Genesis 24:3

And I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the God of earth,.... The Maker and possessor of heaven and earth, by whom Abraham used to swear whenever he did, and by whom only men

And I will make thee swear by the LORD, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: Thou shalt not

i.e. Not persuade nor engage my son to take; for Isaac, though forty years old, was not only willing to be governed by his father in this affair, but also to hearken to the counsel of this wise and faithful servant, of whom both his father and himself had such long and large experience. He knew that the Canaanites were not only gross idolaters and heinous sinners, for so many others were; but that they were a people under God’ s peculiar curse, , and devoted to extirpation and utter destruction, which was to be inflicted upon them by Abraham’ s posterity; and therefore to marry his son to such persons had been a high degree of self-murder, whereby the holy and blessed seed had been in danger of great infection from them, and utter ruin with them. And Abraham’ s practice was afterwards justified by God, who hath oft showed his dislike of such unequal matches of his people with those infidels and idolaters, by severe prohibitions and sharp censures. See ,25 ,15.

Genesis 24:3 And I will make thee swear by the LORD, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell:Ver. 3. I will make thee swear by the Lord.] Who alone is the proper object of an oath. Howbeit, in lawful contracts with an infidel or idolater, we may allow such oaths, whereby they swear by false gods; as those of old, that swore by God and Malcom; and the Turks’ great oath now-a-days is, By the immortal God, and by the four hundred prophets, by Mohammed, by his father’ s soul, by his own children, and by the sword wherewith he is girt, &c. That thou shalt not take a wife unto my son, &c.] Lest they should "turn away" his heart "from following God," as those "foreign wives" did Solomon, whom therefore God Almighty punished both in himself and his successor Rehoboam, his only son (that we read of) by so many wives and concubines; and he was none of the wisest, nor happiest: tam auspicata sunt coniugia contra Dei legem contracta, saith the divine chronologer. "Be not unequally yoked," therefore, with any untamed heifer that bears not Christ’ s yoke. If religion be any other than a cipher, how dare we disregard it in our most important choice? I wish Manoah could speak so loud, saith a reverend divine, that all our Israelites might hear him. "Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all God’ s people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?" What is the reason the Pope will not dispense in Spain or Italy, if a Papist marry a Protestant (yet here they will); but in hope to draw more to them? For they well know what power wives many times get over their husbands, as Jezebel did over Ahab; the hen was suffered to crow, and all went as she would have it. And therefore the Legates in the Council of Trent were blamed for allowing the article of priests’ marriage to be disputed, as dangerous, because it is plain that married priests will turn their affections and love to wife and children; and, by consequence, to their house and country. So that the strict dependence that the clergy hath upon the apostolic See would cease: and to grant marriage to priests would destroy the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and make the Pope to be Bishop of Rome only. Turk. Hist., 345. Dr Hall History of Council of Trent. 680.

Verse 3. I will make thee swear] See Clarke on Genesis 24:9. Of the Canaanites] Because these had already been devoted to slavery, &c., and it would have been utterly inconsistent as well with prudence as with the design of God to have united the child and heir of the promise with one who was under a curse, though that curse might be considered to be only of a political nature. See the curse of Canaan, Genesis 9:25.

3. the God of heaven … earth] This solemn title of Jehovah as God of the whole universe is more common in later Hebrew writings; cf. Ezra 5:11. This form of adjuration indicates the conviction of the writer that the God of the Hebrews was the God of the whole world, not merely of a particular locality or nation: compare Genesis 18:25. No change of country, no lapse of time, would constitute an exemption from the binding character of the oath. of the daughters of the Canaanites] The dread of the marriage of an Israelite with a Canaanite which is found here, is also expressed in Genesis 26:34-35, Genesis 27:46; Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3; Ezra 9:2. For “Canaanite,” cf. Genesis 10:18-19, Genesis 12:6, Genesis 13:7 (J). Religious feeling underlies this prohibition. The purity of the Hebrew race is to be maintained. Intermarriage would involve participation in religious rites. Separateness would give a corresponding freedom from moral contamination.

3. Swear by the Lord — To the sacredness of the manner of the oath is added the solemnity of this use of the holy NAME. This servant must swear by Jehovah, God of the heavens and God of the earth.