The rich pastures in that part of the country tempted Abraham to form his first encampment in the vale of Moreh, which lies between the moun tains of Ebal and Gerizim. Here the strong faith which had brought the childless man thus far from his home was rewarded by the grand promise:—` I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing; and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed' (Gen. xii. 2, 3). It was further promised that to his posterity should be given the rich heritage of that beautiful country into which he had come (v. 7). It will be seen that this important promise consisted of two parts, the one temporal, the other spiritual. The temporal was the promise of posterity, that he should be blessed himself; and be the founder of a great nation ; the spiritual, that he should be the chosen ancestor of the Redeemer, who had been of old obscurely predicted (Gen. iii. 15), and there by become the means of blessing all the families of the earth. The implied condition on his part was, that he should publicly profess the worship of the true God in this more tolerant land ; and accord ingly `he built there an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.' He soon after removed to the district between Bethel and Ai, where he also built an altar to that JEHOVAH' whom the world was then hastening to forget. His farther removals tended southward, until at length a famine in Palestine compelled him to withdraw into Egypt, where corn abounded. Here his apprehension that the beauty of his wife Sarai might bring him into danger with the dusky Egyptians, overcame his faith and rectitude, and he gave out that she was his sister. As he had feared, the beauty of the fair stranger excited the admiration of the Egyptians, and at length reached the ears of the king, who forthwith exercised his regal right of calling her to his harem, and to this Abraham, appearing as only her brother, was obliged to sub mit. As, however, the king had no intention to act harshly in the exercise of his privilege, he loaded Abraham with valuable gifts, suited to his condition, being chiefly in slaves and cattle. These presents could not have been refused by him with out an insult which, under all the circumstances, the king did not deserve. A grievous disease inflicted on Pharaoh and his household relieved Sarai from her danger, by revealing to the king that she was a married woman; on which he sent for Abraham, and, after rebuking him for his con duct, restored his wife to him, and recommended him to withdraw from the country. He accordingly returned to the land of Canaan, much richer than when he left it ' in cattle, in silver, and in gold' (Gen. xii. 8; xiii. 2).
Lot also had much increased his possessions: and soon after their return to their previous station near Bethel, the disputes between their respective shep herds about water and pasturage soon taught them that they had better separate. The recent promise of posterity to Abraham himself; although his wife had been accounted barren, probably tended also in some degree to weaken the tie by which the uncle and nephew had hitherto been united. The subject was broached by Abraham, who generously conceded to Lot the choice of pasture-grounds. Lot chose the well-watered plain in which Sodom and other towns were situated, and removed thither. [LOT.] Immediately afterwards the patri arch was cheered and encouraged by a more distinct and formal reiteration of the promises which had been previously made to him, of the occupation of the land in which he lived by a posterity numerous as the dust. Not long after, he removed to the pleasant valley of Mamre, in the neighbourhood of Hebron (then called Arba), and pitched his tent under a terebinth tree (Gen. xiii.) It appears that fourteen years before this time the south and east of Palestine had been invaded by a king called Chedorlaomer, from beyond the Euphrates, who brought several of the small dis united states of those quarters under tribute. Among them were the five cities of the Plain of Sodom, to which Lot had withdrawn. This burden was borne impatiently by these states, and they at length withheld their tribute. This brought upon them a ravaging visitation from Chedorlaomer and three other (perhaps tributary) kings, who scoured the whole country east of the Jordan, and ended by defeating the kings of the plain, plundering their towns, and carrying the people away as slaves. Lot was among the sufferers. When this came to the ears of Abraham, he immediately armed such of his slaves as were fit for war, in number 318, and being joined by the friendly Amoritish chiefs, Aner, Eschol, and Mamre, pursued the retiring in vaders. They were overtaken near the springs of the Jordan ; and their camp being attacked on opposite sides by night, they were thrown into dis order, and fled. Abraham and his men pursued them as far as the neighbourhood of Damascus, and then returned with all the men and goods that had been taken away. Although Abraham had no doubt been chiefly induced to undertake this exploit by his regard for Lot, it involved so large a benefit, that, as the act of a sojourner, it must have tended greatly to enhance the character and power of the patriarch in the view of the inhabitants at large. In fact, we afterwards find him treated by them with high respect and consideration. When they had arrived as far as Salem, on their return, the king of that place, Melchizedek, who was one of the few native princes, if not the only one, who retained the knowledge and worship of `the Most High God,' whom Abraham served, came forth to meet them with refreshments, in acknowledgment for which, and in recognition of his character, Abra ham presented him with a tenth of the spoils. By strict right, founded on the war usuages which still subsist in Arabia (Burckhardt's Notes, p. 97), the
recovered goods became the property of Abraham, and not of those to whom they originally belonged. This was acknowledged by the king of Sodom, who met the victors in the valley near Salem. He said, 'Give me the persons, and keep the goods to thyself.' But with becoming pride, and with a disinterestedness which in that country would now be most unusual in similar circumstances, he answered, 'I have lifted up mine hand [i. e., I have sworn] unto Jehovah, the most high God, that I will not take from a thread even to a sandal-thong, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldst say I have made Abram rich.' (Gen. xiv.) Soon after his return to Mamre the faith of Abraham was rewarded and encouraged, not only by a more distinct and detailed repetition of the promises formerly made to him, but by the con firmation of a solemn covenant contracted, as nearly as might be, 'after the manner of men,' [COVENANT] between him and God. It was now that he first understood that his promised posterity were to grow up into a nation under foreign bondage, and that, in 40o years after (or, strictly, 405 years, counting from the birth of Isaac to the Exode), they should come forth from that bondage as a nation, to take possession of the land in which he sojourned (Gen. xv.) After ten years' residence in Canaan (Lc. 1913), Sarai, being then 75 years old, and having long been accounted barren, chose to put her own in terpretation upon the promised blessing of a pro geny to Abraham, and persuaded him to take her woman-slave Hagar, an Egyptian, as a secondary or concubine-wife, with the view that whatever child might proceed from this union should be accounted her own. [HAGAR.] The son who was born to Abraham by Hagar, and who received the name of Ishmael [IsHmAEL], was accordingly brought up as the heir of his father and of the promises (Gen. xvi.) Thirteen years after (R.c. 1900), when Abraham was 99 years old, he was favoured with still more explicit declarations of the Divine purposes. He was reminded that the promise to him was that he should be the father, of many nations; and to indicate this intention his name was now changed (as before described) from Abram to Abraham. The Divine Being then solemnly renewed the covenant to be a God to him and to the race that should spring from him ; and in token of that covenant directed that he and his should receive in their flesh the sign of circum cision. [CiRcumcisioN.] Abundant blessings were promised to Ishmael ; but it was then first an nounced, in distinct terms, that the heir of the special promises was not yet born, and that the barren Sarai, then 90 years old, should twelve months thence be his mother. Then also her name was changed from Sarai to Sarah (the pri n ces s) ; and to commemorate the laughter with which the prostrate patriarch received such strange tidings, it was directed that the name of Isaac (laughter) should be given to the future child. The very same day, in obedience to the Divine ordi nance, Abraham himself, his son Ishmael, and his house-bom and purchased slaves were all circum cised (Gen. xvii.) Three months after this, as Abraham sat in his tent door during the heat of the day, he saw three travellers approaching, and hastened to meet them, and hospitably pressed upon them refreshment and rest. They assented, and under the shade of a terebinth tree partook of the abundant fare which the patriarch and his wife provided, while Abraham himself stood by in respectful attendance. From the manner in which one of the strangers spoke, Abraham soon gathered that his visitants were no other than the Lord himself and two attendant angels in human form. The promise of a son by Sarah was renewed ; and when Sarah herself, who overheard this within the tent, laughed inwardly at the tidings, which, on account of her great age, she at first disbelieved, she incurred the striking rebuke, Is anything too hard for Jehovah ?' The strangers then addressed themselves to their journey, and Abraham walked some way with them. The two angels went forward in the direc tion of Sodom, while the Lord made known to him that, for their enormous iniquities, Sodom and the other cities of the plain' were about to be made signal monuments of his wrath and of his moral government. Moved by compassion and by remembrance of Lot, the patriarch ventured, reverently but perseveringly, to intercede for the doomed Sodom; and at length obtained a promise that, if but ten righteous men were found therein, the whole city should be saved for their sake. Early the next morning Abraham arose to ascertain the result of this concession : and when he looked towards Sodom, the smoke of its destruction, rising `like the smoke of a furnace,' made known to him its terrible overthrow. [SODOM.] He probably soon heard of Lot's escape : but the consternation which this event inspired in the neighbourhood induced him, almost immediately after, to remove farther off into the territories of Abimelech, king of Gerar. By a most extraordinary infatuation and lapse of faith, Abraham allowed himself to stoop to the same mean and foolish prevarication in denying his wife, which, twenty-three years be fore, had occasioned him so much trouble in Egypt. The result was also similar [ABIMELECH], except that Abraham answered to the rebuke of the Phi listine by stating the fears by which he had been actuated—adding, And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.' This mends the matter very little, since in calling her his sister he designed to be understood as saying she was not his wife. As he elsewhere calls Lot his brother,' this statement that Sarah was his 'sister' does not interfere with the probability that she was his niece.