Genesis Chapter 20 verse 7 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 7. - Now therefore restore the man his wife. Literally, the wife of the man, God now speaking of Abraham non tanquam de homine quolibet, sod peculiariter sibi charum (Calvin). For he is a prophet Nabi, from naba, to cause to bubble up; hence to pour forth, applied to one who speaks by a Divine afflatus (Deuteronomy 13:2; Judges 6:8; 1 Samuel 9:9; 1 Kings 22:7). The office of the Nabi was twofold - to announce the will of God to melt Exodus 4:15; Exodus 7:1), and also to intercede with God for men (Ver. 7; Jeremiah 7:16; Jeremiah 11:14; Jeremiah 14:11). The use of the term Nabi in this place neither proves that the spirit of prophecy had not existed from the beginning (cf. Genesis 9:25-27), nor shows that the Pentateuch, which always uses this term, cannot be of greater antiquity than the time of Samuel, before which, according to 1 Samuel 9:9, the prophet was called a seer (Bohlen, Hartmann). As used in the Pentateuch the term describes the recipient of Divine revelations, and as such it was incorporated in the Mosaic legislation. During the period of the Judges the term Roeh appears to have come into use, and to have held its ground until the reformation of Samuel, when the older theocratic term was again reverted to (vide Havernick, § 19). And he shall pray for thee (vide supra), and thou shalt live. Literally, live thou, the imperative being used for the future in strong prophetic assurances (cf. Psalm 128:5; vide Gesenius, § 130). And if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, - literally, dying thou shalt die (cf. Genesis 2:17) - thou, and all that are thine.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(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; 1Timothy 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 (1Chronicles 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 (Psalm 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; 1Samuel 7:5; 1Samuel 12:19; 1Samuel 12:23; 1Kings 13:6; Job 42:8.) . . .