Genesis 20:7

Now therefore restore the man [his] wife,.... Which will be a full proof and evidence to all of the integrity of thy heart, and the innocence of thine hands, which thou pleadest, and which I own: for

Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.

He is a prophet, a person very dear to me, and familiarly acquainted with me, and therefore the injuries done to him I take as done to myself. See . He shall pray for thee, which is one part of a prophet’ s work, 15:1. Thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine; which was not unjust, because they all had sins of their own, for which they deserved death whensoever God thought fit to inflict it; and God might take this occasion to do it, that in punishing them he might also punish the king, whose subjects they were.

Genesis 20:7 Now therefore restore the man [his] wife; for he [is] a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore [her] not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that [are] thine.Ver. 7. Now therefore restore.] Let knowledge reform what ignorance offended in. "The times of ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent". As a master, when he sets up his servant a double light, expects more work and better. We have a privilege not only above the blind Ethnics, but above the Church of the Old Testament. The sea about the altar was brazen; and what eyes could pierce through it? Now our sea about the throne is glassy, "like unto crystal," clearly conveying the light and sight of God to our eyes. God hath "destroyed the face of the covering cast over all people". "And we all with open face beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord," must see to it, that we be "changed into the same image, from glory to glory". If those good souls passed "from strength to strength," travelling many a weary step, to see the face of God in Sion, in the obscure glass of the ceremonies; voe torpori nostro , woe to us, if, now that such a light is sprung up, we walk not as children of that light! To know heavenly things, is to "ascend into heaven". And to know our Master’ s will is a great talent; of all other, there is a "much" in that. But then, not to do his will so known, is to "be beaten with many stripes." None so deep in hell, as your knowing men, because they "imprisoned the truth" (which is as a prophet from God) "in unrighteousness"; they kept it in their heads, as rain in the middle region, not suffering it to warm their hearts, or work upon their affections; therefore came wrath upon them to the utmost. None are oftener drowned than they that have most skill in swimming. So none sooner miscarry than men of greatest parts. For he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee.] The proper work of a prophet. "If they be prophets, let them entreat the Lord": they shall be heard, when others shall not; as the father’ s blessing is most effectual; as the child could not be raised till Elisha came himself, nor the sick be healed, till the elders of the Church be called for. The apostles divided their time between praying and preaching. So did the priests of the Old Testament; "They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, they shall put incense before thee". As with every sacrifice there was incense, so should every ministerial duty be performed with prayer. St Paul begins his Epistles with prayer, and proceeds and ends in like manner. What is it that he would have every of his Epistles stamped with by his own hand, but prayer for all his people.

(7) He is a prophet.—This is not said as an aggravation of Abimelech’s sin, but as an encouragement to him to restore Sarah. It is therefore rightly joined with the words “He shall pray for thee.” For the word prophet is used here in its old sense of spokesman (comp. Exod. Genesis 7:1, with Genesis 4:16), and especially of such an one as mediates between God and man. There was a true feeling that God in His own nature is beyond the reach of man (Job 9:32-33; Job 16:21; 1 Timothy 6:16); and this in heathen nations led to men peopling their heavens with a multitude of minor deities. In Israel, after the founding of the prophetic schools by Samuel, the prophets became an order, whose office it was partly to enliven the services of the Temple with sacred minstrelsy (1 Chronicles 25:1), but chiefly to be God’s spokesmen, both declaring His will to Jew and Gentile ( Jeremiah 1:5), and also maintaining religion and holiness by earnest preaching and other such means. In this way they were forerunners, and even representatives, of Christ, who is the one true and only Mediator between God and man. Not only Abraham, therefore, but the patriarchs generally are called “Christs and prophets (Psalms 105:15), as being speakers for God to man, and for man to God, until the true Christ and prophet came. Abimelech, moreover, is thus taught that he does not himself hold a near relation to God, but requires some one to speak for him; perhaps, too, he would gather from it that he had need of fuller instruction, and that he ought to try to attain to a higher level, and that Abraham would become a prophet to him in its other sense of being a teacher. (For the prophet as an intercessor, see Exodus 8:28-29; Deuteronomy 9:19-20; 1 Samuel 7:5; 1 Samuel 12:19; 1 Samuel 12:23; 1 Kings 13:6; Job 42:8.)

Verse 7. He is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee] The word prophet, which we have from the Greek προφητες, and which is compounded of προ, before, and φημι, I speak, means, in its general acceptation, one who speaks of things before they happen, i.e., one who foretells future events. But that this was not the original notion of the word, its use in this place sufficiently proves. Abraham certainly was not a prophet in the present general acceptation of the term, and for the Hebrew נביא nabi, we must seek some other meaning. I have, in a discourse entitled "The Christian Prophet and his Work," proved that the proper ideal meaning of the original word is to pray, entreat, make supplication, c., and this meaning of it I have justified at large both from its application in this place, and from its pointed use in the case of Saul, mentioned 1 Samuel 10, and from the case of the priests of Baal, 1 Kings 18, where prophesying most undoubtedly means making prayer and supplication. As those who were in habits of intimacy with God by prayer and faith were found the most proper persons to communicate his mind to man, both with respect to the present and the future, hence, נביא nabi, the intercessor, became in process of time the public instructer or preacher, and also the predicter of future events, because to such faithful praying men God revealed the secret of his will. Hence St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 14:3, seems to restrain the word wholly to the interpreting the mind of God to the people, and their instruction in Divine things, for, says he, he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort. See the discourse on this text referred to above. The title was also given to men eminent for eloquence and for literary abilities hence Aaron, because he was the spokesman of Moses to the Egyptian king, was termed נביא nabi, prophet; Exodus 4:16; Exodus 7:1. And Epimenides, a heathen poet, is expressly styled προφητης, a prophet, by St. Paul, Titus 1:12, just as poets in general were termed vates among the Romans, which properly signifies the persons who professed to interpret the will of the gods to their votaries, after prayers and sacrifices duly performed. In Arabic the word [Arabic] naba has nearly the same meaning as in Hebrew, but in the first conjugation it has a meaning which may cast light upon the subject in general. It signifies to itinerate, move from one place or country to another, compelled thereto either by persecution or the command of God; exivit de una regione in aliam. - [Arabic] migrans de loco in locum. - GOLIUS. Hence Mohammed was called [Arabic] an nabi, because of his sudden removeal from Mecca to Medina, when, pretending to a Divine commission, his townsmen sought to take away his life: e Mecca exiens Medinam, unde Muhammed suis [Arabic] Nabi Allah dictus fuit. - GOLIUS.

7. for he is a prophet] Abraham is here given the title of “prophet,” or “nβbξ” (the first occurrence of it in Scripture). The prophet—the one who utters or pours forth—is one who is in intimate relations with God, moved by His Spirit, protected by His Power. From 1 Samuel 9:9 we learn the nabi was in old times called roeh, or Seer. To call Abraham a “prophet” (nβbξ) is, therefore, an anachronism, indicating the atmosphere of the monarchical period. The prophet was one who was privileged to have intercourse with God, and was bound to communicate “the word” to his own kith and kin (Genesis 18:19). He was their representative, their intercessor, their spokesman. He who has the vision, rτ’eh, must declare the message, nβbξ. A comment on this passage is supplied by Psalms 105:14-15, “he suffered no man to do them wrong … and do my prophets no harm.” Perhaps the prophets of Israel traced their “guild” back to Abraham as their founder, as well as to Moses, their greatest leader (Deuteronomy 34:10). pray] i.e. intercede. For the efficacy of a “prophet’s” intercession, cf. Deuteronomy 9:20; 1 Samuel 7:5; 1 Samuel 12:19; 1 Samuel 12:23; Jeremiah 7:16.

7. He is a prophet — Here the word prophet first occurs, but the spirit of prophecy had been abroad long before, speaking though Enoch and Noah. A prophet, ðáéà, is one who announces a divine message.