Genesis 25:8

8 Abraham breathed his last and died 1in a ripe old age, an old man and satisfied with life; and he was 2gathered to his people.

Genesis 25:8 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 25:8

Then Abraham gave up the ghost
Very readily and cheerfully, without any previous sickness or present pain, but through the decay of nature by reason of old age, in a very easy quiet manner:

and died in a good old age, an old man;
for quantity, in those times few arriving to a greater; for quality, not attended with those inconveniences and disadvantages with which old age generally is, and therefore called evil:

and full [of years];
in the original it is only, "and full"; the Targum of Jonathan adds, "of all good"; temporal and spiritual, with which he was filled and satisfied; or he had had enough of life, and was willing to depart, and was full of desires after another and better world:

and was gathered to his people;
which is to be understood not of his interment, there being only the body of Sarah in the sepulchre in which he was laid; but of the admission of his soul into the heavenly state upon its separation from the body, when it was at once associated with the spirits of just men made perfect. The Arabic writers F6 say that he died in the month of Nisan, others say Adar, in the year of the world 3563; but, according to Bishop Usher, he died A. M. 2183, and before Christ 1821.


FOOTNOTES:

F6 Elmacinus, p. 34. Patricides, p. 21. Apud Hottinger. Smegma Oriental. p. 315.

Genesis 25:8 In-Context

6 but to the sons of his concubines, Abraham gave gifts while he was still living, and sent them away from his son Isaac eastward, to the land of the east.
7 These are all the years of Abraham's life that he lived, one hundred and seventy-five years.
8 Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe old age, an old man and satisfied with life; and he was gathered to his people.
9 Then his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, facing Mamre,
10 the field which Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth; there Abraham was buried with Sarah his wife.

Cross References 2

  • 1. Genesis 15:15; Genesis 47:8, 9
  • 2. Genesis 25:17; Genesis 35:29; Genesis 49:29, 33

Footnotes 1

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