And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.
10. I will greatly multiply ] The Angel of Jehovah expresses in the 1st person the promise of that which Jehovah will perform; as in Gen 21:18, Gen 22:15-18, Gen 31:13.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 10. I will multiply thy seed exceedingly] Who says this? The person who is called the Angel of the Lord; and he certainly speaks with all the authority which is proper to God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And the angel of the Lord said unto her,…. The same as before, who, by what follows, appears to be Jehovah himself:
I will multiply thy seed exceedingly; not that she should have many children herself, for that she had more than this one she now went with, is not certain; but that that seed she had conceived should be exceedingly multiplied, and he should have a numerous posterity, as he had twelve princes sprung from him, the heads of Arab nations:
that it shall not be numbered for multitude; such the Turks are at this day, supposed to be the seed of Ishmael, Hagar’s son.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Promise Concerning Ishmael. | B. C. 1911. |
10 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude. 11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction. 12 And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. 13 And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me? 14 Wherefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.
We may suppose that the angel having given Hagar that good counsel (v. 9) to return to her mistress she immediately promised to do so, and was setting her face homeward; and then the angel went on to encourage her with an assurance of the mercy God had in store for her and her seed: for God will meet those with mercy that are returning to their duty. I said, I will confess, and thou forgavest, Ps. xxxii. 5. Here is,
I. A prediction concerning her posterity given her for her comfort in her present distress. Notice is taken of her condition: Behold, thou art with child; and therefore this is not a fit place for thee to be in. Note, It is a great comfort to women with child to think that they are under the particular cognizance and care of the divine Providence. God graciously considers their case and suits supports to it. Now, 1. The angel assures her of a safe delivery, and that of a son, which Abram desired. This fright and ramble of hers might have destroyed her hope of an offspring; but God dealt not with her according to her folly: Thou shalt bear a son. She was saved in child-bearing, not only by providence, but by promise. 2. He names her child, which was an honour both to her and it: Call him Ishmael, God will hear; and the reason is, because the Lord has heard; he has, and therefore he will. Note, The experience we have had of God’s seasonable kindness to us in distress would encourage us to hope for similar help in similar exigencies, Ps. x. 17. He has heard thy affliction, v. 11. Note, Even where there is little cry of devotion, the God of pity sometimes graciously hears the cry of affliction. Tears speak as well as prayers. This speaks comfort to the afflicted, that God not only sees what their afflictions are, but hears what they say. Note, further, Seasonable succours, in a day of affliction, ought always to be remembered with thankfulness to God. Such a time, in such a strait, the Lord heard the voice of my affliction, and helped me. See Deu 26:7; Psa 31:22. 3. He promises her a numerous offspring, (v. 10): I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, Heb. multiplying, I will multiply it, that is, multiply it in every age, so as to perpetuate it. It is supposed that the Turks at this day descend from Ishmael; and they are a great people. This was in pursuance of the promise made to Abram: I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, ch. xiii. 16. Note, Many that are children of godly parents have, for their sakes, a very large share of outward common blessings, though, like Ishmael, they are not taken into covenant: many are multiplied that are not sanctified. 4. He gives a character of the child she should bear, which, however it may seem to us, perhaps was not very disagreeable to her (v. 12): He will be a wild man; a wild ass of a man (so the word is), rude, and bold, and fearing no man–untamed, untractable living at large, and impatient of service and restraint. Note, The children of the bondwoman, who are out of covenant with God, are, as they were born, like the wild ass’s colt; it is grace that reclaims men, civilizes them, and makes them wise, and good for something. It is foretold, (1.) That he should live in strife, and in a state of war: His hand against every man–this is his sin; and every man’s hand against him–this is his punishment. Note, Those that have turbulent spirits have commonly troublesome lives; those that are provoking, vexatious, and injurious to others, must expect to be repaid in their own coin. He that has his hand and tongue against every man shall have every man’s hand and tongue against him, and he has no reason to complain of it. And yet, (2.) That he should live in safety, and hold his own against all the world: He shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren; though threatened and insulted by all his neighbours, yet he shall keep his ground, and for Abram’s sake, more than his own, shall be able to make his part good with them. Accordingly we read (ch. xxv. 18), that he died, as he lived, in the presence of all his brethren. Note, Many that are much exposed by their own imprudence are yet strangely preserved by the divine Providence, so much better is God to them than they deserve, when they not only forfeit their lives by sin, but hazard them.
II. Hagar’s pious reflection upon this gracious appearance of God to her, Gen 16:13; Gen 16:14. Observe in what she said,
1. Her awful adoration of God’s omniscience and providence, with application of it to herself: She called the name of the Lord that spoke unto her, that is, thus she made confession of his name, this she said to his praise, Thou God seest me: this should be, with her, his name for ever, and this his memorial, by which she will know him and remember him while she lives, Thou God seest me. Note, (1.) The God with whom we have to do is a seeing God, and all-seeing God. God is (as the ancients express it) all eye. (2.) We ought to acknowledge this with application to ourselves. He that sees all sees me, as David (Ps. cxxxix. 1), O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. (3.) A believing regard to God, as a God that sees us, will be of great use to us in our returns to him. It is a proper word for a penitent:– [1.] “Thou seest my sin and folly.” I have sinned before thee, says the prodigal; in thy sight, says David. [2.] “Thou seest my sorrow and affliction;” this Hagar especially refers to. When we have brought ourselves into distress by our own folly, yet God has not forsaken us. [3.] “Thou seest the sincerity and seriousness of my return and repentance. Thou seest my secret mournings for sin, and secret motions towards thee.” [4.] “Thou seest me, if in any instance I depart from thee,” Psa 44:20; Psa 44:21. This thought should always restrain us from sin and excite us to duty: Thou God seest me.
2. Her humble admiration of God’s favour to her: “Have I here also looked after him that seeth me? Have I here seen the back parts of him that seeth me?” so it might be read, for the word is much the same with that, Exod. xxxiii. 23. She saw not face to face, but as through a glass darkly, 1 Cor. xiii. 12. Probably she knew not who it was that talked with her, till he was departing (as Jdg 6:21; Jdg 6:22; Jdg 13:21), and then she looked after him, with a reflection like that of the two disciples, Luk 24:31; Luk 24:32. Or, Have I here seen him that sees me? Note, (1.) The communion which holy souls have with God consists in their having an eye of faith towards him, as a God that has an eye of favour towards them. The intercourse is kept up by the eye. (2.) The privilege of our communion with God is to be looked upon with wonder and admiration, [1.] Considering what we are who are admitted to this favour. “Have I? I that am so mean, I that am so vile?” 2 Sam. vii. 18. [2.] Considering the place where we are thus favoured–“here also? Not only in Abram’s tent and at his altar, but here also, in this wilderness? Here, where I never expected it, where I was out of the way of my duty? Lord, how is it?” John xiv. 22. Some make the answer to this question to be negative, and so look upon it as a penitent reflection: “Have I here also, in my distress and affliction, looked after God? No, I was a careless and unmindful of him as ever I used to be; and yet he has thus visited and regarded me:” for God often anticipates us with his favours, and is found of those that seek him not, Isa. lxv. 1.
III. The name which this gave to the place: Beer-lahai-roi, The well of him that liveth and seeth me, v. 14. It is probable that Hagar put this name upon it; and it was retained long after, in perpetuam rei memoriam–a lasting memorial of this event. This was a place where the God of glory manifested the special cognizance and care he took of a poor woman in distress. Note, 1. He that is all-seeing is ever-living; he lives and sees us. 2. Those that are graciously admitted into communion with God, and receive seasonable comforts from him, should tell others what he has done for their souls, that they also may be encouraged to seek him and trust in him. 3. God’s gracious manifestations of himself to us are to be had in everlasting remembrance by us, and should never be forgotten.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
10. I will multiply thy seed exceedingly For the purpose of mitigating the offense, and of alleviating what was severe in the precept, by some consolation, he promises a blessing in the child which she should bear. God might indeed, by his own authority, have strictly enjoined what was right; but in order that Hagar might the more cheerfully do what she knew to be her duty, he allures her, as by blandishments, to obedience. And to this point those promises tend, by which he invites us to voluntary submission. For he would not draw us by servile methods, so that we should obey his commands by constraint; and therefore he mingles mild and paternal invitations with his commands, dealing with us liberally, as with sons. That the angel here promises to do what is peculiar to God alone, involves no absurdity, for it is sufficiently usual with God to invest his ministers whom he sends with his own character, that the authority of their word may appear the greater. I do not, however, disapprove the opinion of most of the ancients; that Christ the Mediator was always present in all the oracles, and that this is the cause why the majesty of God is ascribed to angels. (390) On which subject I have already touched and shall have occasion to say more elsewhere.
(390) See on this subject, Smith’s Scripture Testimony to the Messiah, Book 2 Chap. 4 Sect. 33. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(10) I will multiply thy seed.We have here the purpose of the Divine manifestation. Abrams son must not be mixed up with and lost among the debased population of Egypt, but must be the father of a free people; and Hagar will now submit to her lot as a slave, that she may secure liberty for her offspring.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘And the angel of Yahweh said to her, “I will greatly multiply your seed so that it will be so great that it cannot be numbered”.’
If she returns her future will be most satisfying. She will become the mother of a great multitude, the longing in those days of every woman. We note here that the angel of Yahweh speaks as God.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gen 16:10. I will multiply thy seed, &c. The angel here speaks authoritatively, and not as bearing a message from another: I will multiply. In the next chapter, Gen 17:20 the same promise is renewed: “And these passages,” says the Bishop of Bristol, “evince, that the prophecy doth not so properly belong to Ishmael, as to his posterity, which is here foretold to be very numerous. Ishmael married an AEgyptian woman; and, in a few years, his family was so increased, that, in the 37th chapter of Genesis, we read of Ishmaelites trading into AEgypt. Afterwards his seed was multiplied exceedingly in the Hagarenes, and in the Nabathaeans, who had their name from his son Nabaioth; and in the Ituraeans, who were so called from his son Ietur or Itur; and in the Arabs, especially the Scenites and the Saracens, who overran a great part of the world: and his descendants the Arabs are a very numerous people at this day.” See notes on Gen 17:20 and Jer 49:31.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Gen 16:10 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.
Ver. 10. I will multiply thy seed. ] Thus God contemneth not poor servants; nay, if they be faithful, he will give them “the reward of inheritance,” Col 3:24 even a child’s part, as Hagar and her child had. We read not that she cried to God; but her affliction spake for her; and he is oft – out of his mere “philanthropy” – “found Tit 3:4 of them that sought him not”. Rom 10:20 He heareth “the young ravens, that cry to him” only by way of implication. Psa 147:9 “The Lord hath heard thy affliction,” saith the angel in the next verse.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the angel: Gen 22:15-18, Gen 31:11-13, Gen 32:24-30, Gen 48:15, Gen 48:16, Exo 3:2-6, Jdg 2:1-3, Jdg 6:11, Jdg 6:16, Jdg 6:21-24, Jdg 13:16-22, Isa 63:9, Hos 12:3-5, Zec 2:8, Zec 2:9, Mal 3:1, Joh 1:18, Act 7:30-38, 1Ti 6:16
I will: Gen 17:20, Gen 21:13, Gen 21:16, Gen 25:12-18, Psa 83:6, Psa 83:7
Reciprocal: Gen 15:5 – So Gen 16:13 – called Gen 17:4 – a father Gen 18:10 – he said Gen 21:18 – I will Gen 22:11 – angel Jdg 8:24 – because
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gen 16:10. I will multiply thy seed exceedingly Hebrews Multiplying I will multiply it; that is, multiply it in every age, so as to perpetuate it. The Hagarenes, Saracens, and various other tribes of Arabs were descended from Ishmael, and they have been, and still are, a great people.