Genesis 18:19

19 For I know that Abraham shall command his children, and his house(hold) after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, and that they do rightfulness and doom, that the Lord bring for Abraham all things which he spake to Abraham (and that they do what is right and just, so that I shall bring to Abraham all the things that I have promised him).

Genesis 18:19 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 18:19

For I know him
Not only by his omniscience, but with a special knowledge, such as is accompanied with peculiar love and affection; and so Jarchi says, it is expressive of love. God loved Abraham, he was a peculiar favourite of his, and therefore he would reveal his secrets to him, see ( Amos 3:2 Amos 3:7 ) ; and he knew not only who he was, but what he was, a holy good man, made so by his own grace, and what he would do by the assistance of that grace, and particularly what follows: that he will command his children, and his household after him;
to serve and worship the Lord: not his own children only, but his servants also, all in his family; lay his injunctions on them, use his authority with them, give them all needful instructions, and take such methods with them as would tend to propagate and preserve the true religion after his death: and they shall keep the way of the Lord;
which he has prescribed to men, and directed them to walk in, even everything respecting instituted worship then revealed, and particularly, to do justice and judgment;
to attend to all the laws, statutes, and judgments of God; to do that which is just and right between man and man; not as a justifying righteousness, by which Abraham himself was not justified before God; but to show their regard to the will of God, in gratitude for favours received from him, and to glorify him, as well as for the good of their fellow creatures: that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him:
not only on Abraham personally, but upon his posterity, they walking in the ways of the Lord, according to his command and direction: the word "that" here rather signifies, as Vatablus rightly observes, the consequence than the cause, what would follow upon these things, rather than as procured by them; these being the way in which God designed to bestow them, though not for them.

Genesis 18:19 In-Context

17 And the Lord said, Whether I may cover from Abraham what things I shall do, (And the Lord said to himself, Can I hide from Abraham what things I am about to do?)
18 since he shall be into a great folk and most strong, and all nations of [the] earth shall be blessed in him? (For he shall become a great and a most strong nation, and all the nations of the earth shall pray to be blessed as he is blessed/and through him I shall bless all the nations of the earth.)
19 For I know that Abraham shall command his children, and his house(hold) after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, and that they do rightfulness and doom, that the Lord bring for Abraham all things which he spake to Abraham (and that they do what is right and just, so that I shall bring to Abraham all the things that I have promised him).
20 And so the Lord said, The cry of men of Sodom and of men of Gomorrah is multiplied, and their sin is egregious greatly; (And so the Lord said to him, There is a great outcry against the people of Sodom and the people of Gomorrah, and their sin is highly egregious;)
21 I shall come down, and see whether they have [ful]filled in work the cry that came to me, that I know whether it is not so. (and so I shall go down there, and see whether their deeds have warranted the outcry that came to me, and so that I know if it is so, or not.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.