தமிழ்

Ephrem the Syrian

Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500 · 764 passages across 40 books

Commentary

341–360 of 764
Genesis 18:20-21

And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;

It was not that God, who had just said, “their sins were very grave,” did not know that they had sinned. This was an example to judges not to prejudge a case, even based on very reliable hearsay. For if he who knows all set aside his knowledge lest he exact vengeance without full knowledge before the trial, how much more should they set aside their ignorance and not effect judgment before the case is heard.

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 16:1

Genesis 20:17

So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children.

Unless Sarah received renewed youth in the seed that she had received, Abim-elech would not have desired a woman ninety years old. Then Abraham prayed and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his female slaves so that they bore children, because from the time [Abim-elech] had decided to marry Sarah until he returned her, pangs of childbirth struck all the women in his household; they would kneel down, but they could not give birth.

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 17:3

Genesis 21:9

And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.

Then the time came for Isaac to be born, and milk flowed in the breasts of the old woman. On the day of the great feast that Abraham prepared when he circumcised and weaned Isaac, Sarah noticed Ishmael playing. But Sarah also saw how much Ishmael shared the characteristics of his mother, for just as Sarah was despised in the eyes of Hagar, so too did Ishmael mock her son, and she thought, “If he acts thus to my son while I am still alive, perhaps [Abraham] will make him coheir with my son when I die and even give him two parts according to [the laws of] the firstborn.”

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 18:1

Genesis 21:10

Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.

Then Sarah, who showed no envy in any matter that concerned herself, became envious in this matter concerning her son. She was not envious of Hagar whom she had given to her husband. Since it was a matter of God’s promise, and the son of the concubine thought that he would be coheir with the son of the freewoman, Sarah said, “Cast out the slave woman and her son, because it is not just that a son of a handmaid should have any inheritance together with that son of the promise, to whom it was promised by God. It is not right that you be opposed to God and make an heir him whom God has not made an heir.”

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 18:2

Genesis 21:23

Now therefore swear unto me here by God that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son: but according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned.

After these things, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, for they saw that God was with him and had helped him in the wars of the kings and had also promised him the land of the Canaanites. They also feared that after Abraham destroyed the Canaanites he would also destroy their own land, so they hastened to make a covenant with him, and the two of them made a covenant with Abraham.

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 19:1

Genesis 22:7

And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

In two things then was Abraham victorious: that he killed his son although he did not kill him and that he believed that after Isaac died he would be raised up again and would go back down with him. For Abraham was firmly convinced that he who said to him, “through Isaac shall your descendants be named,” was not lying.

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 20:2

Genesis 22:13

And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

The mountain spit out the tree and the tree the ram. In the ram that hung in the tree and had become the sacrifice in the place of Abraham’s son, there might be depicted the day of him who was to hang upon the wood like a ram and was to taste death for the sake of the whole world.

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 20:3

Genesis 24:2

And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh:

Abraham made him swear by the covenant of circumcision. Because God saw that the two heads of the world had dishonored this member, he set the sign of the covenant on it so that this member, which was the most despised of all the limbs, would now be the most honored of all the limbs. The sign of the covenant that was set on it bestowed such great honor that those who take oaths now swear by it and all those who administer oaths make them swear by it.

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 21:2

Genesis 24:39

And I said unto my master, Peradventure the woman will not follow me.

Then they called the young woman to learn from her [whether she would return with him or not]. Because she heard about the oath that Abraham had made him swear, and about the prayer that the servant had prayed at the well and about the sign for which he had asked and which had been granted to him, she feared to say “I will not go,” because she knew that it was the will of the Lord that she go. So she went and became Isaac’s [wife].

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 21:4

Genesis 24:47

And I asked her, and said, Whose daughter art thou? And she said, The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bare unto him: and I put the earring upon her face, and the bracelets upon her hands.

The servant swore the oath to his master and went off with many choice gifts. He sat beside a well, prayed and asked for a sign. Even though he rejoiced in the sign that came to him, he still waited to see whether she was from [Abraham’s] tribe. When he learned that she was the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, he praised God and went and stayed in their house.

Genesis 24:67

And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.

By the joy [which he received] from Rebekah, who came three years later, Isaac was comforted from the mourning of his mother with which he had been shrouded for three years.

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 21:4

Genesis 25:1

Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.

Because no law concerning virginity or chastity had been set down, lest desire ever make a stain in the mind of that just man.… Abraham took for himself a concubine after the death of Sarah, so that through the uprightness of his many sons who were to be scattered throughout the entire earth, knowledge and worship of the one God would be spread. Abraham then had sons from Keturah, and he sent them eastward with gifts. Abraham died 175 years old and was buried next to Sarah, his wife.

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 22:1

Genesis 25:22

And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.

“God blessed Isaac,” and Isaac prayed for Rebekah, who was barren. After twenty years God heard him, and she conceived. Her sons struggled together within her womb. She went to inquire of the Lord, and it was told her, “Two nations are in your womb,” that is, the Edomite and Hebrew nations. To whom did she go to inquire? It was to Melchizedek that she went to inquire, as we mentioned above in the genealogy of Melchizedek. She returned quickly because of the pangs that were striking her, and she gave birth to Esau and Jacob.

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 23:1

Genesis 25:34

Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.

Jacob saw that the right of the firstborn was despised by Esau, and he contrived to take it from him, trusting in God who had said, “The elder shall serve the younger.” Jacob boiled some lentils, and “Esau came home famished after hunting and said to Jacob, ‘Let me eat some of that red pottage,’ ” that is, “Let me eat some of your lentils.” “Jacob said to him, ‘Give me your birthright and you may take all of them.’ After Esau swore to him and sold him his birthright, Jacob then gave Esau [the lentils].” To show that it was not by reason of his hunger that Esau sold his birthright, Scripture says, “After he had eaten he arose and went away, and Esau despised his birthright.” Therefore Esau did not sell it because he was hungry, but rather, since it had no value to him, he sold it for nothing as if it were nothing.

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 23:2

Genesis 27:34

And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.

And Esau cried out and wailed bitterly, not because he lost his spiritual blessings but because he was now deprived of the bountiful produce of the blessed earth. [Esau wept] not because he was no longer able to be righteous but because he would not be able to make his brother his servant; not because he would not inherit eternal life but because the land of the Canaanites would not be his portion. Since Esau had such spite for his brother that he wished to kill him, Rebekah persuaded Jacob to go to the house of Laban lest they kill each other in their strife, and she became bereft of both of them at the same time.

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 25:3

Genesis 28:18

And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.

As for the oil that Jacob poured upon the pillar, he either had it with him or he had brought it out of the village. In the oil that he poured upon the stone, he was depicting the mystery of Christ who was hidden inside it.

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 26:2

Genesis 29:11

And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept.

Jacob continued on and turned aside to a well where he saw Rachel the shepherd girl, who, with her bare feet, her shabby clothing and her face burned from the sun, could not be distinguished from the charred brands that come out of the fire. Jacob knew at once that he who had provided the beautiful Rebekah at the spring now provided Rachel in her shabby clothing at the well. Then he performed a heroic deed in her presence, for, through the Son who was hidden in it, he rolled away the stone that even many could raise only with great difficulty. When he betrothed her to God through this marvelous deed, Jacob then returned and married himself to her with a kiss.

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 27:1

Genesis 30:1

And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.

Leah bore Reu-ben, Simeon, Levi and Judah and then ceased giving birth, whereas Rachel was barren. Because she heard Jacob say that Abraham had prayed over the barren Sarah and was heard and that Isaac had also prayed for Rebekah and was answered, she thought that it was because Jacob had not prayed for her that her closed womb had not been opened. For this reason, she said in anger and in tears, “Give me children, or I shall die!”

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 28.1.1

Genesis 30:4

And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her.

So, lest she nag him, asking him every day for children, Jacob, who was sent from his parents to take a daughter of Laban, agreed to take the foreign woman. But it was also so that the sons of the maidservants might become joint heirs with sons of the freewomen that Jacob took maidservants and freewomen. So he took Bilhah, and she conceived and bore Dan and Naphtali.

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 28.1.2

Genesis 30:14

And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes.

Some say that the mandrake is a plant whose fruit resembles apples, which have a scent and are edible. So by means of these mandrakes, with cheerfulness seasoned with faith, Leah made Jacob take her that night.

COMMENTARY ON GENESIS 28.3.1

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