Genesis 18:10

And he said,.... The same that put the question, Jehovah himself, as appears by what follows: I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; not by a personal appearance as now, but

And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent.

I will certainly return unto thee, not in a visible shape, but with my powerful and effectual presence, to fulfil my promise. According to the time of life: this time may respect, either, 1. Abraham and Sarah, in the time of life, i.e. when you shall be both alive and in health. But if it belonged to them, it might seem better to understand it thus; in the time when God shall restore life, i.e. vigour and activity to you; for till then both Abraham’ s body and Sarah’ s womb are expressly said to be dead, , to which deadness this life may be opposite; and the time of restoring this lost power of generation may well be called a time of life, it being a kind of life from the dead, and an empowering of him for a vital action from which he was before disenabled, and for the conveying of life to a child, and perpetuating his own life in him. Or, 2. To the child, according to the time of life, i.e. in the time which is usual for the conception, quickening, and bringing forth of a living child. Which interpretation receiveth some countenance from , where we have the same phrase. Or, 3. To the year, according to the time, or this time of life, or living time, i.e. when this time or season of the year shall revive, i.e. return or be restored; as cities and buildings are said to be revived, when they are repaired or rebuilt, as . And this season might more properly be said to revive, and be called the time of life, because it may be gathered from the heat, , and their refreshing themselves under the shadow of a tree, that it was the spring time, when herbs and plants and trees, which seem to be dead in the winter, recover and show forth their life and vigour: and so the sense may be this, according to this time, which is a time of life, or reviving, wherein as the beauty and fruits of the earth will be renewed and revived, so thou and Sarah shall be revived, or receive, as it were, a new life in the son that shall be born to you. This sense seems more probable than either of the former, because he speaks of a certain set or appointed time, , and that time was about a year after this, as may appear by comparing , and . In the tent door which was behind him, i.e. at the back of the angel that spoke with him; which is here added, to show that he knew her laughter, not by the sight of his eyes, but by his all-seeing knowledge.

Genesis 18:10 And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard [it] in the tent door, which [was] behind him.Ver. 10. According to the time af life.] That is, when this time shall return again; this time twelve month. Sarah heard it in the tent-door.] She was listening out of womanish curiosity. Yet some think, the angel asked for her on purpose, that she hearing her name mentioned might listen.

(10) According to the time of life.—Heb., according to the living time. It is evident from Genesis 18:14, and 2 Kings 4:16-17, that these words denote some fixed period, but the exact rendering is in dispute. “When the season revives” = next spring, is entirely remote from Oriental thought, and the rendering of Zunz “at the living time” is poetical, but meaningless. The true rendering is probably “a year hence,” as when the year is over it dies, and a new year lives in its place. Jewish tradition is strongly in favour of this view, translating “according to this time next year,” and adding that the season was the Passover. The only other tenable rendering is “in course of time.” Which was behind him.—The LXX. has a preferable reading, and she was behind it. The door, as we have seen, was an opening made by looping back the curtain, which would effectually conceal Sarah’s person.

Verse 10. I will certainly return] Abraham was now ninety-nine years of age, and this promise was fulfilled when he was a hundred; so that the phrase according to the time of life must mean either a complete year, or nine months from the present time, the ordinary time of pregnancy. Taken in this latter sense, Abraham was now in the ninety-ninth year of his age, and Isaac was born when he was in his hundredth year.

10. I will certainly] A first hint of Divine knowledge of the parents’ grief over their childlessness. when the season cometh round] R. V. marg. Heb. liveth, or, reviveth. A strange phrase, probably meaning “at this time a year hence,” as in Genesis 17:21. Cf. 2 Kings 4:16-17, LXX κατὰτὸνκαιρὸντοῦτονεἰςὥρας, Lat. tempore isto, vita comite. Skinner conjectures, with a slight alteration of the vowel points, “according to the time of a pregnant woman,” on the ground that the Heb. word for “liveth” means in modern Heb. “a woman in child-birth.” Sarah … in the tent door] Sarah was not visible, but the conversation of the men under the tree was easily audible to her at the tent opening. heard] Better, “was listening,” which reproduces the Heb. participle. which was behind him] Probably the LXX preserves the right reading, “and she was behind it,” i.e. the door.

10. He said — The question of Gen 18:9 was common to the three — “they said.” Now HE, the prominent One, whom Abraham, in Genesis 18:3, called “My Lord,” speaks in the person of the Almighty,