They were sawn asunder, &c.— Calmet understands by this expression, being torn in pieces, as it were, under a threshing instrument, consisting of wooden rollers, full of sharp iron teeth like a harrow. Compare Isaiah 41:15; Isaiah 28:27. 2 Samuel 12:31. Some have supposed that the phrase they were tempted, is an error in the manuscripts, imagining that the climax is thereby entirelybroken. But those who wish above all things to be entirely devoted to God, would prefer any torment to poignant temptations which might greatly endanger their fidelity to him. And ecclesiastical history informs us of tyrants who took every possible method to tempt the pious to sin against their God. The LXX, in the case of Elijah, translate the word which we render mantle, by μηλωτη, a sheep-skin. That sheep-skins, and goat-skins, or at least the skins of some animal, were frequently worn by the ancient prophets, is intimated Zechariah 13:4. The sacred writer having already spoken of the variety of torments which good men through faith had undergone, goes on to speak of other sorts of evils which they had endured; and he uses a word, in conclusion, of a larger signification than what torments implies; namely, that they underwent all sorts of evils, κακουχουμενοι.
Related Commentaries of Hebrews 11:37
Hebrews 11:37
37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;