Gen 12:1 “And the Lord said to Abram.”
According to the Hebrew, the name Tetragrammaton is used, since to Abram is attributed a relation to the source of being, inasmuch as God Himself spoke to Abram. The manner of this speaking is not written here, but it is made clear by Stephen in the seventh chapter of Acts, where he says: “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham.” Therefore, God appeared to Abram in a glorious form while he was asleep, appearing to him in the manner of one who speaks, saying to him the things that follow.
Where this revelation was made to Abram is also explained by Stephen in the seventh chapter of Acts, saying that when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, God appeared to him. Therefore, Abram was still in Ur of the Chaldeans when God spoke to him. From this it is also clear the time of that divine speaking, namely that it was before they migrated from Chaldea into Syria.
And if the intention of the father and son to go into the land of Canaan, explained at the end of the preceding chapter, is weighed, one may gather by conjecture that Abram, having had this apparition in Ur of the Chaldeans, moved his father to migrate from Chaldea into the land of Canaan. And for this reason Moses makes mention not of Nahor but of Abram alone in this migration.
“Go out from your land.”
According to the Hebrew it is: “Go for yourself from your land.” And it is signified that the departure from his land is commanded for Abram’s own benefit. His land is called his in the manner of speech by which any citizen is accustomed to call his own city “his,” for Chaldea is designated by saying “your land.”
“And from your kindred.”
He is commanded also to leave his blood relatives.
“And from your father’s house.”
He is commanded also to leave his father’s household, that is, Nahor and the sons of Haran—unless any of them should wish to go out with him. The facts make this clear, for his father also went out as far as Haran, and afterward Lot went with Abram into the land of Canaan.
Therefore, he is commanded, as far as depends on himself, to leave both his land and his relatives and his paternal household, so that from this command we may infer what was said, namely that at Abram’s suggestion his father went out from Ur of the Chaldeans.
“And come into the land which I will show you.”
The words “and come” are superfluous; it should be read: “to the land which I will make you see.” The command gives the terminus from which and the terminus to which. Less is said, but more is signified. For it is said indefinitely “to a land,” but a definite land is meant, as is clear both from what precedes—where it is said that they went out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan—and from what follows—where it will be said that Abram went out from Haran to go into the land of Canaan.
Therefore, the intended land is Canaan, and this shows that in this divine speaking the terminus to which was made known to Abram—not an uncertain land, but the land of Canaan. God promises not to give it to Abram to possess, but to see, when He says: “which I will make you see.” For Stephen testifies that He did not give Abraham even a foot’s breadth to possess in the land of Canaan.
Gen 12:2 “And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will magnify your name.”
Gather these promises, and you will find that they are summed up in the number seven, so that according to the Hebrew manner the totality of goods is also signified by the number itself.
“And you shall be a blessing.”
In the Hebrew it is in the imperative and in the abstract noun, and it should be read as: “And be a blessing,” using it in place of an imperative. For after three goods—namely, dominion in the form of a great nation (that is, fatherhood of great nations), multiplication of goods (that is, of possessions), and glory of name—he adds a fourth, as though unwilling to go through Abram’s own goods one by one, which he comprehends all together by saying: “And be a blessing.” For “blessing” in the abstract includes all kinds of blessings.
Gen 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you.”
These two, and the hope that is added, are said with respect to Abram in relation to others—or rather, more correctly, they concern others in relation to Abram. For the first of these concerns friends, the second concerns enemies, and the third also includes neutrals.
“And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
This last is not fully verified in Abram himself except by reason of the Messiah who was to come, that is, his descendant. For this last is read in two ways: either “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed,” or “And all the families of the earth shall bless themselves in you.” In neither way is it fully verified in Abram himself considered in himself, but in both ways it is verified in Christ, for from all the families of the earth someone is blessed in Christ, who died for all.
Gen 12:4a “So Abram went out, just as the Lord had commanded him.”
The name is the Tetragrammaton for the reason stated above. Abram’s journey into the land of Canaan had been interrupted by his father’s delay in Haran, and therefore the continuation of the begun journey is signified by saying: “and he went, just as God had spoken to him.”
CONTINUE
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