Matthew Henry on Genesis 26:6-11
Isaac had now laid aside all thoughts of going to Egypt, and, in obedience to the heavenly vision, sets up his staff in Gerar, the country in which he was born (Gen 26:6), yet there he enters into temptation, the same temptation that his good father had been once and again surprised and overcome by, namely, to deny his wife, and to give out that she was his sister. Observe,
I. How he sinned, Gen 26:7. Because his wife was handsome, he fancied the Philistines would find some way or other to take him off, that some of them might marry her; and therefore she must pass for his sister. It is an unaccountable thing that both these great and good men should be guilty of so strange a piece of dissim…
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Abraham obeyed my voice - מימרי meimeri, my Word. See Gen 15:1.
My charge - משמרתי mishmarti, from שמר shamar, he kept, observed, etc., the ordinances or appointments of God. These were always of two kinds:
1. Such as tended to promote moral improvement, the increase of piety, the improvement of the age, etc. And
2. Such as were typical of the promised seed, and the salvation which was to come by him.
For commandments, statutes, etc., the reader is particularly desired to refer to Lev 16:15, etc., where these things are all explained in the alphabetical order of the Hebrew words.
John Gill on Genesis 26:6
And Isaac dwelt in Gerar. Continued there; in this he was obedient to the command and will of God.
John Calvin on Genesis 26:5-6
Because that Abraham obeyed my voice. Moses does not mean that Abraham's obedience was the reason why the promise of God was confirmed and ratified to him; but from what has been said before, (Genesis 22:18,) where we have a similar expression, we learn, that what God freely bestows upon the faithful is sometimes, beyond their desert, ascribed to themselves; that they, knowing their intention to be approved by the Lord, may the more ardently addict and devote themselves entirely to his service: so he now commends the obedience of Abraham, in order that Isaac may be stimulated to an imitation of his example. And although laws, statutes, rites, precepts, and ceremonies, had not yet been writte…
