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Thursday, December 12th, 2024
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Bible Commentaries
Genesis

Henry's Complete Commentary on the BibleHenry's Complete

Chapter 1
Creation of the World in Six Days.
Chapter 2
Creation of Adam, Eve, and Eden.
Chapter 3
The Fall: Adam and Eve's Sin.
Chapter 4
Cain Kills Abel; Cain's Descendants Multiply.
Chapter 5
Genealogy from Adam to Noah.
Chapter 6
Wickedness Prompts God to Flood Earth.
Chapter 7
Noah's Ark Survives the Great Flood.
Chapter 8
Waters Recede; Noah Exits the Ark.
Chapter 9
God's Covenant with Noah; Rainbow Sign.
Chapter 10
Genealogy of Noah's Descendants Post-Flood.
Chapter 11
Tower of Babel; Languages Confused.
Chapter 12
God's Call to Abram; Covenant Begins.
Chapter 13
Abram and Lot Separate; God Promises Land.
Chapter 14
Abram Rescues Lot; Melchizedek Blesses Abram.
Chapter 15
God's Covenant with Abram Affirmed.
Chapter 16
Hagar Bears Ishmael, Abram's First Son.
Chapter 17
Circumcision Covenant; Abram Renamed Abraham.
Chapter 18
Angelic Visitors Announce Isaac's Birth.
Chapter 19
Destruction of Sodom; Lot's Escape.
Chapter 20
Abraham's Encounter with Abimelech in Gerar.
Chapter 21
Birth of Isaac; Hagar and Ishmael Sent Away.
Chapter 22
Abraham's Near-Sacrifice of Isaac.
Chapter 23
Sarah Dies; Abraham Purchases Burial Site.
Chapter 24
Isaac Marries Rebekah, Abraham's Choice.
Chapter 25
Abraham's Death; Jacob and Esau's Births.
Chapter 26
Isaac Prospers in Gerar, Repeats Abraham's Mistakes.
Chapter 27
Jacob Deceives Isaac; Esau's Blessing Stolen.
Chapter 28
Jacob's Ladder Dream; Covenant Reaffirmed.
Chapter 29
Jacob Marries Leah and Rachel.
Chapter 30
Jacob's Children; Prosperity Through Livestock.
Chapter 31
Jacob Flees Laban; Covenant of Peace.
Chapter 32
Jacob Wrestles with God; Becomes Israel.
Chapter 33
Jacob Reconciles with Esau Peacefully.
Chapter 34
Dinah Defiled; Simeon and Levi's Revenge.
Chapter 35
Jacob's Name Change Reaffirmed; Rachel Dies.
Chapter 36
Genealogy of Esau's Descendants.
Chapter 37
Joseph's Dreams; Sold into Slavery by Brothers.
Chapter 38
Judah and Tamar's Complicated Story.
Chapter 39
Joseph Prospers in Egypt Despite Imprisonment.
Chapter 40
Joseph Interprets Dreams for Pharaoh's Servants.
Chapter 41
Joseph Interprets Pharaoh's Dreams; Rises to Power.
Chapter 42
Joseph's Brothers Visit Egypt for Grain.
Chapter 43
Brothers Return to Egypt with Benjamin.
Chapter 44
Joseph Tests His Brothers' Loyalty.
Chapter 45
Joseph Reveals His Identity to Brothers.
Chapter 46
Jacob's Family Moves to Egypt.
Chapter 47
Joseph Manages Egypt During Famine; Jacob Blesses Pharaoh.
Chapter 48
Jacob Blesses Joseph's Sons, Ephraim, and Manasseh.
Chapter 49
Jacob's Prophetic Blessings on His Sons.
Chapter 50
Jacob's Burial; Joseph Reassures His Brothers.

- Genesis

by Matthew Henry

AN

EXPOSITION,

W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,

OF THE FIRST BOOK OF MOSES, CALLED

G E N E S I S.

      WE have now before us the holy Bible, or book, for so bible signifies. We call it the book, by way of eminency; for it is incomparably the best book that ever was written, the book of books, shining like the sun in the firmament of learning, other valuable and useful books, like the moon and stars, borrowing their light from it. We call it the holy book, because it was written by holy men, and indited by the Holy Ghost; it is perfectly pure from all falsehood and corrupt intention; and the manifest tendency of it is to promote holiness among men. The great things of God's law and gospel are here written to us, that they might be reduced to a greater certainty, might spread further, remain longer, and be transmitted to distant places and ages more pure and entire than possibly they could be by report and tradition: and we shall have a great deal to answer for if these things which belong to our peace, being thus committed to us in black and white, be neglected by us as a strange and foreign thing, Hosea 8:12. The scriptures, or writings of the several inspired penmen, from Moses down to St. John, in which divine light, like that of the morning, shone gradually (the sacred canon being now completed), are all put together in this blessed Bible, which, thanks be to God, we have in our hands, and they make as perfect a day as we are to expect on this side of heaven. Every part was good, but all together very good. This is the light that shines in a dark place (2 Peter 1:19), and a dark place indeed the world would be without the Bible.

      We have before us that part of the Bible which we call the Old Testament, containing the acts and monuments of the church from the creation almost to the coming of Christ in the flesh, which was about four thousand years--the truths then revealed, the laws then enacted, the devotions then paid, the prophecies then given, and the events which concerned that distinguished body, so far as God saw fit to preserve to us the knowledge of them. This is called a testament, or covenant (Diatheke), because it was a settled declaration of the will of God concerning man in a federal way, and had its force from the designed death of the great testator, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, (Revelation 13:8.) It is called the Old Testament, with relation to the New, which does not cancel and supersede it, but crown and perfect it, by the bringing in of that better hope which was typified and foretold in it; the Old Testament still remains glorious, though the New far exceeds in glory, (2 Corinthians 3:9.)

      We have before us that part of the Old Testament which we call the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses, that servant of the Lord who excelled all the other prophets, and typified the great prophet. In our Saviour's distribution of the books of the Old Testament into the law, the prophets, and the psalms, or Hagiographa, these are the law; for they contain not only the laws given to Israel, in the last four, but the laws given to Adam, to Noah, and to Abraham, in the first. These five books were, for aught we know, the first that ever were written; for we have not the least mention of any writing in all the book of Genesis, nor till God bade Moses write (Exodus 17:14); and some think Moses himself never learned to write till God set him his copy in the writing of the Ten Commandments upon the tables of stone. However, we are sure these books are the most ancient writings now extant, and therefore best able to give us a satisfactory account of the most ancient things.

      We have before us the first and longest of those five books, which we call Genesis, written, some think, when Moses was in Midian, for the instruction and comfort of his suffering brethren in Egypt: I rather think he wrote it in the wilderness, after he had been in the mount with God, where, probably, he received full and particular instructions for the writing of it. And, as he framed the tabernacle, so he did the more excellent and durable fabric of this book, exactly according to the pattern shown him in the mount, into which it is better to resolve the certainty of the things herein contained than into any tradition which possibly might be handed down from Adam to Methuselah, from him to Shem, from him to Abraham, and so to the family of Jacob. Genesis is a name borrowed from the Greek. It signifies the original, or generation: fitly is this book so called, for it is a history of originals--the creation of the world, the entrance of sin and death into it, the invention of arts, the rise of nations, and especially the planting of the church, and the state of it in its early days. It is also a history of generations--the generations of Adam, Noah, Abraham, &c., not endless, but useful genealogies. The beginning of the New Testament is called Genesis too (Matthew 1:1,) Biblos geneseos, the book of the genesis, or generation, of Jesus Christ. Blessed be God for that book which shows us our remedy, as this opens our wound. Lord, open our eyes, that we may see the wondrous things both of thy law and gospel!

 
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