Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

12:7, 8
GENESIS A ’ ‘ ‘
which skirt the Jordan, on the ngrthern border of I what
was later the kingdom of Judah, between Bethel and Ai,
Bethel was a place, adjacent to which was the town called
Luz at the first (Gen. 28:19). (Jacob gave this name to
the place twice (Gen. 28:19, 3j:l.y). Arch
firms the fact that the city was established
Bronze Age; hence we meet the name as existing as such
in Abram’s time. Bethel continued pfterward to be a
place hallowed by the presence of God, to which the people
resorted for counsel in the war with Benjamin (Judg.
20:18, 26, 31; xxi. 2), and in which Jeroboam, 1 Ki.
12:29, set up one of the golden calves), “Ai” meant literally
a “heap of stones” (cf. Josh,, chs. 7, 8). Here Abram
pitched his tent. This was his second stoppimg-place in
the Promised Land. (Tent: used for dwelling, Gen. 4:20,
9:21, 12:8, 13:18, 18:1, 13:l; Exo. 18:7; Num. 24:5, 6;
2 Sam. 20:1; Isa. 13:20, 38:12; Jer. 6:3. Women had
tents apart from men, Gen. 24:67, 31:33. Used for cattle,
2 Chron. 14:lj. Manufacture of, Acts 18:3.) Abram
cdled upon the mame of Yohueh. Murphy (MG, 267):
“On the hill east of this sacred ground [Bethel] Abram
built another altar, and called upon the name of the Lord.
Here we have the reappearance of an ancient custom,
instituted in the family of Adam after the birth of Enok
(Gen. 4:26), Abram addresses God by his proper name,
Jehovah, with an audible voice, in his assembled household.
This, then, was a continuation of the worship of Adam,
with additional light according to the progressive development
of the moral nature of man. But Abram has not
yet any settled abode in the land. He is only surveying
its several regions, and feeding his flocks as he finds an
opening. Hence he continues his journey southward.”
Leupold on Gen. 4:26 (EG, 227): “The ‘name’ here, as
usual, means the whole truth that God had revealed about
Himself. Since the name ‘Yahweh’ is attached to ‘name,’
this means that from days of old God was known in the
74