And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
15. go to thy fathers ] i.e. depart in death to join thy forefathers in the place of departed spirits, i.e. Shel. Cf. Gen 47:30, “when I sleep with my fathers”; Gen 49:33, “was gathered unto his people.”
a good old age ] See for the fulfilment of this promise, Gen 25:7-8. To live to a good old age and to depart this life in peace, was, as is shewn in the typical lives of the patriarchs, regarded as the reward of true piety. Cf. Job 5:26, “Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in its season”; Pro 9:11; Pro 10:27.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 15. Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace] This verse strongly implies the immortality of the soul, and a state of separate existence. He was gathered to his fathers- introduced into the place where separate spirits are kept, waiting for the general resurrection. Two things seem to be distinctly marked here:
1. The soul of Abram should be introduced among the assembly of the first-born; Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace.
2. His body should be buried after a long life, one hundred and seventy-five years, Ge 25:7. The body was buried; the soul went to the spiritual world, to dwell among the fathers – the patriarchs, who had lived and died in the Lord. See Clarke on Gen 25:8.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
To thy fathers, i.e. either,
1. Into heaven, where thy godly progenitors are gone; or,
2. Into the state of the dead, where all thy fathers are gone before thee. This may seem more probable, at least in this place, partly, because this or the like phrase is indifferently used concerning good and bad men; see Gen 25:8; Psa 49:19; partly, because this phrase is so expounded, Act 13:36, He, i.e. David, was laid to his fathers, and (for that is) saw corruption; partly, because some of Abrahams fathers, and particularly Nahor, his grandfather, who lived and died an idolater, cannot with any warrant from Scripture be presumed to be gone to the place of blessedness in their souls. Free from those afflictions which shall come upon thy posterity after thy decease.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And thou shall go to thy fathers in peace,…. Or die, which is a going the way of all flesh, to a man’s long home, out of this world to another, to the world of spirits, to those that are gone before them; which is no inconsiderable proof of the immortality of the soul. Jarchi infers from hence, that Terah, Abram’s father, was a penitent, and died a good man, and went to heaven, the place and state of the blessed, whither Abram should go at death; but the phrase of going to the fathers is used both of good and bad men: it is moreover said of Abram, that he should go in peace; being freed from all the fatigues of his journeying from place to place in his state of pilgrimage, and not living to see the afflictions of his posterity, and to have any share in them; and dying in spiritual peace, in tranquillity of mind, knowing in whom he had believed, and where his salvation was safe and secure, and whither he was going; for a good man dies with peace of conscience, having his sins freely forgiven, and he justified from them by the righteousness of the living Redeemer, and enters into eternal peace, see Ps 37:37:
thou shall be buried in a good old age; this signifies that he should live long, see many days and good ones, enjoy much health and prosperity, continue in the ways of truth and righteousness to the end, and come to his grave like a shock of corn fully ripe, and fit for an other world; and that he should have a decent interment in the land of Canaan, where he purchased a burial place, and which was a pledge and earnest of the future possession of it by his seed, the thing here promised.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
15. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace. Hitherto the Lord had respect to the posterity of Abram as well as to himself, that the consolation might be common to all; but now he turns his address to Abram alone, because he had need of peculiar confirmation. And the remedy proposed for alleviating his sorrow was, that he should die in peace, after he had attained the utmost limit of old age. The explanation given by some that he should die a natural death, exempt from violence; or an easy death, in which his vital spirits should spontaneously and naturally fail, and his life itself should fall by its own maturity, without any sense of pain, is, in my opinion, frigid. For Moses wishes to express that Abram should have not only a long, but a placid old age, with a corresponding joyful and peaceful death. The sense therefore is that although through his whole life, Abram was to be deprived of the possession of the land, yet he should not be wanting in the essential materials of quiet and joy, so that having happily finished his life, he should cheerfully depart to his fathers. And certainly death makes the great distinction between the reprobate and the sons of God, whose condition in the present life is commonly one and the same, except that the sons of God have by far the worst of it. Wherefore peace in death ought justly to be regarded as a singular benefit, because it is a proof of that distinction to which I have just alluded. (378) Even profane writers, feeling their way in the dark, have perceived this. Plato, in his book on the Republic, (lib.1) cites a song of Pindar, in which he says, that they who live justly and homily, are attended by a sweet hope, cherishing their hearts and nourishing their old age; which hope chiefly governs the fickle mind of men. Because men, conscious of guilt, must necessarily be miserably harassed by various torments; the Poet, when he asserts that hope is the reward of a good conscience, calls it the nurse of old age. (379) For as young men, while far removed from death, carelessly take their pleasure; (380) the old are admonished by their own weakness, seriously to reflect that they must depart. Now unless the hope of a better life inspires them, nothing remains for them but miserable fears. Finally, as the reprobate indulge themselves during their whole life, and stupidly sleep in their vices, it is necessary that their death should be full of trouble; while the faithful commit their souls into the hand of God without fear and sadness. Whence also Balaam was constrained to break forth in this expression,
‘
Let my soul die the death of the righteous,’ (Num 23:10.)
Moreover, since men have not such a desirable close of life in their own power; the Lord, in promising a placid and quiet death to his servant Abram, teaches us that it is his own gift. And we see that even kings, and others who deem themselves happy in this world, are yet agitated in death; because they are visited with secret compunctions for their sins, and look for nothing in death but destruction. But Abram willingly and joyfully went forward to his death, seeing that he had in Isaac a certain pledge of the divine benediction, and knew that a better life was laid up for him in heaven.
(378) “ Quod nuper attigit,” — should doubtless be attigi; as the sense requires, and as it is rendered in the French version, with which the Old English Translation corresponds. — Ed
(379) “ Eam γηροτρόφον appellat.”
(380) “ Secure delicientur.” — “ Prenent leurs plaisirs sans souci ne crainte.” — French Tr
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(15) Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace.Abrams ancestors had died in Babylonia, but the phrase, used here for the first time, evidently involves the thought of the immortality of the soul. The body may be buried far away, but the soul joins the company of its forefathers in some separate abode, not to be absorbed, but still to enjoy a personal existence. (Comp. Gen. 25:8.) A similar, but more exact, distinction between the body and the spirit is drawn in Ecc. 12:7.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. Go to thy fathers A profound expression, suggestive of reunion in another and immortal life . Comp . Gen 25:8; Gen 39:29; Gen 49:33. To go to one’s father or people implies that they were somewhere living still . That the words do not here mean being buried in the ancestral tomb is evident from the fact that Abram was not buried with his father; and then, in all the passages cited above, the burial is mentioned as subsequent and distinct .
A good old age One hundred and seventy-five years old; Gen 25:7-8.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Gen 15:15. Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace It appears that this verse only concerns Abram personally, but all the rest of the prophecy respects his posterity. Some, says Parker, think this, Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, was no more than an oriental phrase for going to the grave: but it cannot be said of Abram that he did thus go to his fathers, since his dead body was so far from being laid with them in their sepulchre, that it was deposited in a country which had no manner of communication with that of his fathers: so that, from the text, an argument may justly be drawn for the separate existence of human souls, and for their departure hence, when they drop the mortal body, to go to live with those who have gone before them into the region of spirits.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gen 15:15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
Ver. 15. Thou shalt go to thy fathers. ] The “spirits of just men made perfect”; all the court of heaven shall meet thee, and welcome thee into their society. That brave Panegyris, Heb 12:22-23 .
In peace.
In a good old age.
a Bellum, cui nos instamus, pax est, non bellum. – Zuingl. apud Melch. Adam.
go to thy fathers = die and be buried. Abram’s fathers were idolaters. Jos 24:2. Figure of speech Euphemism (App-6).
And thou: Gen 25:8, Num 20:24, Num 27:13, Jdg 2:10, Job 5:26, Ecc 12:7, Act 13:36
in peace: 2Ch 34:28, Psa 37:37, Isa 57:1, Isa 57:2, Dan 12:13, Mat 22:32, Heb 6:13-19, Heb 11:13-16
buried: Gen 23:4, Gen 23:19, Gen 25:8, Gen 25:9, Gen 35:29, Gen 49:29, Gen 49:31, Gen 50:13, Ecc 6:3, Jer 8:1, Jer 8:2
good: Gen 25:7, Gen 25:8, 1Ch 23:1, 1Ch 29:28, Job 5:26, Job 42:17
Reciprocal: Gen 25:17 – gathered Num 31:2 – gathered Deu 32:50 – be gathered Jos 3:10 – drive out from Jdg 8:32 – died in 1Ki 1:21 – sleep 1Ch 17:11 – go to be 2Ch 24:15 – and was full of days Job 41:32 – hoary Psa 49:19 – to the generation Luk 2:29 – now
Gen 15:15. Thou shalt go to thy fathers At death we go to our fathers, to all our fathers that are gone before us to the state of the dead, to our godly fathers that are gone before us to the state of the blessed. The former helps to take off the terror of death, the latter puts comfort into it. Thou shalt be buried in a good old age Perhaps mention is made of his burial here, where the land of Canaan is promised him, because a burying-place was the first possession he had in it.
The ancients conceived of death as a time when they would rejoin their departed ancestors (cf. 2Sa 12:23). There was evidently little understanding of what lay beyond the grave at this time in history. [Note: For a synopsis of Israel’s view of life after death, see Bernhard Lang, "Afterlife: Ancient Israel’s Changing Vision of the World Beyond," Bible Review 4:1 (February 1988):12-23.]
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)