Then Abram removed his tent— And continued to do so, till he had travelled through and surveyed the whole land of Palestine, according to the divine admonition; which done, he settled in the plain, or rather at the oak of Mamre. See ch. Genesis 12:6.* Mamre was so called from the name of the proprietor, Mamre the Amorite. See ch. Genesis 14:24. It lay near two miles south of Hebron; and therefore that clause would be more properly rendered, which is by or near Hebron. Hebron, or Chebron, was accounted one of the most ancient cities in the world, having been built seven years before Tanis, the capital of Lower AEgypt. It was situated upon an eminence, twenty miles southward from Jerusalem, and twenty north from Beersheba, and had its name very probably from the word chaber חבר, to couple or join, because three married couples, Abram and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah, were buried there. See Calmet, and Univ. Hist.
* The Arabic version has it here, "Abram therefore fixed his tent in different stations, till he came and dwelt in," &c.
REFLECTIONS.—Lot is now gone; but Abram has a better friend left: God visits him; and communion with him makes us ample amends for every loss. And he comes at a season when Lot's choice might have affected Abram, to comfort him with the assurance, that though for a moment he might feel the loss, yet in the end the land must be all his own. Observe,
1. God's promise. Lot looked, and chose the best; but it was a precarious and unhappy abode to him. Abram shall look on every side, and inherit the whole, and his seed after him. These repeated assurances convey increasing consolations.
2. The command—to go through and view the premises; for they were his own, and he might look upon them as such, yea, in possession, as soon as he should have a seed capable of occupying them.
3. The assurance, that God would raise up a seed to him, and, though childless now, make him a numberless multitude. Learn, (1.) The more at God's command we look forward by faith to the heavenly Canaan, the more shall we be comforted. (2.) Though nothing appeared more unlikely than the fulfilment of the promise, Abram's faith staggered not; nor should ours in the darkest day of trial.
4. Abram's obedience. He went forth, and fixed again his abode in Mamre, near Hebron; took possession in God's name for his family, though himself no more than a sojourner in the land of promise; and, as was his custom, no sooner pitched his tent, than he built his altar. Note; It is our duty in every place to make profession of our religion, and to be neither ashamed nor afraid to be found in the worship of God.