Genesis 25:8

8 and (then) he failed, and died in [a] good eld (age), and of (a) great age, and full of days, and he was gathered to his people (and he joined his ancestors).

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 soothly he gave gifts to the sons of [the] concubines, that is, (his) secondary wives; and Abraham, while he lived yet, separated them from Isaac, his son, to the east coast (but Abraham, while yet he lived, separated them from his son Isaac, and sent them away to the east parts).
7 Forsooth the days of the life of Abraham were an hundred and threescore and fifteen years;
8 and (then) he failed, and died in [a] good eld (age), and of (a) great age, and full of days, and he was gathered to his people (and he joined his ancestors).
9 And Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the double den, which is set in the field of Ephron, son of Zohar (the) Hittite, even against Mamre, (And his sons Isaac and Ishmael, buried him in the cave at Machpelah, which is set in the field of Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre,)
10 which den he bought of the sons of Heth; and he was buried there, and Sarah his wife. (which cave he bought from the Hittites; and he was buried there, with his wife Sarah.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.