:3 IN YOU shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed: In order to show that rightousness is not imputed by the works of the law, but by faith, St. Paul shows that believers are children of Abraham because he was the first person to have been justified by faith, and all those who have believed since are his children, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. St. Paul quotes 12:3 in Galatians 3:8 because Abraham stands for all believers, so those who believe have been blessed in him. By following his faith they have become partakers of his blessing as well. (Ambrosiaster Com Gal 3:8)
12:4 seventy-five years old: For if Thara, Abraham's father, when he was still in the territory of the Chaldeans at 70 years of age fathered Abram, and afterwards died in Charra in the 205th year of his life: how is it that now, after Thara's death, Abram went out from Charra, and is declared to have been 75 years old, when 135 years are shown to have passed from Abram's birth up to his father's death? Therefore that tradition of the Hebrews, which we have related above, is true; that Thara with his sons went out from the fire of the Chaldeans, and that Abram, when surrounded by the Babylonian fire because he refused to worship it, was set free by God's help; and from that time onwards the days of his life and the measure of his age are reckoned for him, namely from that time when he acknowledged the Lord and despised the idols of the Chaldeans. (St. Jerome Heb Ques)
12:7 To your seed will I give this land: This is to be understood that Abram and his offspring were promised possession of the land of Canaan, so as better to signify the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven, of which it is written, “But the just shall inherit the land, and shall dwell therein for evermore,” Ps 36:29 The fact is that this was not said of the land of this world, which is common to the just and the unjust, since it speaks of a land to be possessed both for evermore |
and by the just. Therefore the land of Canaan is promised to Abram and his offspring, and after the long labor or Egyptian servitude it is restored under the leadership of Joshua, in order to make known mystically that the heavenly fatherland promised to us long ago is to be restored after the suffering of our present exile by our Lord Jesus Christ. But also in that land of Canaan the children of promise never ceased from laboring and struggling against their enemies, in order that they might understand, as I stated before, that they should seek by preference another country after this one, in which they might truly enjoy heavenly blessing and eternal rest. (St. Bede Com Gen 12:10) Now God made promise of the earth to Abraham and his seed; yet neither Abraham nor his seed, that is, those who are justified by faith, do now receive an inheritance in it; but they shall receive it at the resurrection of the just. (St. Irenaeus Ag. Her. 5.32) But on the other hand, it seems that they received the promise: ‘Abraham was one and he merited the land’ (Ez. 33:24). I answer that he possessed, that is, was the first to receive the promise of possessing; yet he did not actually possess, as is evident from Acts 7:5. (St. Thomas Aquinas Com Heb 12) His descendants will inherit ‘from sea to the other, from the river to the ends of the earth’ (Sir 44:21), since Christ, born of the descendants of Abraham, rules from one sea to the other and from the river to the ends of the earth, and His Church, His very body, fills all the limits of the world. (Rabanus Com Sir 44:21)
12:11-13 There he called his wife his sister, and told no lie. For she was this also, because she was near of blood; just as Lot, on account of the same nearness, being his brother's son, is called his brother. Now he did not deny that she was his wife, but held his peace about it, committing to God the defence of his wife's chastity, and providing as a man against human wiles; because if he had not provided against the danger as much as he could, he would have been tempting God rather than trusting in Him. (St. Augustine Cit God 16:19)
12:14-20 What kind of care would Abraham have received from God had God allowed his spouse to be defiled in an adulterous relationship? Why would He have put Pharaoh and all his household to the test with severe and painful trials unless His intention was to prevent the unlawful union? We can conclude that as soon as Sarah was snatched away, God restrained Pharaoh with an ailment, and this blunted his desire; though the prey was already in his toils, the hunter, prevented by the ailment, could not enjoy his prey. (Theodoret of Cyrus Ques Gen 63) |
|