And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, [having] Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he built an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.
8. Beth-el on the west, and Ai on the east ] For Bethel, see note on Gen 28:12. For Ai, see Jos 7:2-5. The situation of Abram’s tent between Bethel and Ai must have commanded a view of the valley of the Jordan and of the Dead Sea, with the mountains of Moab. “Beth-el,” or “House of God,” was probably also an ancient shrine, the modern Btn, 9 miles N. of Jerusalem.
on the west ] The Heb. word for “the west” means literally “the sea,” i.e. the Mediterranean Sea. Such an expression for a point of the compass could only have been used by a people who had long been resident in the country.
called upon the name ] See note on Gen 4:26, i.e. he worshipped, using in his invocation the name “Jehovah.” The Name is the symbol of the Divine attributes.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Gen 12:8-9
He removed from thence
Lessons
1.
Faith moves a man from place to place in the world, upon Gods word or intimation.
2. The bad entertainment of believers in the world maketh them remove their stages.
3. In the wanderings of believers, God sends abroad the discoveries of His will to several places.
4. Faith maketh souls dwell in tents here below, and be still movable for heaven.
5. Faith causeth souls to adhere unto and make profession of the true religion of God in all places; faith is never ashamed of God, truth, worship, or way.
6. Believing souls cannot be without communion with God in offering to Him and hearing from Him.
7. Supplication to God and speaking in His name are special ways of worship suiting believers (Gen 12:8).
8. Faith maketh saints true sojourners below, to be still taking up their stakes at Gods beck.
9. To all points, east and west and south, God orders the motions of the saints to leave some savour of His truth everywhere (Gen 12:9). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Mountain devotions
In a meeting to pray for the presidents recovery, one of his classmates rose and said, Twenty-six years ago tonight, and at this very hour, our class were on the top of Graylock to spend the night of the fourth of July. As we were about to lie down to sleep, Garfield took out his pocket Testament and said, I am in the habit of reading a chapter every night at this time with my mother. Shall I read aloud? All assented; and when he had read, he asked the oldest member of the class to pray. And there, in the night, on the mountain top, we prayed with him for whom we have now assembled to pray. (Dr. Prime.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. Beth-el] The place which was afterwards called Beth-el by Jacob, for its first name was Luz. See Ge 28:19. beith El literally signifies the house of God.
And pitched his tent – and – builded an altar unto the Lord] Where Abram has a tent, there God must have an ALTAR, as he well knows there is no safety but under the Divine protection. How few who build houses ever think on the propriety and necessity of building an altar to their Maker! The house in which the worship of God is not established cannot be considered as under the Divine protection.
And called upon the name of the Lord.] Dr. Shuckford strongly contends that kara beshem does not signify to call ON the name, but to invoke IN the name. So Abram invoked Jehovah in or by the name of Jehovah, who had appeared to him. He was taught even in these early times to approach God through a Mediator; and that Mediator, since manifested in the flesh, was known by the name Jehovah. Does not our Lord allude to such a discovery as this when he says, Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad? Joh 8:56. Hence it is evident that he was informed that the Christ should be born of his seed, that the nations of the world should be blessed through him; and is it then to be wondered at if he invoked God in the name of this great Mediator?
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Beth-el, a known place, which afterwards was called Beth-el, but now Luz, Gen 28:19; a usual prolepsis, or anticipation, as before, Gen 12:6.
On the west; or, on the sea; which is all one, because the sea was on the west part of the land: see Gen 13:14; 28:14; Num 3:23; Deu 3:27.
Hai, or Ai, as it is called, Jos 7:2; Jer 49:3; Isa 10:28.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel,…. As it was afterwards called by Jacob, which before and at this time had the name of Luz, Ge 28:19 now to the east of this place was a mountain, whither Abram removed his tent from Sichem, which was about twenty miles from it, as Sir Walter Raleigh f observes, some say twenty eight g:
and pitched his tent; that is, upon the mountain, as before upon the plain, fitly representing the state of the people of God, as sojourners in this world, living like Abram in tents and tabernacles, having no abiding place:
having Bethel on the west, or “on the sea” h, the Mediterranean sea, which Aben Ezra calls the Spanish sea, and lay to the west of the land of Canaan:
and Hai on the east; the same which is called “Ai”, and said to be on the east side of Bethel, Jos 7:2 hard by this place, Rauwolff i says, you shall still find some old ruins of old stones, where first Abraham the patriarch did build a tent, as you read in
Ge 12:8 and he says that Bethel is still called to this day Bethisella, and is situated half a league further towards the west, at the foot of the hill, in a very fruitful country:
and there he builded an altar unto the Lord: as he had done at Sichem; for wherever he went he worshipped God, and offered sacrifice unto him:
and called upon the name of the Lord: prayed unto him for fresh mercies, as well as gave thanks for past ones; or, “he called in the name of the Lord” k, he called upon Jehovah the Father, in the name of his Son, the glorious Mediator, who had appeared unto him, and whose day he saw and was glad.
f History of the World, par. 1. b. 2. sect. 3. p. 132. g Bunting’s Travels, p. 56. h “a mari”, Montanus, Piscater, Schmidt. i Travels, part 3. ch. 21. p. 317. Ed. Ray. k “et invocavit in nomine Domini”, Montanus, Tigurine version.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He did this also in the mountains, to which he probably removed to secure the necessary pasture for his flocks, after he had pitched his tent there. “ Bethel westwards and Ai eastwards, ” i.e., in a spot with Ai to the east and Bethel to the west. The name Bethel occurs here proleptically: at the time referred to, it was still called Luz (Gen 28:19); its present name if Beitin (Robinson ‘s Palestine). At a distance of about five miles to the east was Ai, ruins of which are still to be seen, bearing the name of Medinet Gai ( Ritter’s Erdkunde). On the words “ called upon the name of the Lord, ” see Gen 4:26. From this point Abram proceeded slowly to the Negeb, i.e., to the southern district of Canaan towards the Arabian desert (vid., Gen 20:1).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
8. And he removed from thence. When we hear that Abram moved from the place where he had built an altar to God, we ought not to doubt that he was, by some necessity, compelled to do so. He there found the inhabitants unpropitious; and therefore transfers his tabernacle elsewhere. But if Abram bore his continual wanderings patiently, our fastidiousness is utterly inexcusable, when we murmur against God, if he does not grant us a quiet nest. Certainly, when Christ has opened heaven to us, and daily invites us thither to dwell with himself; we should not take it amiss, if he chooses that we should be strangers in the world. The sum of the passage is this, that Abram was without a settled residence: (347) which title Paul assigns to Christians, (1Co 4:11.) Moreover, there is a manifest prolepsis in the word Bethel; for Moses gives the place this name, to accommodate his discourse to the men of his own age.
And there he builded an altar. Moses commends in Abram his unwearied devotedness to piety: for by these words, he intimates, that whatever place he visited, he there exercised himself in the external worship of God; both that he might have no religious rites in common with the wicked, and that he might retain his family in sincere piety. And it is probable, that, from this cause, he would be the object of no little enmity; because there is nothing which more enrages the wicked, than religion different from their own, in which they conceive themselves to be not only despised, but altogether condemned as blind. And we know that the Canaanites were cruel and proud, and too ready to avenge insults. This was perhaps the reason of Abram’s frequent removals: that his neighbors regarded the altars which he built, as a reproach to themselves. It ought indeed to be referred to the wonderful favor of God, that he was not often stoned. Nevertheless, since the holy man knows that he is justly required to bear testimony that he has a God peculiarly his own, whom he must not, by dissimulation, virtually deny, (348) he therefore does not hesitate to prefer the glory of God to his own life.
(347) Αστατόυμενος
(348) “ Ut testetur se peculiarem habere Deum.” — “ Qu’il testife avoir un autre Dieu que celui qui estoit la adore :” to testify that he has another God than that which was there adored. — French Tr
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) He removed.Broke up his encampment. No special reason for this need be sought; it was the usual condition of the nomad life, and Abrams wealth in cattle would make frequent changes necessary. His first long halt was in the hill country between Beth-el and Hai, or rather Ai, as in Jos. 8:1-3. The numerous almond-trees, whence the former town took its early name of Luz, the remains of aqueducts and other works for irrigation, and the strength of the town of Ai in Joshuas days bear witness to the ancient fertility of the district, though said now to be uninviting. Here, too, Abram made open profession of his faith, and worshipped with his household at an altar dedicated to Jehovah.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. Removed from thence Abram moved southward from Shechem and pitched his tent on the little round mount now seen strewn with stones, as if for the building of an altar, south-east of Bethel now called Beitin by the Arabs a little spot covered with foundation stones and half-standing walls, while east of this mount, and at about the same distance, may be seen a hill covered with the gray ruins of Ai, the modern Et-Tel. See Jos 7:2, note . The name Beth-el (house of God) is said to have been given to this spot by Jacob on two different occasions, (Gen 28:19; Gen 35:15,) so that here the historian may mean that Abram pitched his tent at the place afterwards called Beth-el; or it may have borne this name already in Abram’s day, an interesting relic of ancient piety, such as we meet with in the name Melchizedek, and the name may have again been applied to it in a new sense by Jacob after his wondrous vision there.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And he removed from there to the mountain on the east of Bethel (‘house of God’), and pitched his tent, having Bethel to the West and Ai to the East. And there he built an altar to Yahweh and called on the name of Yahweh.’
Abram is surveying the land and finding places for his herds and flocks to feed. But wherever he goes he does not forget the public worship of God.
“Called on the name of Yahweh”. A technical term for Yahweh worship (see Gen 4:26). Abram is announcing to his family tribe that Yahweh is now the God of the land. The writer’s mention of the two great walled Canaanite cities (both well attested) is deliberate in order to emphasise Abram’s claim even in the face of these walled cities. It is an act of faith. He does not doubt that God can deal with the walled cities.
It is not said that he ‘called on the name of Yahweh’ at Shechem. That was more of a temporary altar, built because of the covenant confirmed there. That was a more personal act of worship. This one is more important and is recognised as the primary altar for worship by the tribe at this time.
To Abram there is only one God. He is Yahweh, the Creator of all things and Judge of all the earth (Gen 18:25, compare Gen 13:13 where Sodom’s sins are said to be ‘against Yahweh’). He is confident that Yahweh can work His will wherever He wishes, even in mighty Egypt (Gen 12:10-20). He rarely needs to deal with the question of the gods of others. When he meets Melchizedech king of Jerusalem he is ready to accept that El Elyon, ‘the Most High God’, maker of heaven and earth, is the same as Yahweh, for that is what he knows Yahweh to be (Gen 14:22). The same is true of El Shaddai, ‘God the Almighty’ (Gen 17:1) and El ‘Olam ‘the Everlasting God’ (Gen 21:33). For to him Yahweh is all. But this is because the descriptions fit Yahweh, not because he is prepared to equate Him with any god. He is not primarily a syncretist.
“Pitched his tent”. The use of tents is paralleled by the “seventeen kings who lived in tents”, mentioned in a later Assyrian inscription, and the first of whom is referred to at Ebla (3rd millennium BC). The Amorite tent dwellers of the earlier myth of Martu, and references in the Tale of Sinuhe (c.1950BC) also confirm the use of tents at this time.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gen 12:8. Removed from thence unto a mountain, &c. Either for better security from the inhabitants, or with a design of seeing more of the country. Here Abram built an altar (as it was usual on mountains); for, being fit places for contemplation, and, perhaps, by their height seeming to point the mind towards heaven above low earthly views, they were therefore chosen by pious men in ancient times, as altars of devotion raised by the Author of nature; and were approved of by God, till, like the sacred groves, they had been profaned by the impious rites of a barbarous superstition.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.
Abram not only served God for himself, but erected an altar for his public worship.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Gen 12:8 And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, [having] Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.
Ver. 8. And he removed from thence. ] Because his building altars to Jehovah was offensive to the Canaanites. Indeed, it was a wonder they stoned him not; but God restrained them.
And there he builded an altar to the Lord.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Genesis
ABRAM AND THE LIFE OF FAITH
Gen 12:1 – Gen 12:9
II
Part I
But Abram had a great hope blazing in front, none the less bright or guiding because it all rested on the bare promise of God. It is the prerogative of faith to give solidity and reality to what the world thinks has neither. The wanderer who had left his country was to receive a land for his own; the solitary who had left his kindred was to become the founder of a nation; the unknown stranger was to win a great name,-and how wonderfully that has come true! Not only was he to be blessed, but also to be a blessing, for from him was to flow that which should bless all the earth,-and how transcendently that has come true! The attitude of men to him and to the universal blessing that should descend from him was to determine their position in reference to God and ‘blessings’ or ‘cursings’ from him. So the migration of Abram was a turning-point in universal history.
Obedience followed the command, immediate as the thunder on the flash, and complete. ‘So Abram went, as the Lord had spoken unto him,’-blessed they of whose lives that may be the summing-up! Happy the life which has God’s command at the back of every deed, and no command of His unobeyed! If our acts are closely parallel with God’s speech to us, they will prosper, and we shall be peaceful wherever we may have to wander. Success followed obedience in Abram’s case, as in deepest truth it always does. That is a pregnant expression: ‘They went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.’ A strange itinerary of a journey, which omits all but the start and the finish! And yet are these not the most important points in any journey or life,-whither it was directed and where it arrived? How little will the weary tramps in the desert be remembered when the goal has been reached! Dangers and privations soon pass from memory, and we shall think little of sorrows, cares, and pains, when we arrive at home. The life of faith is the only one which is always sure of getting to the place to which it seeks to journey. Others miss their aim, or drop dead on the road, like the early emigrants out West; Christian lives get to the city.
Once in the land, Abram was still a stranger and pilgrim. He first planted himself in its heart by Sichem, but outside the city, under the terebinth tree of Moreh. The reason for his position is given in the significant statement that ‘the Canaanite was then in the land.’ So he had to live in the midst of an alien civilisation, and yet keep apart from it. As Hebrews says, he was ‘dwelling in tabernacles,’ because he ‘looked for a city.’ The hope of the permanent future made him keep clear of the passing present; and we are to feel ourselves pilgrims and sojourners, not so much because earth is fleeting and we are mortal, as because our true affinities are with the unseen and eternal. But the presence of ‘the Canaanite’ is connected also with the following words, which tell that ‘the Lord appeared unto Abram,’ and now after his obedience told him that this was the land that was to be his. He unfolds His purposes to those who keep His commandments; obedience is the mother of insight. The revelation put a further strain on faith, for the present occupiers of the land were many and strong; but it matters not how formidably and firmly rooted the Canaanite is, God’s children can be sure that the promise will be fulfilled. We can calmly look on his power and reckon on its decay, if the Lord appears to us, as to Abram-and He surely will if we have followed His separating voice, and dwell as strangers here, because our hearts are with Him.
After the appearance of God and the promise, we have an outline of the pilgrim’s life, as seen in Abram. He signalised God’s further opening of His purposes, by building an altar on the place where He had been seen by him. Thankful recognition and commemoration of the times in our lives when He has most plainly drawn near and shown us glimpses of His will, are no less blessed than due, and they who thus rear altars to Him will wonder, when they come to count up how many they have had to build. But the life of faith is ever a pilgrim life, and Bethel has soon to be the home instead of Shechem. There, too, Abram keeps outside the city, and pitches his tent. There, too, the altar rises by the side of the tent. The transitory provision for housing the pilgrim contrasts with the solid structure for offering sacrifices. The tent is ‘pitched,’ and may be struck and carried away to-morrow, but the altar is ‘builded.’ That part of our lives which is concerned with the material and corporeal is, after all, short in duration and small in importance; that which has to do with God, His revelations, and His worship and service, lasts. What is left in ancient historic lands, like Egypt or Greece, is the temples of the gods, while the huts of the people have perished long centuries ago. What we build for God lasts; what we pitch for ourselves is transient as we are.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Beth-el. An ancient Canaanite sacred pillar, doubtless here from previous times, called Luz (Gen 28:19; Gen 35:6; Gen 48:3. Jos 16:2; Jos 18:13. Jdg 1:23). Compare Jdg 1:23. When Moses wrote he used the later name.
altar. Between Beth-el and Ai would probably be Gerizim and Ebal, which were already or thus became sacred places. Compare Deu 27:2, Deu 27:12 and Jos 8:9, Jos 8:30.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Beth-el
One of the sacred places of Canaan, meaning, house of God Gen 28:1-22, (See Scofield “Gen 35:7”).
It is characteristic of all apostasy that Jeroboam chose this sacred place in which to erect an idol 1Ki 12:28; 1Ki 12:32. (Cf) 1Ki 13:1-5 and of divine judgment upon apostasy that God should decree the destruction of Bethel, despite its sacred memories; 1Ki 13:1-5; 2Ki 23:15-17; Amo 3:14; Amo 3:15.
God never hesitates to cast aside that which no longer serves His purpose Rev 2:5; Rev 3:16.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
of Bethel: Gen 28:19, Gen 35:3, Gen 35:15, Gen 35:16, Jos 8:17, Jos 18:22, Neh 11:31
Hai: Jos 7:2, Jos 8:3, Ai, Neh 11:31, Aija, Isa 10:28, Aiath
called: Gen 4:26, Gen 13:4, Gen 21:33, Psa 116:4, Joe 2:32, Act 2:21, Rom 10:12-14, 1Co 1:2
Reciprocal: Gen 8:20 – builded Gen 12:7 – builded Gen 13:3 – from Gen 13:18 – altar Gen 28:22 – God’s Gen 31:25 – General Gen 33:20 – altar Gen 35:6 – Luz Gen 46:1 – and offered Exo 6:3 – Jehovah Jos 8:9 – between Jos 8:30 – built an altar Jos 12:16 – Bethel 1Sa 7:17 – he built 1Ki 12:29 – Bethel 1Ch 4:10 – called Ezr 2:28 – Ai Heb 11:9 – dwelling
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gen 12:8. And there he built an altar, and called on the name of the Lord Such, it appears, was his constant practice, whithersoever he removed. As soon as he came into Canaan, though he was but a stranger and sojourner there, yet he set up, and kept up the worship of God in his family; and wherever he had a tent, God had an altar, and that sanctified by prayer.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
12:8 And he removed from {h} thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, [having] Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an {i} altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.
(h) Because of the troubles that he had among that wicked people.
(i) And so served the true God, and renounced all idolatry.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Abram proceeded south and encamped between Bethel and Ai (probably et Tell [Note: Peter Briggs, "Testing the Factuality of the Conquest of Ai Narrative in the Book of Joshua," a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society, Colorado Springs, Col., Nov. 15, 2001.] ) just north of Salem (Jerusalem). Again he built an altar to worship Yahweh and called on His name in worship.