Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hebrews 11:9
By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as [in] a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
9. as in a strange country ] “I am a stranger and a sojourner with you” (Gen 23:3). The patriarchs are constantly called paroikoi, “dwellers beside,” “sojourners” (Gen 17:8; Gen 20:1, &c).
dwelling in tabernacles ] i.e. in tents (Gen 12:8; Gen 13:3, &c).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country – The land of Canaan that had been promised to him and his posterity. He resided there as if he were a stranger and sojourner. He had no possessions there which he did not procure by honest purchase; he owned no land in fee-simple except the small piece which he bought for a burial-place; see Gen 23:7-20. In all respects he lived there as if he had no special right in the soil; as if he never expected to own it; as if he were in a country wholly owned by others. He exercised no privileges which might not have been exercised by any foreigner, and which was not regarded as a right of common – that of feeding his cattle in any unoccupied part of the land; and he would have had no power of ejecting any other persons excepting what anyone might have enjoyed by the pre-occupancy of the pasture-grounds. To all intents and purposes he was a stranger. Yet he seems to have lived in the confident and quiet expectation that that land would at some period come into the possession of his posterity. It was a strong instance of faith that he should cherish this belief for so long a time, when he was a stranger there; when he gained no right in the soil except in the small piece that was purchased as a burial-place for his wife, and when he saw old age coming on and still the whole land in the possession of others.
Dwelling in tabernacles – In tents – the common mode of living in countries where the principal occupation is that of keeping flocks and herds. His dwelling thus in moveable tents looked little like its being his permanent possession.
With Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise – That is, the same thing occurred in regard to them, which had to Abraham. They also lived in tents. They acquired no fixed property, and no title to the land except to the small portion purchased as a burial-place. Yet they were heirs of the same promise as Abraham, that the land would be theirs. Though it was still owned by others, and filled with its native inhabitants, yet they adhered to the belief that it would come into the possession of their families. In their moveable habitations; in their migrations from place to place, they seem never to have doubted that the fixed habitation of their posterity was to be there, and that all that had been promised would be certainly fulfilled.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 9. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise] It is remarkable that Abraham did not acquire any right in Canaan, except that of a burying place; nor did he build any house in it; his faith showed him that it was only a type and pledge of a better country, and he kept that better country continually in view: he, with Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs of the same promise, were contented to dwell in tents, without any fixed habitation.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country; by the same Divine faith he passed from tent to tent, moving it from place to place, as God ordered; so as he rather sojourned than dwelt in any. His journal is legible in Mosess history, moving from Charran to Shechem, from thence to Beth-el, and then more southward, and thence to Egypt; see Gen 12:1-20; so that he sojourned in Canaan, and the adjoining countries, which God had covenanted to give for an inheritance to him and his seed, Gen 15:18-21; yet by faith he would stay Gods time for it, but lived in it as a stranger, not having in possession one foot of ground, but what he bought for a burying place, Gen 25:9,10; Ac 7:5.
Dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: here he, with his son Isaac, and grandson, and their seed, coheirs with him of Canaan, built no houses, but lived in tents, which they might pitch or remove at Gods pleasure, and as he called them, as who were strangers to this country, and to the inhabitants of it, with whom they were to have no spiritual society, as travelling to a better; being in this world, but neither citizens nor inhabitants of it, but as denizens of a more excellent one, Gen 26:3; Gen 28:13,14.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. sojournedas a “strangerand pilgrim.”
inGreek,“into,” that is, he went into it and sojournedthere.
as in a strange countryacountry not belonging to him, but to others (so the Greek),Act 7:5; Act 7:6.
dwelling intabernaclestents: as strangers and sojournersdo: moving from place to place, as having no fixed possession oftheir own. In contrast to the abiding “city” (Heb11:10).
withTheir kind ofdwelling being the same is a proof that their faith was the same.They all alike were content to wait for their good things hereafter(Lu 16:25). Jacob was fifteenyears old at the death of Abraham.
heirs with him of the samepromiseIsaac did not inherit it from Abraham, nor Jacob fromIsaac, but they all inherited it from God directly as “fellowheirs.” In Heb 6:12; Heb 6:15;Heb 6:17, “the promise”means the thing promised as a thing in part alreadyattained; but in this chapter “the promise” is ofsomething still future. However, see on Heb6:12.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
By faith he sojourned in the land of promise,…. The land of Canaan, so called, because it was promised to Abraham and his seed; and is typical of heaven, which is not by the works of the law, but by the free promise and grace of God: here Abraham sojourned for a while,
as in a strange country; which was not his native place, and not his own, but another’s; see Ac 7:5 and an idolatrous one; here he sojourned by faith, believing that as it was promised, it would be given to him, and his seed: so all God’s people are sojourners in this world, strangers and pilgrims in it; this is not their dwelling place; they do not belong to it, but to another; their stay in it is but for a while; and, while they are in it, do not look upon themselves at home, but are looking out for another, and better country; they are unknown to the men of the world, and the men of the world are strangers to them; though they have a civil conversation with them, they separate from them, both as to profaneness and superstition, and live by faith, in the expectation of the heavenly country, as Abraham also did:
dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; the same promised land, the same promised blessings, and the same promised seed, the Messiah; see
Ge 12:3 with these Abraham dwelt, for he lived until Isaac was seventy five years of age, and Jacob fifteen; he was an hundred years old when Isaac was born, Ge 21:5 and he lived one hundred and seventy five years, Ge 25:7 and Isaac was sixty years old when Jacob was born, Ge 25:26 and Abraham dwelt with them in tabernacles, or tents, which they pitched at pleasure, and moved from place to place. So true believers, as they are Abraham’s seed, they are heirs with him, according to the promise; and are heirs together of the grace of life; and dwell in earthly tabernacles, in houses of clay, which are erected for a while, and then taken down.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Became a sojourner (). First aorist active indicative of , old verb to dwell () beside (), common in LXX, in N.T. only here and Lu 24:18. Called (sojourner) in Ac 7:6.
In the land of promise ( ). Literally, “land of the promise.” The promise made by God to him (Gen 12:7; Gen 13:15; Gen 17:8).
As in a land not his own ( ). For (belonging to another) see Heb 9:25; Heb 11:34.
The heirs with him of the same promise ( ). Late double compound (, , ), found in Philo, inscriptions and papyri, in N.T. only here, Rom 8:17; Eph 3:6; 1Pet 3:7. “Co-heirs” with Abraham.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
He sojourned in [ ] . The verb lit. to dwell beside or among. Paroikov, a foreigner dwelling in a state without rights of citizenship. In Class. only in the sense of neighbor. See on Luk 24:18. The verb of rest with the preposition of motion (only here) signifies that he went into the land and dwelt there. Usually with ejn in, but sometimes with the simple accusative, as Luk 24:18; Gen 17:8; Exo 6:4. Land of promise [ ] . Note the article, omitted in A. V., the promise : the land which was designated in the promise of God. See Gen 12:7; Gen 13:15. The phrase N. T. o. There is no corresponding phrase in O. T.
Strange [] . Another [] land than his own. So LXX, Gen 14:13. Comp. Act 7:6.
In tabernacles [ ] . Or tents, as a migratory people, without a permanent home.
The heirs with him [ ] . Joint – heirs or fellow – heirs. o LXX, o Class. See Rom 8:17; Eph 3:6; 1Pe 3:7. The three, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are mentioned because they cover the entire period of the sojourn in Canaan. Faith inspired these to endure patiently their unsettled life, since it assured them of a permanent home in the future.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise,” (pistei parokesin eis gen tes epangelias) “Through (the gift of) faith he sojourned in a land of promise,” He moved about, out in travel, from place to place, unsettled as a nomad, Gen 13:18; Gen 23:3-4; Gen 35:21; moving his temporary dwelling from place to place; He had no specific knowledge of where or what that promised country was, when he went out, Gen 12:1; Gen 12:4; Gen 7:8.
2) “As in a strange country,” (hos allotrian) “As a foreigner,” as a stranger, one having no permanent home, as a non-citizen, one searching for a fatherland, an homeland, while yet unsettled, away from his own inheritance, never to receive it in his own lifetime, Act 7:5-6.
3) “Dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob,” (en skenais katoikesas meta isaak kai jakob) “Making a temporary home in tents with Isaac and Jacob,” who also believed God in refusing to settle down and build permanent homes in the country of their sojourn. They lived -in temporary tents, as if they were only neighbors and had no inheritance claim on the land,” 2Co 5:1.
4) “The heirs with him of the same promise,” (ton sugkleronomon tes epangelias tes autes) “heirs in colleague of the same promise,” the same inheritance promise; yet they too were compelled to move with him from place to place, indicating that they had a deeper, more significant faith of their coming inheritance than the mere land-grant area alone; for they looked in colleague, close affinity of faith, with Abraham, for that city to come, Gen 13:14-18; Gen 15:18; 2Co 5:1; 2Co 5:4; Jas 5:7; Heb 11:16.
THE TENTS OF ARABIA
The tents are generally six or seven feet high, and rectangular in form, made of a strong coarse cloth of camel’s or goat’s hair, which is spun by the women, and woven in a common loom. As a substitute for this, a stuff, made with the fibers of a root called “leftadun,” is sometimes used. These tents are of a dark color (So 1:5); the roofs slope, so that they are almost waterproof, unless the rain be very heavy and last for several days. Inside they are sometimes divided into three compartments, one of which belongs to the women, whose special duty it is to pitch and strike the tent. The tents may be said to have a fixed order in a camp, as they are arranged around an open place where the cattle are penned at night. No works are constructed to defend these, nor are sentries posted; the dogs alone are trusted to wake all the sleepers on approach of strangers. When any danger threatens, the chief gives a signal, each family packs up the goods in its own tent, and loads them on the camels, the cattle are driven in advance, and quicken their pace as though they understood their master’s wishes. On a march of this kind the horsemen ride in front to reconnoiter, and then fall back on the flanks, and, if necessary, bravely and obstinately protect the retreat with the help of the footmen, armed with guns and knives.
– Pierrotti
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
9. By faith he sojourned, etc. The second particular is, that having entered into the land, he was hardly received as a stranger and a sojourner. Where was the inheritance which he had expected? It might have indeed occurred instantly to his mind, that he had been deceived by God. Still greater was the disappointment, which the Apostle does not mention, when shortly after a famine drove him from the country, when he was compelled to flee to the land of Gerar; but the Apostle considered it enough to say, as a commendation to his faith, that he became a sojourner in the land of promise; for to be a sojourner seemed contrary to what had been promised. That Abraham then courageously sustained this trial was an instance of great fortitude; but it proceeded from faith alone.
With Isaac and Jacob, etc. He does not mean that they dwelt in the same tent, or lived at the same time; but he makes Abraham’s son and grandson his companions, because they sojourned alike in the inheritance promised to them, and yet failed not in their faith, however long it was that God delayed the time; for the longer the delay the greater was the trial; but by setting up the shield of faith they repelled all the assaults of doubt and unbelief. (217)
(217) The preposition μετὰ may often be rendered “as well as.” See Mat 2:3; Luk 11:7, 1Co 16:11; “dwelling in tents, as well as Isaac and Jacob, co-heirs to the same promise.” It means not here the same time, says Grotius, but parity as to what is stated. — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(9) The land of promiseMore correctly, according to the true reading, a land of the promise: into a land which the promise (Gen. 12:7) made his own he came as a sojourner, and sojourned in it as in a land belonging to others, making his settled abode there in tents. The words of which this is a paraphrase are very expressive, especially those of the last clause. Abraham there made his home once for all, well aware that it was to be his homeexpecting no change in this respect all his life longin tents, movable, shifting abodeshere to-day, there to-morrowwith (as did also in their turn) Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. (Dr. Vaughan.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. A strange That is, as somebody else’s, and not his own, country; though by divine promise most truly his own.
Tabernacles That is, tents; the abodes of wanderers and strangers, the striking image of transitory residence.
Same promise And same faith, as in Heb 11:21.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise, for he looked for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and maker is God.’
Furthermore he continued to exercise that faith in that land, for he lived there as an alien without a home, even though it was the land of promise, and he established no city but dwelt in tents all his life, as did Isaac and Jacob his sons after him, for they too awaited the fulfilment of the promise. Only tiny portions of the land became theirs (Gen 23:3-20; Gen 33:19-20) but they trusted God totally that one day the promise would become a reality. They were happy to play their part in God’s purposes even though their fulfilment awaited the future. For they knew on the basis of God’s promise that that future was certain, and that one day the land would belong to their descendants, and they were willing patiently and trustfully to wait.
‘For he looked for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and maker is God.’ And this was all because he looked for what God would finally provide. He was confident that one day the land would belong to his seed and that God would build a great city with everlasting, God-established, permanent foundations, which would establish them as God’s people for ever, a permanent home with sound foundations, of which God would be the architect and builder.
This was something greater than the literal Jerusalem, which already existed (Genesis 14), and that is never suggested in Scripture to be that visualised by Abraham. Although such a city as visualised by Abraham may be traced in the spiritual expectations of the prophets, an everlasting city with an everlasting sanctuary, which itself was as symbolised by Jerusalem (Psa 48:2-3; Psa 48:8; Isa 2:2-4; Isa 4:3-6; Isa 11:9; Isa 24:23; Isa 26:1-4; Isa 51:11; Isa 66:20-23; Joe 3:20; Eze 37:24-28; Eze 48:30-35).
It was to be something designed and built by God, which to some extent might be compared with the staircase seen by Jacob in his dream. This dream showed that the patriarchs did recognise contact between Heaven and the promised land. That Abraham had some such vision is certain even if not articulated for he knew that kings were to arise from his seed, and he would therefore expect there finally to be a city, but he saw it as no ordinary city because it would be from God, and would connect up to God. Meanwhile he did not try to forestall God. It knew by faith that it would come in God’s time. He did not attempt to forestall God. One of the elements of faith is being willing to wait on God’s timing.
It is vain to look further into the mind of Abraham, for we must not read our conceptions into him, but the writer certainly has in mind more than that, for he knew what Abraham probably did not know, that that city would finally be founded not on earth but in Heaven, and would finally have its part in the new earth (Heb 12:22; Revelation 21-22). Thus must his readers by faith also have confidence in their part in that city and like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, persevere and not miss out on it as a future potential.
Note the emphasis on Abraham’s first call and obedience, followed by the emphasis on his continuing perseverance to the end, something the writer is stressing to his readers.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Heb 11:9. By faith he sojourned, &c. Abraham went from Mesopotamia, at the command of God, and came to Haran, where he dwelt: thence he removed to the land of Canaan, and travelled to the south-west parts of it, where he lived in tents. The phrase, , is not the same as the phrase ; but implies his sojourning all along, before he got to Canaan, even till he came to it, as well as in it: so that this expression shews a continued act of trust in God, from his first setting out from Mesopotamia to Haran, and from thence to Canaan; as a strange land , signifies a land in which he had no property or claim of right, and in which consequently he dwelt in tents, the proprietors of any settlements generally erecting houses and other buildings, which indicate the land to be their property, and their possession to be permanent. It is plain from the account of the lives of Isaac and Jacob, that Jacob was born fifteen years before Abraham died.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Heb 11:9 . A proof of a believing confidence in God was it further that Abraham dwelt as a stranger in the land which was promised him as a possession.
] in classic Greek of dwelling beside or in the neighbourhood ; in Hellenistic, however, ordinarily as here: to dwell as a stranger in a land, without rights of citizenship or possession. Even in Genesis the sojourning of Abraham and his sons in the promised land of Canaan is designated as a , and they themselves are characterized as in the same; comp. Gen 17:8 ; Gen 20:1 ; Gen 21:23 ; Gen 21:34 ; Gen 23:4 ; Gen 24:37 ; Gen 26:3 ; Gen 28:4 , al .
] receives into the idea of a permanent dwelling that of a previous migration. Familiar breviloquence. See Winer, Gramm. , 7 Aufl. p. 386.
] Comp. Act 7:5-6 .
] Theophylact: , . Comp. Gen 12:8 ; Gen 13:3 ; Gen 18:1 ff; Gen 26:25 , al .
. . .] which Theophylact, Bengel, Bhme, Kuinoel, Tischendorf, and others refer to , belongs, as is shown by the singular with which the author continues at Heb 11:10 , to .
Isaac and Jacob, however, are called heirs with him of the same promise, because the promise was given to Abraham not for himself alone, but at the same time for his seed; comp. Gen 13:15 ; Gen 17:8 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
Ver. 9. He sojourned in the land ] There he had his commoration, but in heaven his conversation, content to dwell in tents till he should fix his station above.
With Isaac and Jacob ] Perhaps together, as near neighbours. When Abraham parted with Lot, he would part with him no further than the right hand is from the left, Gen 13:9 . There is singular comfort in the society of saints.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
9 .] By faith he sojourned ( in classical Greek signifies to dwell in the neighbourhood of, and is followed by a dative: so Thuc. iii. 93, . Isocrates uses it in the sense of “to dwell alongside of,” with another reference, and an accus.: , p. 74. But the Hellenistic sense is, to dwell as a stranger, to sojourn only. So LXX in reff.: so Philo, Quis Rer. Div. Hr. 54, vol. i. p. 511, , , , . And Confus. Ling. 17, p. 416, , ) in (pregnant construction, as often in St. Luke, see Act 7:4 ; Act 8:40 ; Act 12:19 ; Act 18:21 ; Luk 11:7 ; he went into the land and sojourned there) the land ( is one of those words which very commonly drop the article, especially when in government) of the promise (concerning which the promise, Gen 12:7 , had been given) as a stranger’s (as if it did not belong to him, but to another: see ref. Acts, which is strictly parallel, and cf. , Gen 15:13 ), dwelling (the aor. part. is contemporary with the aor. before) in tents (cf. Gen 12:8 ; Gen 13:3 ; Gen 18:1 ff. , . Thl.) with Isaac and Jacob (Thl., Bengel, Bhme, Kuinoel, Griesb., Lachm., al. join these words with above. But they more naturally belong to , which has just preceded: for otherwise we should expect in Heb 11:10 ) the heirs with him of the same promise ( . , as , Luk 2:8 ; the only other place where this arrangement is found. What is implied is, not so much that the promise was renewed to them, as that all three waited for the performance of the same promise, and in this waiting, built themselves no permanent abode):
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Hebrews
THE CITY AND THE TENT
Heb 11:9-10
THE purpose of the great muster-roll of the ancient heroes of Judaism in this chapter is mainly to establish the fact that there has never been but one way to God. However diverse the degrees of knowledge and the externals, the essence of religion has always been the same. So the writer of this Epistle, to the great astonishment, no doubt, of some of the Hebrews to whom it was addressed, puts out his hand, and claims, as Christians before Christ, all the worthies of whom they were nationally so proud. He is speaking here about the three patriarchs. Whether he conceives them to have all lived on the earth at one time or no, does not trouble us at all ‘By faith,’ says he, ‘Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise,’ because, ‘he looked for the city which hath the foundations, whom builder’ – or rather Architect – ‘and maker’ – or rather Builder – ‘is God.’ Now, of course, the writer gives a considerable extension of the meaning to the word ‘faith’; and in his use one aspect of it is prominent, though by no means exclusively so – viz., the aspect which looks to the unseen and the future, rather than that which grasps the personal Christ. But this is no essential difference from the ordinary New Testament usage; it is only a variation in point of view, and in the prominence given to an element always present in faith. What he says here, then, is substantially this – that in these patriarched lives we get a picturesque embodiment of the essential substance of all true Christian living, and that mainly in regard of two points, the great object which should fill mind and heart, and the consequent detachment from transitory things which should be cultivated.
‘He looked for a city,’ and so he was contented to dwell in a movable tent. That is an emblem containing the essence of what our lives ought to be, if we are truly to be Christian. Let us, then, deal with these two inseparable and indispensable characteristics of the life of faith. I. Faith will behold the Unseen City, and the vision will steadfastly fill mind and heart. As I have remarked, the conception of faith presented in the Epistle is slightly different from that found in other parts of the New Testament. It is but slightly different, for, whether we say that the object of our faith is the Christ, ‘Whom having not seen we love; in whom, though now we see Him not, yet believing we rejoice,’ or whether we say that it is the whole realm and order of things beyond the grave and above the skies where He is and which He has made our native land, makes in reality very little difference. We come at last to the thought of personal reliance on Him by whose word and by whose resurrection and ascension only we apprehend, and by whose grace and power and love only we shall ever possess that unseen futurity. So we may fairly say that whilst, no doubt, it is true that the living Christ Himself – and no heaven apart from Him, nor any future apart from Him, nor any thing of His, apart from Him, though it be a cross, but the living Christ Himself is the true object of faith, yet that conception of its object includes the view of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the ‘city which has the foundations,’ should, because it is all clustered round Him who is its King, Be the object that fills our minds and hearts. I am not going to discuss the details of what this writer supposes to have been the animating principle and aim of that ancient patriarch’s life. It matters nothing at all for the power of his example whether we suppose that Abraham looked forward to the realisation of this unseen ideal city in this life or no, for the effect of it upon him would be exactly the same whichever of the two alternatives may have been the case. It matters nothing as to whether Abraham believed in the realisation in that land over which he wandered, of the perfect order of things, or whether he had caught some glimpse, which is very unlikely, of it as reserved for a future beyond the grave. In either case, he lived for and by an unseen and future condition of things. It is beautiful to notice how the writer here, in his picturesque and simple words, puts many blessed ideas as to that future. We may, perhaps, make these a little more clear, but I am afraid we shall make them much more weak, by taking them out of the metaphorical form.‘The City’ – then there is only one. ‘The City’ – then the object of our hope, ought to be, and is, if we understand it aright, a perfect society, in which the ‘sojourners and pilgrims,’ like the patriarch, and his little band of children and attendants, who wandered lonely up and down the world, will all be gathered together at last; and, instead of the solitude of the march, and the undefended weakness of the frail encampment, there will be the conjoined gladness and security of an innumerable multitude. ‘The City’ is the perfection of society, and all of us who live in the world, alone after all communion, and separated from each other by the awful mystery of personal being, and by many another film beside, may hope to understand, as we never shall do here, what the meaning of the little word ‘together’ is when we get there. ‘He looked for the city.’‘The city which hath the foundations’ – then the object of faith is a stable thing, which knows no fluctuations, feels no changes, fears no assault, can never be subjected to violence, nor ever crumple into dust. ‘The city which’ hath the foundations’ – here and now we have to build, if we build at all, more or less like the foolish man in the Master’s parable, upon sand. It is the condition of our earthly life. We have to accept, and to make the best of it. But, oh! those who have learned most the agony of change and the misery of uncertainty are those who have been best disciplined to grasp at and lay up in their hearts the large consolation and encouragement hived in that designation, ‘the city which hath the foundations.’ The city, ‘whose Architect’ – for the word rendered ‘Builder’ should be so translated – ‘is God.’ It is the accomplishment of His plan, which, in modern language, is called the realisation of His ideal. I like the old- fashioned Biblical language better – ‘the city whose Architect is God.’ He planned, and, of course, there follows upon that ‘whose Maker or actual Builder is’ – the same as the Planner. Architects put their drawings into the hands of rude workmen, and no completed work of man’s hands corresponds to the fair vision that dawned on its designer when it took definite shape in His mind. That is another of the laws of our earthly life which we have to make the best of – that we design grand buildings when we begin, and, when we have finished our lives, and look back upon what we have built, it is a mean and incomplete structure at the best. But God’s working drawings get built; His plans are all wrought out in an adequate material; and everything that was in the divine mind once exists in outward fact in that perfect future. So, inasmuch as the city is a state of perfect society, of stability, is planned by God, and brought about by Him at last, it is to be possessed by us on condition of fellowship with Him. Does it not seem to you to be infinitely unimportant whether this old patriarch thought that what he was looking for was to be builded upon the hills and plains of Canaan or not? That he had the vision is the thing. Where it was to be accomplished was of small moment. We do not know where the vision is to be accomplished any more than Abraham did. We do not know whether here, on this old earth, renovated by some cosmic change, or whether in some region in space, though beyond the stars, perfected spirits shall dwell, and it does not matter. That we should have the vision is the main thing. The where, the when, the how of its fulfilment are of no manner of practical importance, and people who busy themselves about such questions, and think that therefore they are cultivating the spirit that my text suggests, make a woful mistake. But let me press on you, dear brethren, this one simple thought, that the average type of Christian life and experience to-day is wofully lacking in that clear vision of the future. Partly it comes, I suppose, from certain peculiarities in the trend of thought and way of looking at things that are fashionable in this generation. We hear so much about Christianity as a social system, and about what it is going to do in this world, which perhaps it was necessary should be stated very emphatically, in order to counterpoise the too great silence upon such subjects in past times, that preaching about the future life strikes a hearer as unfamiliar, and probably some Of my audience have been feeling as if I were carrying them into misty regions far away from, and little related to, the realities of life. But, dear brethren, from my heart I believe that one very operative cause of the undeniable feebleness of Christian life, which is so largely manifested round us – and it is for each of us to say whether we participate in it – is due to this, that, somehow or other, there has come in the mind of great masses of Christian people a fading away of that blessed vision of the city, for which we ought to live. You scarcely hear sermons nowadays about the blessedness of a future life. What you hear about it is, how well for this life it is to be a Christian man.
No doubt godliness ‘hath promise of the life that now is,’ and that side of the gospel cannot be too emphatically set forth. But it may be disproportionately presented, as I venture to think that, on the whole, it is being presented now. Therefore there is the more need for consciously endeavouring to cultivate the habit of looking beyond the mists Of the present to the gleaming battlements and spires of the city. Let us polish the glasses of our telescopes, and use them not only for distances on earth’s low levels, but to bring the stars nearer. So shall we realise more of the present good and power of faith, when it is allowed its widest and noblest range.
II. Faith consequently leads to willing detachment from the present order of offerings. ‘He dwelt in tabernacles,’ that is, he lived a nomad life in his tents. He and his son and grandson – three generations of long livers – proved the depth, solidity, and practical power of their faith in the promise of the city by the remarkable persistence of their refusal to be absorbed in the settled population of the land. Recent discoveries have shown us, and discoveries still to be made, I have no doubt, will show still more, what a highly organised and developed civilisation prevailed in Canaan when these wanderers from the East came into it, with their black camels’-hair tents. They were almost as much out of place, and as noticeably unique, by such a life in Canaan then, as gypsies are in England, and the reason why they would not go into Hebron, or any other of the populous cities which were closely studded in the land, was that ‘they looked for the City.’ It was better for them to dwell in tents than in houses. The clear vision of that great future impresses on us the transiency of the present. We shall know that what we live in is but as a tent that is soon to be struck, even while some of our fellow-lodgers may fancy it to be a house that will last for ever. The illusion of the permanence of this fleeting show creeps over us all, in spite of our better knowledge, and has to be fought against. The world, though it seems to be at rest, is going faster than any of the objects in it which are known to be in motion. We are deceived by the universality of the movement of which all things partake, and to us it seems rest. If there comes friction, and now and then a collision, we find out how fast we are going. And then there come misery, and melancholy, and lamentations about the brevity of life, and the awfulness of change, and all these other commonplaces that are the stock-in-trade of poetasters, but which cut with such surprise and agony into our own hearts when we experience them. But, brethren, to be convinced of the transiency of life, by reason of the clearness of the vision of the permanence of the heavens, is blessedness and not misery, and is the only way by which a man can bear to say to himself, ‘My days are as a hand-breadth,’ and not fling down his tools and fall into sadness, from feeling that life is as futile as frail. To recognise that nothing continues in one stay, and to see nothing else that is permanent, is the greatest misery that is laid upon man But to feel, ‘Thou art from everlasting to everlasting, and Thy kingdom endureth through all generations and I belong to it,’ makes us regard with equanimity, and sometimes with solemn satisfaction, the passing away of all the transient,’that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.’ ‘He looked for a city’; so, ‘he dwelt in tents.’ There is another side to that thought. The clear vision of that permanent future will detach us from the perishable present. Now many difficult questions arise as to how far Christians should hold aloof from the order of things in which they dwell: and to a very large extent the application of the principle in detail must be left to each man for himself, in the presence of God. But this I am quite sure of, that in this generation the average Christian has a great deal more need to be warned against too great intermingling with than against too great separation from the present world. Abraham sets us an example beautifully comprehensive. He held cordial relations with the people amongst whom he dwelt. He was honoured by them as a prince; he was recognised by them as a servant of God. They knew his bravery. He did not scruple to draw the sword, and to fight in defence, not only of his kinsmen but of his heathen neighbours in Sodom. And yet nothing would induce him to come down from his tent, beneath the terebinth tree of Mamre, in the-uplands. Everybody knew that his name was Abraham the Hebrew – the man from the other side. He carried out that name in his life. Now, I am not going to lay down hard and fast rules – conventional regulations are the ruin of principles. But let us ask ourselves, ‘Would anybody call me “the man from the other side,” the man who belongs to another set of things altogether than this?’ We have to work in the world; to trade in the world; to try to influence the world; to draw many of our enjoyments from it, in common with those who have no other enjoyments than those drawn from it. Of course, there is a great tract of ground common to the men of faith and the men of sense, and I am not urging false aloofness from any occupation, interest, duty, or enjoyment. But what I say is that, if we have the vision of the city clear before us, there will be no need to tell us not to make our home in Hebron or in Sodom. Lot went down there when he had his choice – and he got what he wanted, pasturage for his cattle. But he also got what he did not want, destruction, and he lost what he did not care to keep, his share in the city. Abraham stayed on the heights, and up there he kept God, and a good conscience. Probably he did not make so much money as Lot did. Very likely Lot’s flocks and herds were larger than his uncle’s. But the one man from his height, through the clear air, could see far away the sparkling of the turrets of the city; and the other, down in the hot, steaming plains of Sodom, could see nothing but Sodom and the mountains behind it, Better to live on the heights with Abraham and God than down below with Lot, and wealth, and subterranean brimstone, and naphtha fires ready to burst forth. ‘He looked for the city,’ ‘he dwelt in tents.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
sojourned. Greek. paroikeo. Only here and Luk 24:18.
in. Greek. eis. App-104.
land. Greek. ge. App-129.
strange. Greek. allotrios. App-124.
tabernacles = tents.
heirs with him. Greek. sunkleronomos. See Rom 8:17.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
9.] By faith he sojourned ( in classical Greek signifies to dwell in the neighbourhood of, and is followed by a dative: so Thuc. iii. 93, . Isocrates uses it in the sense of to dwell alongside of, with another reference, and an accus.: , p. 74. But the Hellenistic sense is, to dwell as a stranger, to sojourn only. So LXX in reff.: so Philo, Quis Rer. Div. Hr. 54, vol. i. p. 511, , , , . And Confus. Ling. 17, p. 416, , ) in (pregnant construction, as often in St. Luke, see Act 7:4; Act 8:40; Act 12:19; Act 18:21; Luk 11:7; he went into the land and sojourned there) the land ( is one of those words which very commonly drop the article, especially when in government) of the promise (concerning which the promise, Gen 12:7, had been given) as a strangers (as if it did not belong to him, but to another: see ref. Acts, which is strictly parallel, and cf. , Gen 15:13), dwelling (the aor. part. is contemporary with the aor. before) in tents (cf. Gen 12:8; Gen 13:3; Gen 18:1 ff. , . Thl.) with Isaac and Jacob (Thl., Bengel, Bhme, Kuinoel, Griesb., Lachm., al. join these words with above. But they more naturally belong to , which has just preceded: for otherwise we should expect in Heb 11:10) the heirs with him of the same promise ( . , as , Luk 2:8; the only other place where this arrangement is found. What is implied is, not so much that the promise was renewed to them, as that all three waited for the performance of the same promise, and in this waiting, built themselves no permanent abode):
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Heb 11:9. ) He went to dwell as a stranger in, Heb 11:13, note.- , of the promise) It had been promised immediately, Gen 12:7.- , in tabernacles) Gen 12:8 : , strangers (new-comers, sojourners) use tents. The antithesis is , a city, Heb 11:10.-, with) The same mode of living, a proof of the same faith. It is construed with , was a stranger.- , and Jacob) He was fifteen years old at the death of Abraham.- , joint-heirs) In no other place are sons called joint-heirs with their parents, but merely heirs. Isaac did not acknowledge himself indebted for the inheritance to Abraham, nor Jacob to Isaac, but they received it severally from God Himself. This expression, the heirs of the promise, and , he obtained THE promise, Heb 6:17, Heb 12:15, are said of the very thing promised; but both phrases in this chap. Heb 11:9; Heb 11:33, the joint-heirs of the promise, and (without the article ), obtained promises, and in like manner, Heb 11:17, , he who received the promises, are said of the promise of something future: and believers are said to receive, to obtain, , , the very thing promised, especially in this same chapter, Heb 11:13; Heb 11:39. The difference of expressions is suitable to the different scope of ch. 6 and 9; for in ch. 6 the condition itself of men in former times is commended, and proposed as an example; but in ch. 11 the condition of New Testament believers is celebrated above the other (viz. that of Old Testament believers).
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Having declared the foundation of the faith of Abraham, and given the first signal instance of it, he proceeds to declare his progress in its exercise, first in general, and then in particular acts and duties; wherein he intermixeth some especial acts of it, whereby he was enabled and encouraged in and unto all other duties of it.
That which he ascribes unto his faith in general is laid down in this verse; whereunto he adjoins that encouraging act of it which enabled him in his duty, verse 10.
Heb 11:9. , . . Syr., , he was a stranger, a sojourner. Vulg. Lat., demoratus est,he tarried. Rhem., he abode. Erasm., commigravit; that is, , saith Beza, be went, or wandered, to answer the preposition following, he went into the land. Beza, commoratus est, he abode; and then it must refer unto , he dwelt in tents. Others, advena fuit; he was a stranger, a guest, a sojourner. Heb., , he was a stranger, or , he sojourned.
. Vulg. Lat., in casulis. Rhem., in cottages. In tentoriis, in tents or tabernacles.
Heb 11:9. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as [in] a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.
1. That which is assigned in general unto the faith of Abraham is, that he sojourned.
2. The place where is added; in the land of promise.
3. How he esteemed of that land, and how he used it; as in a strange country.
4. Who were his companions therein; namely, Isaac and Jacob, on the same account with himself, as the heirs of promise.
1. He sojourned. is commoror, to abide; but it is to abide as a stranger. So it is used Luk 24:18, ; Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem? a sojourner there for a season, not an inhabitant of the place. And it is nowhere else used. Thence is , a stranger, a sojourner : Act 7:6, Thy seed shall be a stranger; should sojourn in a strange land. So , are joined with , 1Pe 2:11, Strangers and pilgrims; and with , Eph 2:19, foreigners; and are opposed to , citizens, or the constant inhabitants of any place. , is the time of our pilgrimage here, 1Pe 1:17. Wherefore , is, he abode as a stranger, not as a free denizen of the place; not as an inheritor, for he had no inheritance, not a foot-breadth in that place, Act 7:5; not as a constant inhabitant or house-dweller, but as a stranger, that moved up and down as he had occasion. His several motions and stages are recorded by Moses.
2. There is the place of his sojourning; in the land of promise, for , into for in the land. So Act 7:4, The land , wherein ye now dwell; Hebrew, .
And from the use of the Hebrew , is frequently put for in the New Testament, and on the contrary. Wherefore not the removal of Abraham into that land, which he had mentioned in the foregoing verse, but his abode as a stranger, a foreigner, a pilgrim in it, is intended. And this was the land of promise; that is, which God had newly promised to give unto him, and wherein all the other promises were to be accomplished.
3. He sojourned in this place as in a strange land. He built no house in it, purchased no inheritance, but only a burying-place. He entered, indeed, into leagues of peace and amity with some, as with Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, Gen 14:13; but it was as a stranger, and not as one that had any thing of his own in the land. He reckoned that land at present no more his own than any other land in the world, no more than Egypt was the land of his posterity when they sojourned there, which God had said was not theirs, nor was so to be. Gen 15:13.
The manner of his sojourning in this land was, that he dwelt in tabernacles; in cottages,saith the Vulgar Latin, absurdly It was no unusual thing in those days, and in those parts of the world, for many, yea some nations, to dwell, in such movable habitations. Why Abraham was satisfied with this kind of life the apostle declares in the next verse. And he is said to dwell in tabernacles, or tents, because his family required more than one of them; though sometimes they are called a tent only, with respect unto that which was the peculiar habitation of the master of the family. And the women had tents unto themselves. So Isaac brought Rebekah into his mother Sarahs tent, Gen 24:67. So Jacob and his wives had all of them distinct tents, Gen 31:33. These tents were pitched, fixed, and erected only with stakes and cords, so as that they had no foundation in the earth; whereunto the apostle in the next verse opposeth a habitation that hath a foundation. And with respect unto their flitting condition in these movable houses, God in an especial manner was said to be their dwelling-place, Psa 90:1.
4. He thus sojourned and dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob. It is evident that Abraham lived until Jacob was sixteen or eighteen years old; and therefore may be said to live with him, as unto the same time wherein they both lived. Nor is there any force in the objection, that Isaac had a separate tent from Abraham; for it is not said that they lived in the same tents, but that at the same time they all lived in tents. Yet there is no need to confine it unto the same time; the sameness of condition only seems to be intended. For as Abraham was a sojourner in the land of Canaan, without any inheritance or possession, living in tents, so was it also with Isaac and Jacob, and with them alone. Jacob was the last of his posterity who lived as a sojourner in Canaan; all those after him lived in Egypt, and came not into Canaan until they took possession of it for themselves.
And they were heirs with him of the same promise; for not only did they inherit the promise as made unto Abraham, but God distinctly renewed the same promise unto them both; unto Isaac, Gen 26:3-4; and unto Jacob, Gen 28:13-15. So were they heirs with him of the very same promise. See Psa 105:9-11.
The sense of the words being declared, we may yet further consider the matter contained in them.
We have here an account of the life of Abraham after his call. And it fell under a twofold consideration:
1. As unto the internal principle of it; so it was a life of faith.
2. As unto the external manner of it; so it was a pilgrimage, without a fixed, settled habitation. Both are proposed in the first words of the text, By faith he sojourned?
1. As unto the internal principle of it, it was a life of faith
(1.) The life which he now led was a life of faith with respect unto things spiritual and eternal. For he had for the foundation and object hereof,
[1.] The promise of the blessed Seed, and the spiritual blessing of all nations in him, as a confirmation of the first fundamental promise to the church, concerning the Seed of the woman that was to break the serpents head. And,
[2.] God entered expressly into covenant with him, confirming it with the sea] of circumcision, wherein he obliged himself to be his God, his God almighty, or all-sufficient, for his temporal and eternal good. To suppose that Abraham saw nothing in this promise and covenant but only things confined unto this life, nothing of spiritual grace or mercy, nothing of eternal reward or glory, is so contrary to the analogy of faith, to express testimony of Scripture, so destructive of all the foundations of religion, so unworthy of the nature and properties of God, rendering his title of the father of the faithful, and his example in believing, so useless, as that it is a wonder men of any tolerable sobriety should indulge to such an imagination.
(2.) It was a life of faith with respect unto things temporal also. For as he was a sojourner in a strange land, without friends or relations, not incorporated in any political society or dwelling in any city, he was exposed unto all sorts of dangers, oppression and violence, as is usual in such cases. Besides, those amongst whom he sojourned were for the most part wicked and evil men, such as, being fallen into idolatry, were apt to be provoked against him for his profession of faith in the most high God. Hence, on some occurrences of his life that might give them advantage, it is observed, as a matter of danger, that the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land, Gen 13:7; Gen 12:6. And this he feared, Gen 20:11. Moreover he had sundry particular trials, wherein he apprehended that his life was in imminent danger, Gen 12:11-13; Gen 20:2. In all these dangers and trials, with others innumerable, being helpless in himself, he lived in the continual exercise of faith and trust in God, his power, his all-sufficiency, and faithfulness. Hereof his whole story is full of instances, and his faith in them is celebrated frequently in the Scripture.
(3.) In things of both sorts, spiritual and temporal, he lived by faith, in a constant resignation of himself unto the sovereign will and pleasure of God, when he saw no way or means for the accomplishment of the promise. So was it with him with respect unto the long season that he lived without a child, and under the command he had to offer him for a sacrifice, when he had received him.
On all these accounts he was the father, the pattern, or example of believers in all generations. We saw before the foundation of his faith and the entrances of his believing; here we have a progress of them proposed unto our imitation. And that wherein we are instructed hereby is, that when we are once engaged, and have given up ourselves to God in a way of believing, there must be no choice, no dividing or halting, no halving; but we must; follow him fully, wholly, and universally, living by faith in all things.
2. For the external part, or manner of his life, it was a pilgrimage, it was a sojourning. Two things are required unto such a state of life:
(1.) That a man be in a strange country;
(2.) That he have no fixed habitation of his own.
If a man be free from either of these, he is not a pilgrim. A man may want a habitation of his own as his inheritance, and yet, being in his own country, not be a pilgrim; and a man may be in a strange country, and yet, having a fixed habitation of his own therein, he may not be a pilgrim: but when both these concur, there is a state of pilgrimage. And so it was with Abraham. He was in a strange land. Though it was the land of promise, yet having no interest in it, no relation, no possession, no inheritance, it was unto him a strange land. And he did but sojourn in any place, having no habitation of his own. And this of all others is the most disconsolate, the most desolate estate, and most exposed unto dangers; wherefore he had nothing to trust unto or rest upon but divine protection alone. So are his state and protection described, Psa 106:12-15. And we may observe,
Obs. 1. That when faith enables men to live unto God as unto their eternal concernments, it will enable them to trust unto him in all the difficulties, dangers, and hazards of this life. To pretend a trust in God as unto our souls and invisible things, and not resign our temporal concernments with patience and quietness unto his disposal, is a vain pretense. And we may take hence an eminent trial of our faith. Too many deceive themselves with a presumption of faith in the promises of God, as unto things future and eternal. They suppose that they do so believe as that they shall be eternally saved; but if they are brought into any trial as unto things temporal, wherein they are concerned, they know not what belongs unto the life of faith, nor how to trust in God in a due manner. It was not so with Abraham; his faith acted itself uniformly with respect unto the providences as well as the promises of God. Wherefore,
Obs. 2. If we design to have an interest in the blessing of Abraham, we must walk in the steps of the faith of Abraham. Firm affiance in the promises for grace, mercy, and eternal salvation, trust in his providence for preservation and protection in this world, with a cheerful resignation of all our temporal and eternal concerns unto his disposal, according to the tenor of the covenant, are required hereunto. And they are all indispensably necessary unto that obedience wherein we are to walk with God, as he did. The faith of most men is lame and halt in the principal parts and duties of it.
Obs. 3. When faith is once duly fixed on the promises, it will wait patiently under trials, afflictions, and temptations, for their full accomplishment; as did that of Abraham which is here celebrated. See the exposition on Heb 6:12; Heb 6:15.
Obs. 4. Faith discerning aright the glory of spiritual promises, will make the soul of a believer contented and well satisfied with the smallest portion of earthly enjoyments, etc.
Fuente: An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews
he sojourned: Gen 17:8, Gen 23:4, Gen 26:3, Gen 35:27, Act 7:5, Act 7:6
dwelling: Gen 12:8, Gen 13:3, Gen 13:18, Gen 18:1, Gen 18:2, Gen 18:6, Gen 18:9, Gen 25:27
the heirs: Heb 6:17, Gen 26:3, Gen 26:4, Gen 28:4, Gen 28:13, Gen 28:14, Gen 48:3, Gen 48:4
Reciprocal: Gen 4:20 – dwell Gen 9:27 – dwell Gen 12:5 – and into Gen 12:6 – passed Gen 17:21 – my Gen 21:34 – General Gen 24:6 – General Gen 24:7 – which spake Gen 30:25 – and to Gen 31:25 – General Gen 37:1 – wherein his father was a stranger Gen 47:9 – The days Exo 12:40 – sojourning Lev 23:34 – The fifteenth Lev 25:23 – for ye are Num 29:12 – the fifteenth day Rth 2:11 – and how Neh 8:17 – sat under Psa 105:12 – and strangers Psa 107:7 – that they Jer 35:6 – Ye shall Jer 35:7 – all Hos 12:9 – yet Act 3:13 – God of Abraham Tit 3:7 – made Heb 6:12 – inherit Heb 13:14 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Heb 11:9. Strange means “belonging to another”; Abraham considered himself a sojourner which means a temporary dweller. That is why he lived in tabernacles (or tents) because he regarded himself as well as his immediate descendants as heirs only. He believed the land would sometime be actually possessed by the nations coming from him.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Heb 11:9. By faith he received the promise, and still waited for the fulfilment of it. By faith he sojourned (a temporary resident only) in the land of promise (which God had given him) as (if it were) anothers (and not his own), having his home in tentstents without foundationpitched today, struck tomorrow. His whole life, therefore, was a life of promise unfulfilled, and so of patient waiting for Gods time and at Gods disposal.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
The apostle spake of the place which Abraham was called from, in the foregoing verse, namely, out of Ur of the Chaldees: here he speaks of the place he was called to, Canaan, styled the Land of Promise, that is, the land which God had newly promised to give unto him.
Where note, 1. Abraham’s act of obedience: He sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country; he was there as a sojourner, not an inheritor, moving up and down from place to place, until God thought fit to settle him and his posterity. Abraham was a sojourner both in his condition of life, and in his dispositon of heart. Canaan was a type of heaven, accordingly Abraham expected a better country, with a city which had foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Note, 2. The manner of his sojourning in this land, dwelling in tabernacles. This was both an act of policy, and an act of piety; of policy, that they might live peaceably, occasioning any envy or grudge from them; and of piety, to express their hopes and desires of a better country.
Note, 3. Abraham’s companions, his fellows and followers, in this act of obedience; he sojourned with Isaac and Jacob as heirs of the same promise.
Where mark, How all the saints of God are of the same spiritual disposition; they are animated by the same spirit, governed by the same laws; they act from the same principle, and for the same end, and desire nothing more that to live together, and to enjoy God and one another.
Note, 4. The reason rendered why Abraham esteemed himself but as a stranger in Canaan, because his thoughts ran much upon heaven, of which Canaan was but a type: He looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Where observe, 1. Abraham’s act of expectation: he looked for it, he rationally expected it; it was not a blind hope, but well built on the power and promise of God.
2. What he looked for, a city; not Jerusalem, an earthly city, as some would have it, for that was not possessed until eight hundred years after, and then only by his posterity for a limited time: but an heavenly city, a settled quiet habitation, a suitable dwelling for them that have had a life of trouble in this world.
3. The city itself described, 1. by the nature of it; it has foundations, in opposition to tents and tabernacles, which had no foundations, but where moving, ambulatory dwellings, supported only by stakes and cords; this city is bounded upon the eternal power, the infinite wisdom, and immutable counsel of God.
2. By the maker and builder of it, God, he is the contriver, framer, and erector of this city; and as he is the maker, so he is the disposer of it also; please God, and he will give it thee, none can give it thee without him, and he will never give it thee without pleasing of him.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Heb 11:9-10. By faith, &c. Believing that Canaan was promised to him and his seed only as a type of a better country, he acquired no possessions therein except a burying-place, and built no houses there; but sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country , a country belonging to others, dwelling in tents, as a sojourner; with Isaac and Jacob Who by the same manner of living showed the same faith. Jacob was born fifteen years before the death of Abraham, as is evident from the account of the lives of the patriarchs given in Genesis. Isaac and Jacob are said to be heirs with Abraham of the same promise, because they all had the same interest therein; and Isaac did not receive this inheritance from Abraham, nor Jacob from Isaac, but all of them from God. In saying that Abraham dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the apostle does not mean that they all three dwelt together in one family, and one place, while they were in Canaan; for Abraham and Isaac had separate habitations when Jacob was born. But he means that, while in Canaan, they all dwelt in tents; and by applying this observation to the two latter, as well as to Abraham, the apostle praises their faith likewise. For, since Canaan belonged to them as joint heirs with their father, by dwelling there in tents as sojourners, they showed that they also knew the true meaning of the promise, and looked for a better country than Canaan. For he looked for He expected at length to be led on to; a city which hath foundations Whereas a tent hath none. Grotius thinks Abraham hoped that his posterity should have, in the land of promise, a city that God would prepare for them, in a special manner, namely, Jerusalem. But such an interpretation Isaiah , 1 st, Expressly contrary to the exposition given by the apostle himself of this expression, Heb 11:16 : 2d, It is not suitable to Gods dealing with Abraham, and to the nature and effects of the holy patriarchs faith, that he should have nothing to encourage him in his pilgrimage but a hope that, after many generations, his posterity should have a city to dwell in, in the land of Canaan, wherein the condition of most of them was not better than his in tents: 3d, To suppose that this was only an earthly city, not to be possessed by his posterity until eight hundred years afterward, and that but for a limited time, is utterly to overthrow his faith, the nature of the covenant of God with him, and his being an example to gospel believers, as he is here proposed to be. This city, therefore, which Abraham looked for, is that heavenly city, that everlasting mansion, which God hath prepared for all true believers with himself after this life; it being the place of their everlasting abode, rest, and refreshment, and that with the expectation of which Abraham and the following patriarchs comforted and supported themselves amidst all the toil and labour of their pilgrimage. Whose builder and maker is God Of which God is the sole contriver, former, and finisher. The word , translated builder, denotes one who constructs any house or machine; an architect. But the other word, , signifies one who forms a people by institutions and laws. The apostle joins this term to the other to show that God is both the Founder and the Ruler of that great community of which the spiritual seed of Abraham is to make a part. From Gods being both the Founder and Ruler of the city which the seed of Abraham are to possess, it may justly be inferred that the glory, security, privileges, and pleasures of their state are such, that in comparison of them, the advantages or security found in any city or commonwealth on earth are nothing, and but of a moments duration. Macknight.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Verse 9
The land of promise; the land which had been promised him,–In tabernacles; in tents; that is, leading a wandering life in it, without having any permanent possession.