Hebrews 11
HAMMHebrews 11:1
And that you may know to what your being Christians, and your professing the faith of Christ, obligeth you in this matter, you may consider what faith is, a confident dependence on God for the performance of his promise, a being convinced of the truth of those things of which we have no ocular or sensible demonstration.
[a] substance] The use of this word ὑπόστασις, both here and in the other places of the New Testament, will appear by observing the Greek rendering of the Hebrew יחל and תוחלת from it. The word signifies to hope, and in Piel to expect with some confidence, and so to stay and wait for any thing, generally rendered by the Targum ואירך, and he expected, Gen. viii. 10 and 12, but sometimes by מחצפין, ausi sunt, Ezek. xiii. 6, they took confidence. Now this word, Mic. v. 7, is by the Greek translators rendered ὑποστῇ, where the Hebrew יחל לבני אדם, he shall hope in the sons of men, is by the Targum rendered מכתר, he shall expect, we render it, wait for them. The sense beareth depending on them for aid, and so subsisting in them, and that is the literal notation of the ὑποστῇ. Thus likewise the noun תוחלת, ἐλπίς, hope, Lam. iii. 18, expectation, waiting, is rendered ὑπόστασις, ps. xxxix. 8, and so in the books of Esdras, 2 Esdr. viii. They who have not ὑπόστασιν καλῶν ἔργων, the hope, or confidence, of good works (that μέγας
Hebrews 11:2
And that you may not look on this faith as a new and a strange thing, ye may through all times see the examples of it among pious men, which may excite you to the practice and exercise of it at this time, now you have so much need of it, ch. x. 36. For indeed ye may observe that this was it by which the ancients or fathers of the Old Testament received a testimony of God’s approbation of and respect unto them.
Hebrews 11:3
One act of faith it is by which we rightly apprehend the omnipotent power of God in creating the whole world, heaven and earth, merely by a word, saying, Let there be light, &c. and there was light; and so by the same act of faith we see God can and doth produce effects quite distant from the ordinary course of nature, for so all this visible world was framed, not out of things conspicuous to our eyes, as now a man of a man, a tree from a kernel, &c. but by the mere command of God out of nothing, or out of the earth, which is described as an invisible chaos of confusion, Gen. i. 2. (And then why may we not believe God’s promise in the like manner at this time, that he is able to bring you deliverance out of your present persecutions, upon your continuing constant unto him, by those ways that are least discernible to you, merely by acts of his own power and wisdom?)
[b] not made of things which do appear] Μὴ φαινόμενα, things that appear not seems to denote the earth, Gen. i. 2, in that state when it is said to be tohu vabohu, without form and void, or, as the Septuagint render it, ἀόρατος, invisible, not to be seen.
Hebrews 11:4
Another act of faith it was (appliable also to your present purpose) which was discernible in Abel,
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By faith Enoch did that which was acceptable in the sight of God, and was rewarded by God by being translated to heaven, instead of dying. (And that signifies that they that walk and persevere in the ways of God, when they go out of this world, they are never the worse for it, they are removed to a place of endless bliss.)
Hebrews 11:6
And this acceptance of God was a proof that he had faith, for otherwise his actions could not have been acceptable to God; for without believing the power and wisdom and justice of God, it is impossible to do any thing that can please God, or be rewarded by him: for he that undertakes the service or worship of God in any kind must believe that he is God, and that he rewards all his faithful servants that do what they are enabled to do toward the search and performance of his will. And he that doth believe this, what should ever tempt him to forsake or disobey him, when his sincere, faithful performances, how dear soever they cost him here, are sure to be abundantly rewarded by God, and his forsaking and falling off to bring judgments and ruin upon him?
Hebrews 11:7
A like example of faith we have in Noah, who believing the threats, and heeding the warning of God that foretold the drowning of the world, and assuring himself that God would destroy and drown
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A like act of faith was Abraham’s obedience to God’s command of leaving his country, and going whithersoever God should direct him, not knowing whither it was, only receiving a promise from God, that his posterity should be the possessors of that place whither he was appointed to go, but no way assured that himself should ever be owner of any part of it.
Hebrews 11:9
And accordingly a like act of faith it was in him,
that though he sojourned in that land which was promised him, in the same manner as he should if he and
his seed had had nothing to do with it, (he and his sons and his sons’ sons dwelling in it in tabernacles, erected for a transitory passage through it, and not in houses, as in a place of possession, and thus they lived all their lives long till Jacob was removed into Egypt,) yet he firmly believed that his seed should possess that land, and was himself very well satisfied without it;
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Upon this ground of Christian faith, that God had for him an abiding firm building, which after a pilgrim’s life expected him in another world, (see
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By the like belief and relying on God’s power
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And as the reward of their faith of this, they became so fruitful, that from one Abraham, (called by that title of one, Mal. ii. 15,) and that at a time when he was past power of getting children, there yet came a most numerous progeny, according to the promise of God made to him, and laid hold on and depended on by his faith.
Hebrews 11:13
And this his numerous posterity did not till the time of Joshua come to enjoy this promised land of Canaan: only as Abraham went on cheerfully, as believing that four hundred years after, the promises should be performed to his seed, so did they comfort themselves with the assurance that their posterity should enjoy them if they did not, and meanwhile calling themselves guests and strangers in that promised land, Gen. xxiii. 4, and xlvii. 9, and not possessors of it: (which is an enforcement of that constancy which is now called for of Christians in persecution, upon strength of that promise of the approaching coming of Christ to rescue them, which in case it should not come in their days, yet being so sure to come to their posterity so much sooner than the Canaan came to Abraham’s posterity, this may be matter of faith and encouragement to Christians as reasonably as the assured expectation of those promises was to Abraham and his posterity.)
[c] and were persuaded] The words καὶ πεισθέντες, and being persuaded, which are added in some copies between ἰδόντες seeing, and καὶ ἀσπασάμενοι, and embracing, are wanting in the ancient MSS. of the greatest reputation, and, besides others mentioned by other men, in a very ancient one of Magd. Coll. in Oxford.
L. 16. De Bell, Jud. I. 2, c. 12.
Hebrews 11:14
And this language of theirs, calling themselves sojourners in Canaan, and not possessors of it, signifies that they did not think themselves at home, but that they were in pursuit of a country.
Hebrews 11:15
And that not their own country, Chaldæa, from whence Abraham first went out upon God’s command, for he and his posterity had many seasons to have gone back thither, if that had been the country they looked after.
⁸ even, καὶ. ⁹ dead in these respects, ταῦτα νεοκρωμῖνον. ¹⁰ By, or, According to faith all these died, Κατὰ πίστιν ἀπέθανον— ¹¹ sojourners on the land, παρεπίσθομαι ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. ¹² if they had mentioned, εἰ—ἐμνημόνεον. ¹³ they had, εἶχον.
Hebrews 11:16
But now it is clear that the country which they professed to expect was that promised to their posterity, which being not come till after this life of theirs, was a type of heaven; and in having made this provision for them, God is most justly said to be the God of Abraham, &c. for whom he made so rich a preparation, destining the land of Canaan, and in that a famous city, Jerusalem, (though it was not yet imaginable how it should be built,) for their posterity, and in that mystically foreshewing an eternal city and kingdom, the Canaan and Jerusalem above, which they should have which continued constant to Christ, and obtained not the promises in this life.
17, 18. Another eminent act of faith it was in Abraham, that upon God’s command to sacrifice his only son Isaac, he presently and readily obeyed, took him and carried him to the mountain, and was ready to have offered him up if God had not stopped him; and having entertained and embraced and firmly believed the promises of a numerous seed and people that should spring from him, and having no other son but this from whom they should spring, nor possibility in nature, nor promise above nature, that he should have any more children, but a plain affirmation that this people, which should be counted his seed, to whom the promises belonged, should come from Isaac, he did yet absolutely obey that command of God’s, in resolving to kill that son on whom all those promises depended, and yet never doubted of the performance of the promises;
Hebrews 11:19
Resolving with himself, that rather than the promise should not be performed which was made to him of a numerous posterity, to spring particularly from Isaac, God, who was able to raise from the dead, would so raise Isaac when he should have killed him; having withal a kind of pledge to assure him that he would do that, because when he was conceived and born to him, it was a kind of coming from the dead, viz. from Sarah’s womb, when she was past age of childbearing, and from himself, who in this respect of getting children was mortified and dead also, vv. 11, 12. (And this again is an example to encourage and confirm the faith of Christians, that in obedience to Christ they continue constant to death itself, or the
¹⁴ having admitted, or, entertained the promises he— τὰς ἐπαγγελίας ἀναδεξάμενος. ¹⁵shall the seed be called to thee, κληθήσεται σοι σπέρμα. ¹⁶in a figure he had also received him, αὐτὸν καὶ ἐν παραβολῇ ἰκομίσαστο.
Hebrews 11:20
An act of faith also it was in Isaac, that, after that manner that is storied of him, he blessed his two sons, Jacob and Esau, that is, prayed for blessings on them, nay, as a prophet, foretold from God what should befall the posterity of each of them; first, assuring himself that the promise made to Abraham should be fulfilled in Jacob, Gen. xxviii. 4, 5; and so that what he had done, though through error, mistaking Jacob for Esau, would yet certainly be performed to him by God, Gen. xxvii. 33. 37. And for Esau, he foretold also of his posterity, that at length they should be freed from their subjection to the Jews, ver. 39, which was a kind of blessing of him also, although it were not performed to him personally, but to his posterity many years after. (And the like faith will it be now in the Christians, that shall assure themselves that God will now bless and preserve the faithful, constant believers, give them deliverances from their pressures, although they be not yet present but future.)
[d] By faith Isaac blessed Jacob] Some difficulty here is, where it is said of Isaac that by faith concerning things to come he blessed Jacob and Esau, to what part of the story in Genesis it shall belong. In ch. xxvii. he blesseth Jacob, ver. 28, 29. God give thee of the dew of heaven—Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee—But it will, first, be hard to affirm, that he here blessed Jacob by faith, when it is evident he knew not that it was Jacob whom he thus blessed; and secondly, Isaac thinking verily that it was Esau whom he thus blessed, it could not be an act of faith in him, or reconcilable with that which God had revealed to Rebecca, ch. xxv. 23, (that the elder should serve the younger,) thus to pronounce or foretell of Esau, that he should be lord over his brethren. For these two reasons it will not be fit to refer this of the apostle to that part of the story wherein blind Isaac, contrary to his intention, thus blessed Jacob. The next passage in the story will, I suppose, be much more commodious for the turn, when upon Esau’s coming with his venison Isaac finds himself to have been abused, and trembling very exceedingly, tells him that Jacob had brought him venison already, and he had eaten and blessed him, yea and he shall be blessed, ver. 33, and again, ver. 37, that he had made Jacob his lord, and given him all his brethren for his servants. Where Isaac discerning what he had done, though by mistake, remembers the oracle that God had delivered before their birth, and considering how punctually the blessing thus given to Jacob by him did agree to that, he doth now by faith resolve, that so it should certainly be, that what his affection had designed to Esau, was by God promised to Jacob, and consequently should irreversibly belong to him, and thereupon he confirms it anew to Jacob, Yea and he shall be blessed, and I have made him thy lord. And so this was the blessing wherewith by faith Isaac blessed Jacob. Then for his blessing of Esau, that visibly follows, ver. 39, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth—(and in the body of it again inserted a farther confirmation of Jacob’s blessing, by telling Esau, thou shalt serve thy brother, ver. 40,) and it shall come to pass that when thou shalt have the dominion, thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck. Where it must farther be supposed, that Isaac, beyond that prediction before their birth, that the elder should serve the younger, had received from God another oracle concerning his two sons, that as the posterity of Jacob, the Jews, should have the preeminence and dominion for some time over the Idumæans, the posterity of Esau, so in process of time the Jews should be brought down, and so the Idumæans be quitted of that yoke; and accordingly Isaac foretelling this is here as truly said to have by faith blessed Esau. And this perhaps was it upon which Isaac before had pronounced that blessing upon him which he took to be Esau, be lord over thy brethren—which though in respect of the times next ensuing it were true of Jacob, (and accordingly was in God’s providence thus directed to him,) yet in respect of the latter times, when the Jews should be brought low, was to be truly applicable to Esau, and so might by faith be designed by Isaac to him.
Hebrews 11:21
Thus Jacob, a little before his death, rose and set himself up upon his bed, and leaning upon his staff, (which was an emblem of faith,) depending and relying firmly upon God’s promise, he prayed and worshipped God, and blessed prophetically Manasseh and Ephraim, foretold how God should deal with them and the tribes that sprang from them after his and their death.
[e] top of his staff] The Hebrew מטה signifies both a bed and a staff, perhaps anciently the very same word for both, though now grammarians have pointed it diversely, and made a difference of sound also betwixt them. The Jerusalem Targum reads it, Laudes Dei cecinit
Hebrews 11:22
By the same faith and assurance that God would make good this promise of giving Canaan to Abraham’s seed, though it were not yet given, Joseph, before his death a little, mentioned the Israelites’ going out of Egypt, and commanded that when they went his bones should be carried with them: which argued his assurance, without all doubt, that they should possess that promised land, and be delivered out of the Egyptian thraldom that they were for some years to lie under.
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Another act of faith it was in Moses’s parents to break through all fear, to hide the child, and endeavour to save him in spite of the king’s bloody
¹⁷ By faith concerning things to come, Πίστει περὶ μελλόντων. προσεκύνησεν ἐπὶ.
¹⁸ worshipped upon,
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An act of faith it was in Moses, that when he came to age he would not accept the honour of being adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter;
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Choosing rather to endure any affliction that should fall on the Israelites than to enjoy all the pleasures and advantages of a palace, with the guilt of that cruel sin of persecuting the children of God, which he could not escape doing if he lived in that court when he came to be of age;
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And counting that reproach which Christ and Christians endure now, and which the children of Israel, the anointed of the Lord, psalm cv. 15, then endured in Egypt, (being most reproachfully afflicted and oppressed,) a far more desirable thing than all the wealth and power in Egypt; looking upon the great difference of rewards between those two states in another world, wealth and greatness and persecuting God’s children being attended, as Dives, with flames, and affliction and reproach with heaven and bliss, like Lazarus. (And the like faith will it be in the Christian, to renounce all those secular advantages that the Gnostics now promise men that will forsake the pure faith and join with them in compliance with and assisting the persecutors; and rather to suffer any the sharpest persecutions from the Jews than thus join and concur with them in persecuting the Christians.)
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So after it was also an act of his faith and obedience to the word of God delivered him in the bush, that, being threatened by the king, if he should ever any more mention the going out of the people of Israel, Exod. x. 28, he went out from the king courageously, and having told Pharaoh that he would never treat with him more about it, he conducted the Israelites out of Egypt, depending constantly on God, and as firmly as if he had seen him present to secure and defend him. (And the like faith it is to confess
¹⁹ comely, ἀστεῖον. ²⁰ being grown big, μέγας γενόμενος. ²¹ to have the temporary enjoyment, or, delight of sin, πρόσκαιρον ἔχειν ἁμαρτίας ἀπόλαυσιν. ²² was constant, ἐκατρέπασε.
Hebrews 11:28
Another act of faith it was and obedience to God in Moses, that he did that which he did about the passover, and sprinkling the side-posts of the door, to deliver by that means all the firstborn of the Israelites; (by which was also typified the redemption wrought by Christ, and that which is now approaching foretold and promised by him, that he that endureth to the end shall escape, that the believers shall be sealed and secured before the destruction come out against this people: see Rev. iv. 7, &c.)
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And an act of faith it was in the people of Israel, that they ventured into the Erythraean sea, and went through part of it as if it had been firm ground; whereas the Egyptians, persecuting and trying to follow them, were drowned. (And the like faith will now secure the constant sufferers, whilst their persecutors are overwhelmed and destroyed by the same means that gives them deliverance.)
[f] passed through] Διαβαίνειν doth not here signify to go from one side to the other, quite through, or across the sea, (for the Israelites’ journeying makes it appear that they did not so,) but to go in into part of the channel, Exod. xiv. 22, and pass on there a good way in the midst, v. 29, and then to come out again on the same side; for so the Israelites did, as appears by the story. This is expressed psalm cxxxvi. 14, by God’s dividing the Red sea, and leading them בְּהוֹכּוּ, διὰ μέσου αὐτῆς, by, or through, the midst of it, agreeably to what is now said.
[g] the Red sea] That sea through part of which the Israelites passed (and in which the Ægyptians were drowned) is in the Hebrew styled וּמִ-סוֹף, mare algosum, the sea that was so full of weeds, &c. (See ps. cvi. 7, and cxxxvi. 13.) By the side or shore of this sea did the posterity of Esau or Edom dwell. Now Edom is by the Septuagint called Ἐρυθρὸς, red, because as that comes from the Hebrew אדם, red, with a very little change of one letter inserted אֱדוֹם, so from ἐρυθρὸς, red, doth the word Ἐρυθρὸς also vary as little. From hence also (and not from Erythræus, a king drowned there, as Diodorus Siculus saith) it is that this sea is by them rendered ἐρυθρὰ θάλασσα, in those places of the psalmist (and elsewhere) where the Hebrew only have וּמִ-סוֹף, the weedy sea, and accordingly it is here retained ἐρυθρὰ θάλασσα, meaning that Edumean sea which by analogy would rather be styled Ἐρυθραία than Ἐρυθρὰ, the Erythræan or Edumæan, than the Red sea.
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An act of faith it was in Joshua, and the people in obedience to him, to go about Jericho seven days together with the ark before them, upon which followed the falling of the walls of it. (And the like in the Christians now, to trust confidently in God’s deliverance, although they use no artifices, or secular policies, or means of their own to work it for them.)
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An act of faith it was in Rahab, who had formerly been an idolatress and an harlot, (and now kept an inn or victualling-house,) to entertain the spies sent by the Israelites safely, believing that God whom they worshipped to be the true God, whereupon she was saved alive, when the rest of the incredulous idolatrous people of that land were destroyed. (And the like faith will it be in them now that shall use all kindness and fidelity to the persecuted Christians, and the doing thus will be much a more probable way to secure them that do it than all the Gnostic treacheries and compliances with the persecutors.)
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Others were so favoured by God, that the fire did them no hurt when they (that is, the three children) were cast into it; others escaped present danger of being killed by the sword, as David from Saul, Eliah and Michaiah from Ahab, the Jews in Esther from Haman; others were recovered from desperate diseases, as Job and Hezekiah; others became wonderfully courageous in fighting, as Jonathan, &c. and routed the armies of the heathen Canaanites, &c. very often.
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Some women (as the widow of Sarepta, 1 Kings xvii. 21, and the Shunamitish woman, 2 Kings iv.) had their children restored from death to life, upon their entertaining the prophets of God, cherishing and relieving God’s servants, Elias and Elisha; others when racked and tormented for the acknowledgment of the truth had no desire to be spared, but refused to be delivered when they might, merely by the strength of faith believing a resurrection to life eternal after death, and looked upon that as much more desirable than a present remission of torments. Thus the mother and seven children, 2 Mac. vi. 19. 30, and ch. vii. 9.
[h] tortured] What is here meant by τυμπανίζεσθαι, I shall propose by way of conjecture, by these steps and degrees. That this punishment was that inflicted by Antiochus on the Maccabees there is little question, the many circumstances here agreeing with those there do make it manifest: as, first, the word τυμπανίζεσθαι here and there; secondly, their not accepting deliverance here, set down there distinctly, 2 Macc. vi. 30; then, thirdly, the mention of a better resurrection here, compared with that their comfort there, ch. vii. 9; and, fourthly, the ἱμπαιγμοί, contumelious usages here, ver. 36, and there 2 Macc. vii. 7, such as are mentioned 1 Sam. xxxi. 4, and are defined by Sophocles in Antigona, Τὸν θανῶν’ ἐκικτανεῖν, καὶ ἐναλλεσθαι τῷ κειμένῳ καὶ ἐφυβρίζειν, “to kill and insult on the dead, and use him contumeliously;” so, fifthly, μάστιγες, stripes, here and there, ver. 30, &c.; sixthly, the πείρα ἱμπαιγμῶν, trial of contumelies, here, and there the narration how those ἱμπαιγμοί were to try whether they would persist or no; seventhly, the word, whether ἐπειράσθησαν, tried, or ἐπυράσθησαν, scorched, here ver. 37. If it be the former, then it refers to πείρα, trial, forementioned; if the latter, then to the burning them alive, and frying them in a pan, τηγανισμὸς, 2 Macc. vii. 5. This being premised for the general explication of this word and those that follow, it is in the next place observable that Aristophanes hath this passage, Ὦ τύμπακα καὶ κύφωνες,
Hebrews 11:36
Others, as Michaiah and Jeremiah and the Maccabees, had patience tried by whipping, very re-
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[i] were tempted] Some copies read ἐπυρώθησαν, others have ἐπυράσθησαν. The truth is, ἐπειράσθησαν, which is the ordinary reading, seems not to be agreeable, after πείραν ἔλαβον, they received trial, &c., and neither the Syriac nor Chrysostom (and they that follow him) have this word, or any thing for it; so that it is likely it came out of the margin into the text, and then it will be doubtful, but not much material, which reading is to be preferred.
Hebrews 11:39
[d] saving of the soul] The word περιποίησις signifies acquiring, purchasing, getting, possessing. So περιποίησις δόξης, purchasing of glory, 2 Thess. ii. 14, περιποίησις σωτηρίας, purchasing, or acquiring, of salvation, 1 Thess. v. 9. But Phavorinus, who hath that notion of it, gives us also περιποιήσαντες ἀντὶ διασώσαντες, saving, delivering; and so being here set opposite to ἀπώλεια, destruction, and joined with ψυχῆς, of the soul, or life, it seems most probably to signify as κτῶσθαι ψυχὴν, to possess the soul, Luke xxi. 19, (which is the same with περιποίησις ψυχῆς, saving the soul here; so saith Phavorinus, Κτῆσις, περιποίησις, possessing is purchasing) is σώζειν ψυχὴν, to save, or preserve the life, Mark viii. 35, Luke ix. 24. See note [d] on Eph. ii., and note [c] on 1 Pet. ii.
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[k] made perfect] What is the meaning of this κρεῖττόν τι, somewhat better, which this author saith was by God foreseen, and reserved for the faithful, constant Christians, will best be understood by the former verse 39. These all μαρτυρηθέντες διὰ πίστεως, being commended, or having received testimony, or perhaps being martyred, by their faith, οὐκ ἐκομίσαντο τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν, received not the promise. Where first it must be observed who οὗτοι πάντες, all these, were: most distinctly the Maccabees, mentioned immediately before, ver. 36—38; but not so as to exclude, or not to comprehend those others which were set down as examples of faith before them, for they also must be contained in the οὗτοι πάντες, all these. For the Maccabees, next before mentioned, these are in the Jews’ stories commended for their constancy in adhering to God’s commands, or the Jewish laws, in spite of the cruelest persecutors and tormentors, and were really martyred, or put to death, lost their lives, διὰ πίστεως, by their faith or constancy; and of these it is said, they received not the promise, God having foreseen, or reserved, somewhat better for us, that is, God having reserved for the Christian church some performance of promise which he had not afforded those former. By this it is already apparent that eternal bliss in another world was not the matter of this promise, both because this was not it that they could be evidenced to have missed by their being tormented and put to death, but that which it was more sure they received, because they were so ill-used here; and, secondly, because if it were supposed to be true (as some vainly conceive), that those that died before Christ did not attain their bliss till after Christ’s resurrection, yet it will be acknowledged by all that they then received it, and then it will follow that the ἡμεῖς, the Christians, had not κρεῖττόν τι, any advantage of them that lived before, in that respect, those obtaining the bliss as soon or sooner than they, and no torment or temporary pains being supposable for such martyrs between the day of their sufferings and their attaining to bliss, wherein these latter can by any be thought to exceed them. It follows then, that as the promise which they by suffering received not, was some promise of this life, so the κρεῖττόν τι, the somewhat better, was somewhat which the Christians should enjoy in this life. In the next place, then, we may have another way of finding out what this promise was wherein the Christians were to have the advantage of the former, by looking on ver. 13, where of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, it is said in like manner that they died receiving not the promise. That promise was clearly the promised land, that Canaan, the type of the Christians’ rest, or deliverance from their enemies, (see note [c] on Heb. iii.) which they received not in their lifetime; and though their posterity afterward did receive it, yet some promises there were made unto Abraham and his seed, which even they that attained the promised land did not receive. And what were they? Among the promises made to Abraham (not personally to him, but to his seed) this is one, Gen. xxii. 17, that his seed should possess the gates of his enemies. This it seems was looked upon by all the Jews as a special part of the promise to Abraham, repeated by all the prophets, Luke i. 70, that they should be saved from their enemies, and from the hands of all that hate them, ver. 71, and this distinctly there mentioned by Zechariah, as a special part of the covenant and oath made to Abraham, ver. 72, 73, that he would grant them, that being delivered without fear from the hands of their enemies, they might serve God in holiness, &c., ver. 74, 75.