*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Saying, I will give thee the land of Canaan As this was only a small portion of the blessings offered to the fathers, the prophet seems at first view too much to limit the covenant of God, which extended even to the hope of an eternal inheritance. But he considered it enough to show, by the figure synecdoche, that a part of what God had promised to the fathers had received its complete accomplishment. His drift is to intimate that they did not possess the land of Canaan by any other right than because it was the legitimate inheritance of Abraham according to the covenant which God had made with him. If man exhibit the promised earnest of a contract, he does not violate the contract. When, therefore, the prophet proves by a visible symbol that God did not make a covenant with his servants in vain, and that he did not disappoint their hope, he does not take away or abolish the other blessings included in it. Nay, rather, when the Israelites heard that they possessed the land of Canaan by right of inheritance, because they were the chosen people of God, it became them to look beyond this, and to take comprehensive view of all the privileges by which He had vouchsafed to distinguish them. Hence it is to be noted, that when He in part fulfills his promises towards us, we are base and ungrateful if this experience does not conduce to the confirmation of our faith. Whenever he shows himself to be a father towards us, he undoubtedly really seals on our hearts the power and efficacy of his word. But if the land of Canaan ought to have led the children of Israel in their contemplations to heaven, since they knew that they had been brought into it on account of the covenant which God had made with them, the consideration that He has given to us his Christ, "in whom all the promises are yea and amen," (2-Corinthians 1:20) ought to have much greater weight with us. When it is said, I will give thee the measuring line of Your inheritance, the change of the number points out that God made a covenant with all the people in general, though he spake the words only to a few individuals; even as we have seen a little before that it was a decree or an everlasting law. The holy patriarchs were the first and principal persons into whose hands the promise was committed; but they did not embrace the grace which was offered to them as what belonged only to themselves, but as what their posterity in common with them were to became sharers of.
Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan - Genesis 13:14-15.
The lot of your inheritance - Or, that shall be the lot of your inheritance; or, what you shall inherit. The margin is, "the cord." The Hebrew word - חבל chebel - means properly a cord, a rope; and then, a measuring-line. Hence, it means a portion "measured out" and assigned to anyone as land, Joshua 17:14; Joshua 19:9. Compare Psalm 16:6. The meaning is, that the land of Canaan was given by promise to the patriarchs as their lot or portion of the earth; as that which they and their descendants were to possess as their own.
Saying, (f) Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance:
(f) He shows that they would not enjoy the land of Canaan by any other means, but by reason of his covenant made with their fathers.
Saying, unto thee will I give the land of Canaan,.... To each of the above persons, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their posterity, the children of Israel. Not that the word "saying", as Gussetius (c) well observes, signifies that the words following it are expressive of the covenant, for that is expressed Psalm 105:7, the main article, sum, and substance of it, being this, that the Lord was their God; but it only signifies that this earthly promise was pronounced when that everlasting covenant was given, Genesis 17:7. Besides, this must be considered as typical of the heavenly inheritance; as that was a land of promise, so is this; it is the promise, the grand promise, which God has promised; as that was a land prepared and ready furnished with houses, fields, and vineyards, so is heaven a kingdom prepared by God the Father, and by the presence and mediation of his Son; as the Israelites passing through the wilderness met with many difficulties, and fought many battles, before possessed of it, so the people of God pass through the wilderness of this world, go through many tribulations, and fight the good fight of faith before they lay hold on eternal life; and as not Moses, but Joshua, led the people into the land, so not the law, but Jesus the Saviour, the great Captain of salvation, brings the many sons to glory; and as that was a land of rest after fatiguing travels, is heaven the sabbatism or rest for the people of God, a rest from all their toil and labour; and as the one was the pure gift of God, so is the other:
to thee will I give, &c. And as the land of Canaan is here called "the lot of your inheritance", it being divided and distributed by lot to the children of Israel, who find each their proper share and portion, Joshua 14:1 so heaven is an inheritance, not purchased, nor acquired, but bequeathed by the will of God; comes through the death of the testator Christ, belongs only to children, and is, as inheritances are, for ever; this is also by lot, as the word is in Ephesians 1:11, not that it is a casual thing, for it is appointed by the Lord for his people, and they for that; it is what they are predestinated to, as in the aforementioned text; but it denotes that everyone shall have their part and portion in it.
(c) Ebr. Comment. p. 822.
Lot - The portion assigned to you by lot.
*More commentary available at chapter level.