Brother Of whom Cain stubbornly refusing to give an account the LORD said immediately to show he needed not to be informed the Voice of thy Brother's Blood crieth unto me from the Ground Ver. 10. And he said I heard thy Voice and I was afraid because I was naked c. The very Sound of the approach of thy Presence so affrighted me because I found I had lost my Innocency that I hid my self from thee This was a foolish and vain attempt but as Guilt makes Men fearful so that bereaves them of all Consideration Ver. 11. And he said Who told thee that thou wast naked Divested of those noble Endowments which I bestowed on thee Hast thou eaten c. Transgressed my Commandment Ver. 12. And the Man said The Woman whom thou gavest c. I confess my Guilt into which I was drawn by her whom thou gavest me for an help Thus we are apt to excuse and palliate our Faults by laying that Load upon others with which we ought to charge our selves Ver. 13. And the LORD God said unto the Woman c. What moved thee to violate my Command And she said The Serpent beguiled me My Weakness was deceived by the Cunning of the Devil Thus she also threw the blame upon another But God no doubt convinced them both of the greatness of their Guilt and the miserable Condition into which they were faln by their Transgression before he ended this Discourse with them Which shows the Infinite Mercy of the Creator of all who would not abandon them but sought after them to save them when they had lost themselves Ver. 14. And the LORD said unto the Serpent Thou art cursed c. It is observed by Tertullian That though God inflicted Punishments on Adam and Eve yet he did not curse them as he did the Serpent ut restitutionis candidatos they standing fair for a Restitution to his Favour L. II. adv Marcion c. 25. And I may add God did not begin with them but first Sentences the Serpent before he proceeds to Judgment upon them Which denotes that he the old Serpent was the great Offender being the first Mover to Sin which made his Crime more grievous than theirs Now to be cursed is to be deprived of what was before enjoyed and doomed to a miserable wretched Condition of life The particulars of which follow The only difficulty is Why the Serpent literally so called should be cursed as it manifestly is though the Devil also I shall show is intended being but an Instrument which the Evil Spirit used and had neither Will to Sin nor yet Understanding or Knowledge of what the Devil did It is commonly answered That this is no more than the Curse which God inflicted upon the Earth which was not capable of Sinning for Adam's sake verse 17. But still the Reason of that Curse is enquired which is evident enough Man himself being punished by the Curse upon the Earth Which did not yield its Fruit so plentifully and so easily as it had done before his Transgression And the reason of this Curse upon the Serpent may be the better discerned by another Instance which we find Exod. XXI 28. where an Ox which gored a Man or a Woman that they died is ordered to be stoned and his Flesh not to be eaten This sure was to show the great value God set upon Man's Life Which he secured also by this Punishment which moved all Owners to look well to their Beasts that might indanger it Even so was the Serpent condemned in Mercy to Adam and his Wife whom it is manifest by what follows God intended to restore into his Favour that they might be ever mindful of the foulness of their Guilt and excited to Repentance by seeing a noble Creature who was but the Instrument of it so extreamly debased into a most vile Condition Vpon thy Belly shalt thou go This shows the Serpent was a more noble Creature before this Fact But changed after it from a flying Seraph as the word is Numb XXI 6. into a foul creeping Serpent not moving aloft in the Air but crawling upon the Earth and licking the Dust So it follows And Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life There is no viler Food than this Which doth not signifie the Serpent should feed upon nothing else But that creeping on the Ground it cannot but lick up much Dust together with its Food whatsoever that be All this is literally the Curse of the Serpent But as the Devil lay hidden under the Covert of the Serpent though he be not named so his Curse is intended in this Curse of the Serpent though it be not separately mentioned As appears by the following Verse which hath a peculiar respect to the Devil under the Name of the Serpent And the Devil's Curse in general was this to be thrust down further than before from his ancient heavenly Habitation and condemned to live in the lower smoaky Region of the Air Where he hath lost all rellish of Celestial Enjoyments and pleases himself only in his vile endeavours to make Mankind as wicked as himself Ver. 15. I will put enmity between thee and the Woman and between thy Seed and her Seed An irreconcilable Feud throughout all Generations Which is true of the Serpent literally understood between whom and Mankind there is such an Antipathy that it discovers it self both in the natural and sensitive Faculties of them both Their Humours being Poison to each other and Man being astonished at the sight of a Serpent more than any other Creature and the Serpent in like manner at the sight of a Man especially if Naturalists say true of a naked Man Thus Mr. Mede Discourse XXXIX p. 295. But this is far more true and certain of the Spiritual Serpent the Devil and his Angels who joyned with him in his Apostasie and the Woman and her Seed in whom these words are more literally fulfilled For Maimonides justly admires that the Seed of the Woman should be only mention'd and not of Adam without whom she could have no Seed which therefore must be his Seed and that it should be said of her Seed not of his that it bruised the Serpent's Head More Nevochim P. II. cap. 30. This saith he is one of the Passages in Scripture which is most wonderful and not to be understood according to the Letter but contains great Wisdom in it In which Words he wrote more Truth than he was aware but was not able to unfold this hidden Wisdom as we Christians blessed be God are able to do For this Seed here spoken of is Christ as both the Targums that ascribed to Jonathan and that called the Hierusalem expound it and as we are taught to understand it by God's Words to Abraham when he renewed this Promise In thy Seed that is Christ saith the Apostle shall all Nations be blessed Gen. XXII 18. Gal. III. 8 16 For he vanquished the Devil who had now vanquished Mankind So it
A COMMENTARY UPON GENESIS Imprimatur JO. CANT Lambethae Maii 26 o. 1694. A COMMENTARY UPON THE First Book of MOSES CALLED GENESIS BY The Right Reverend Father in God SYMON Lord Bishop of ELY LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCV THE PREFACE HAving been persuaded to put together some scattered Notes which I long ago made upon several Places of Holy Scripture I began the last Year to consider some Texts in the Book of GENESIS Where I soon found there would be a necessity of making an entire Commentary upon a good part of it And therefore I resolved to go through the whole in the same manner as I had done the Three first Chapters After I had finished the better half of my Work I was informed that Mons l'Clerk had published a Critical Commentary upon the same Book But whether I have concurred in any thing with him or contradicted him I am not able to say having wanted leisure to peruse his Work by reason of the Publick Business which came upon me in the end of the Year When I likewise understood that a very Learned Friend and Brother had put into the Press Annotations upon all the Five Books of Moses But by communicating some of our Papers to each other we found there would be no reason that either of us should lay aside our Design but go on in our several ways to make the Scriptures better understood by all sorts of Persons For all helps are little enough in this Age which seems to take pleasure in being ignorant of the most important Truths In which we are so particularly instructed by Moses as by no other Author nor by all the Authors that are or have been known to be extant in the World For to him we owe the Knowledge of the beginning of the World of the first Parents of Mankind the Inventors of Arts the Original of Nations the Founders of Kingdoms and Empires the Institution of Laws the Fountain of Religious Rites Yea of all the ancient Mythology and which is most considerable the means of propagating that Sense of God and of Religion which Mankind brought into the World with them and how it came to be corrupted There have been those who have taken the liberty to say That it is impossible to give any tolerable Account of the Creation of the World in Six Days of the Situation of Paradise the Fall of our first Parents by the seduction of a Serpent c. But I hope I have made it appear there is no ground for such presumptuous Words But very good reason to believe every thing that Moses hath related without forsaking the literal Sence and betaking our selves to I do not know what Allegorical Interpretations Particularly I find the Truth of what I have noted concerning Paradise very much confirmed by a Learned and Judicious Discourse of Mons Huetius which I did not meet withal till I had made an end of these Commentaries But then took a review of what I had written and found cause to correct what I had noted out of Mr. Carver concerning the Spring of Tigris and Euphrates I might also have given a clearer Account of the Deluge if I had observed some things which are come to my notice since these Papers went to the Press But I hope I have said enough to evince that it is not so incredible as some have pretended For having made the largest Concessions concerning the heighth of the highest Mountains which according to the old Opinion I have allowed may be thirty Miles high Gen. VII 19. whereas if instead of thirty I had said not above three perpendicular I had had the best of the Modern Philosophers to defend me it appears there might be Water enough to cover the loftiest of them as Moses hath related Whose account of the Families by whom the Earth was Peopled after the Flood is so surprisingly agreeable to all the Records that remain in any Language of the several Nations of the Earth that it carries with it an uncontroulable Evidence of his Sincerity and Truth as well as of his admirable Universal Knowledge For as there is no Writer that hath given us an Account of so many Nations and so remote as he hath done So he hath not satisfied himself with naming them but acquainted us with their original and told us at what time and from what place and on what occasion they were dispersed into far distant Countries And this with such brevity that he hath informed us of more in one Chapter than we can find in the great Volumes of ill other Authors Having shown us from whom all â—hose People descended who are spread over the Face of the Earth from the Caspian and Persian Sea to Hercules his Pillars as the Ancients speak that is all the World over In short whatsoever is most ancient in those Countries which are furthest from all Commerce with his own is clearly explained by Moses Whose Writings therefore cannot but be highly valued by all those who will apply their Minds seriously to the study of them For if they who now have no regard to him would but compare what he hath written on the fore named Subject with what they find in those Heathen Writers whom they have in the greatest veneration they would be forced to confess him to be a Man of wonderful Understanding and could not reasonably doubt he had an exact knowledge of the Truth of those things whereof he wrote To this purpose I remember the famous Bochartus speaks who hath given the greatest light to the Tenth of Genesis wherein these things are delivered And truly it is some wonder That they who so much cry up the Egyptian Learning should not easily grant unless they will believe all Historians but only those whom we account Sacred that Moses must needs be qualified even without the help of Divine Revelation which he certainly had to write both of their Original and of all those who were related to them Being bred up in their Country nay in their Court till he was XL Years old and well versed in all the Wisdom that was to be found among them Acts VII 22. Which Wisdom of theirs I doubt not was much augmented by Abraham's living among them as I have observed upon XIII 2. but especially by Joseph's long Government of that Country for the space of LXXX Years Who was indued with such an incomparable Spirit that the wisest Men among them learnt of him for he taught their Senators Wisdom Psalm CV 22. And in like manner Moses lived XL Years more among the Midianites where it appears by Jethro there wanted not Persons of great Knowledge And from thence he might easily be instructed in all that the Arabians knew Who were no mean People it appears by the Story of Job and his three Friends and Elihu who is supposed by some to have wrote that admirable Book and were near Neighbours to the most famous Nations
Hebrews look upon this as Mr. Selden observes in the place before-named on verse 55. as an Example of the solemn Benediction which was wont to be given even before the Law of Moses when the Spouse was carried to her Husband Thou art our Sister Near Cousin or Kinswoman For all that were near of Kin called one another Brothers and Sisters Ver. 61. Her Damsels Who waited upon her and were given as part of her Portion Ver. 62. Well of Lahai-roi Mentioned XVI 14. By which it appears that Abraham after the death of Sarah returned to live at Beer-sheba or thereabouts for that was nigh this Well And it is probable Abraham and Isaac were not parted Ver. 63. To meditate c. The cool of the Evening and Solitude are great Friends to Meditation Ver. 64. She lighted off the Camel As they always did who met any Person whom they honoured Ver. 65. Took a Veil Not only out of Modesty but in Token of her Subjection to him Many will have this to have been a peculiar Ornament belonging to a Bride called by the Romans Flameum by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Mr. Selden observes L. V. de Jure N. G. cap. 5. Whence those words of Tertullian de Veland Virgin c. II. Etiam apud Ethnicos velatae i. e. sponsae ad virum ducuntur Even among Heathens Brides are brought to their Husbands with a Veil over their Faces Ver. 66. And the Servant told Isaac all things that he had done How she had consented to be his Wife Ver. 67. Brought her into his Mother Sarah's Tent. That Apartment wherein his Mother dwelt Which was distinct from that of the Husband 's And Isaac was comforted after the death of his Mother The Love he had to his Wife helpt to alleviate the Sorrow he had conceived at his Mother's death Which was so great that now it had continued three Years Such was the pious Affection Children had for their Parents in ancient Days Isaac was forty Years old when he married Rebekah XXV 20. and if we can believe the Jews in Seder Olam she was but fourteen CHAP. XXV Ver. 1. THEN again Abraham took a Wife Sarah being dead and Agar long ago sent away and his Son Isaac lately married he wanted a Companion in his old Age. For having given up Sarah's Tent unto Rebekah XXIV ult it is probable he gave up his own to Isaac and so dwelt in a Tent by himself where he found it necessary to have a Wife to look after his Family And her Name was Keturah We are not told what Family she was of But it is not unlikely she had been born and bred in his own House as Elieser his Steward was and perhaps was Chief among the Women as he among the Men-Servants Many of the Jews will have her to be Hagar whom Sarah who was the cause of her expulsion being dead he now received again So the Hierusalem Paraphrase and Jonathan also But Aben Ezra confutes this Opinion with good reason for no account can be given of Abraham's having more Concubines than one verse 6. unless we make Keturah distinct from Hagar Nor can any Body tell why he should call Hagar by the Name of Keturah here when he calls her by her own Name verse 12. Ver. 2. And she bare him He was now an hundred and forty Years old But so vigorous as to beget many Children Which need not seem strange considering the Age to which they then lived for he lived thirty and five Years after this Marriage verse 7. and that now in our time Men have had Children after they have been seventy nay eighty Years of Age. To the Truth also of this History we have the Testimony of Pagan Writers For Alexander Polyhistor mentioned by Josephus and by Eusebius L. IX Praepar Evang. cap. 20. tells us that Cleodemus called by some Malchas writing the History of the Jews reports just as Moses doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Abraham had a good many Children by Keturah Three of which he mentions by Name Zimran This Son of his with all the rest of his Brethren were sent by Abraham into the East Country as we read verse 6. and therefore we must seek for them in those Parts viz. in Arabia and the Countries thereabout where some footsteps of them have remained for many Ages particularly of Zimran from whom we may well think the Zamareni were descended a People mentioned by Pliny with their Towns in Arabia Foelix L. VI. cap. 28. And Jokshan Concerning whom I can find nothing but only this That Theophanes a Chronographer in the beginning of the IX Century after he hath treated of the Ishmaelites and Madianites the latter of which came from one of Keturah's Children and the Parts of Arabia where Mahomet was born immediately adds that there were other People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more in the Bowels of Arabia descended from Jectan called Amanitae that is Homeritae Perhaps it should be written Jokshan not Jectan For Philostorgius expresly says of the Homerites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That they are one of the Nations descended from Keturah and Abraham L. III. Hist Eccles § 4. where he relates a famous Embassie which Constantius sent to them to win them to Christianity and the good success of it And there is this strong proof of their descent from some of Abraham's Family that they retained the Rite of Circumcision even when they were Idolaters For he says expresly That it was a circumcised Nation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and circumcised also on the eighth Day Which was not the Custom of all the Arabians if we may believe Josephus L. I. Antiq. c. 23. and Eustathius in Hexaemeron c. who say the Arabians staid till they were thirteen Years old before they were circumcised Medan From whom the Country called Madiania in the Southern part of Arabia Foelix it 's likely had its Name Midian From whom Midianitis in Arabia Petraea had its Denomination And Ishbak I can find no footsteps of his Posterity unless it be in Bacascami which Pliny says was one of the Towns of the Zamareni who descended from his eldest Brother Zimran There were a People also hard by called Bachilitae as he tells us L. VI. Nat. Hist cap. 28. And Shuah Perhaps he had no Children or so few that they were mixt with some of their other Brethren and left no Name behind them Yet Pliny in the next Chapter mentions a Town called Suasa in that part of Arabia which is next to Egypt L. VI. cap. 29. Ver. 3. And Jokshan begat Sheba I observed before upon X. 7. that there are four of this Name or near it all comprehended by the Greek and Roman Writers under the Name of Sabaeans One of them the Son of Raamah had a Brother called Dedan as this Sheba here hath But they were the Fathers of a distinct People as is evident from the Scripture-Story and from other Authors For besides the