Ver. 1. And Abraham was old.] Non tam canis et annis, quam virtutibus et sapientia gravis, as one saith of Atticus. Abraham had a good gray head, as it is elsewhere said of him: hence, so honoured not only at home, but by the Hittites. (Genesis 23:6) Cognata sunt γνρας et γερας (ut ηθος et εθος), old age and honour are near akin in the Greek tongue. And God bids, “honour the face of the old man”; (Leviticus 19:32) for the hoary head is a crown, so that it be found in the way of righteousness. God is called “the Ancient of days”: and, because “holy,” therefore “reverend is his name,” as saith the psalmist. (Psalms 111:9) But it is a poor praise to Nectarius, who succeeded Nazianzen in the church of Antioch, that he was veneranda canitie et vultu sacerdote digno, a comely old man, and of a bishop like visage, and that was all that could be said for him. Beurer. in Vita Attici. Si prolixa faeit sapientem barba, quid obstat barbatus posset quin caper esse Plato? -Baron. Annal.
Ver. 2. Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh.] Either as a token of subjection, or for the honour of circumcision, quae erat in parte femoris; q.d., I adjure thee by the Lord of the covenant, whereof circumcision is a sign. Or (which is most likely) in reference to Christ, who was to come of Abraham, according to that phrase. “The souls that came out of Jacob’s thigh”. (Genesis 46:26)
Ver. 3. I will make thee swear by the Lord.] Who alone is the proper object of an oath. (Isaiah 65:16) Howbeit, in lawful contracts with an infidel or idolater, we may allow such oaths, whereby they swear by false gods; as those of old, that swore by God and Malcom; and the Turks’ great oath now-a-days is, By the immortal God, and by the four hundred prophets, by Mohammed, by his father’s soul, by his own children, and by the sword wherewith he is girt, &c. That thou shalt not take a wife unto my son, & c.] Lest they should “turn away” his heart “from following God,” (Deuteronomy 7:3,4) as those “foreign wives” did Solomon, (Nehemiah 13:26) whom therefore God Almighty punished both in himself and his successor Rehoboam, his only son (that we read of) by so many wives and concubines; and he was none of the wisest, nor happiest: tam auspicata sunt coniugia contra Dei legem contracta, saith the divine chronologer. “Be not unequally yoked,” (2 Corinthians 6:14) therefore, with any untamed heifer that bears not Christ’s yoke. If religion be any other than a cipher, how dare we disregard it in our most important choice? I wish Manoah could speak so loud, saith a reverend divine, that all our Israelites might hear him. “Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all God’s people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?” (Judges 14:3) What is the reason the Pope will not dispense in Spain or Italy, if a Papist marry a Protestant (yet here they will); but in hope to draw more to them? For they well know what power wives many times get over their husbands, as Jezebel did over Ahab; the hen was suffered to crow, and all went as she would have it. And therefore the Legates in the Council of Trent were blamed for allowing the article of priests’ marriage to be disputed, as dangerous, because it is plain that married priests will turn their affections and love to wife and children; and, by consequence, to their house and country. So that the strict dependence that the clergy hath upon the apostolic See would cease: and to grant marriage to priests would destroy the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and make the Pope to be Bishop of Rome only. Turk. Hist., 345. Dr Hall History of Council of Trent. 680.
Ver. 4. But thou shalt go unto my country, &c.] Nahor’s stock were neither pure in religion nor precise in life, (Joshua 24:2 Genesis 31:30) yet far better in both than those cursed Canaanites. Some knowledge they retained of the true God, of whom they speak much in this chapter, and concerning whom they hear Eliezer here relating how he had answered his prayer, and prospered his journey. And for their manners, we find them hospitable, and their daughter, though fair, yet a pure virgin. Now, “Lis est, cure forma, magna pudicitiae.” Like unto these are the Greek Church at this day, which is far greater than the Roman: and though in some points unsound, and in others very superstitious, yet holdeth sufficient for salvation. Cyril, their good patriarch of Constantinople, set forth the confession of the faith of those Eastern churches anno 1629, agreeable in all things for most part to the reformed Protestant religion, but diametrically opposite to that they call the Roman Catholic. He is also busy about a general reformation among them, and hath done much good. Brerewood’s Enquiries, p. 139.—Bp. Ussher’s Ser. at Wanstead. —-D. Field, Of the Church. —Jac. Revius, De Vit. Pontif., p. 320.
Ver. 5. Peradventure the woman, &c.] He swears cautiously, he doth not rashly rush upon his oath; he swears not in jest, but in judgment. So must we, (Jeremiah 4:2) duly considering the conditions and circumstances; as the nature of an oath, the matter whereabout, the person by whom, and before whom, the time, the place, our calling, and warrant thereunto. “Be not rash”; (Ecclesiastes 5:2) the best that can come of that is repentance, that fair and happy daughter of an ugly and odious mother. Swear not in heat and choler, as David did when he was going against Nabal; but soon after blessed Abigail for better counsel. Swear not in jest, lest you go to hell in earnest. (James 5:12) Swear not petty oaths, those civilised compliments, and interjections of common talk, Faith and truth, &c. Thou must not swear by thy hairs, thou canst not make one of them white or black; much less by faith and truth, that is more worth than hairs. Remember that large roll, ten yards long, and five yards broad, full of curses against the swearer. (Zechariah 5:2) And it rests upon his house, where he thinks himself most secure. When we are called to take a lawful oath, we must be reverently affected (as this good servant in the text), according to the excellency of the duty, and greatness of the person, whom we attest and invocate. The ancient form of taking and imposing an oath was, “Give glory to God”. (Joshua 7:19 John 9:24) And he that took the oath was said to “confess to God”. (Isaiah 45:23 Romans 14:11) Therefore also St Paul, in swearing, useth a word of attention, and saith “Behold,” I speak it “before God”. (Galatians 1:20) Louis the French king was taken prisoner by Meletisaka the Sultan; and conditions of peace being concluded between them, for more assurance thereof, the Sultan offered to swear, if he failed in performance of anything, to renounce his Mohammed; requiring likewise of the king to swear, if he failed in anything that he had promised, to deny his Christ to be God: which profane oath the king detesting, and wishing rather to die than to give the same, the Sultan wondering at his constancy, took his word without any oath at all, and so published the league. As on the other side, King John of England, being overcome in his barons’ wars, when he sent ambassadors to the monarch of Morocco for aid, offering to swear fidelity to him, and to receive the law of Mohammed, he grew into such a dislike of our king, that ever after he abhorred the mention of him. εχθρου πατρος φιλτατον τεκνον; as the Romans, in Plutarch, said of Pompey. Turk. Hist. Heyl., Geog., p. 714.