Teks -- Genesis 18:10 (NET)

18:10 One of them said, “I will surely return to you when the season comes round again, and your wife Sarah will have a son!” (Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, not far behind him.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Gen 18:10 - I will certainly return unto thee

And visit thee. God will return to those that bid him welcome.

JFB: Gen 18:10 - Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him

The women's apartment is in the back of the tent, divided by a thin partition from the men's.

Clarke: Gen 18:10 - I will certainly return

I will certainly return - Abraham was now ninety-nine years of age, and this promise was fulfilled when he was a hundred; so that the phrase according to the time of life must mean either a complete year, or nine months from the present time, the ordinary time of pregnancy. Taken in this latter sense, Abraham was now in the ninety-ninth year of his age, and Isaac was born when he was in his hundredth year.

Calvin: Gen 18:10 - I will certainly return unto thee

10.I will certainly return unto thee Jerome translates its ‘I will return, life attending me:’ ⁴¹¹ as if God, speaking in the manner of men, had said, ‘I will return if I live.’ But it would be absurd, that God, who here so magnificently proclaims his power, should borrow from man a form of speech which would suppose him to be mortal. What majesty, I pray, would this remarkable oracle possess, which treats of the eternal salvation of the world? That interpretation, therefore, can by no means be approved, which entirely enervates the force and authority of the promise. Literally it is, according to the time of life. Which some expound of Sarah; as if the angel had said, Sarah shall survive to that period. But it is more properly explained of the child; for God promises that He will come, at the just and proper time of bringing forth, that Sarah might become the mother of a living child.

TSK: Gen 18:10 - he said // according // Sarah

he said : Gen 18:13, Gen 18:14, Gen 16:10, Gen 22:15, Gen 22:16

according : Gen 17:21, Gen 21:2; 2Ki 4:16, 2Ki 4:17

Sarah : Gen 17:16, Gen 17:19, Gen 17:21, Gen 21:2; Jdg 13:3-5; Luk 1:13; Rom 9:8, Rom 9:9; Gal 4:23, Gal 4:28

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Gen 18:10 - I will certainly return unto thee // According to the time of life // In the tent door which was behind him

I will certainly return unto thee not in a visible shape, but with my powerful and effectual presence, to fulfil my promise.

According to the time of life: this time may respect, either,

1. Abraham and Sarah, in the time of life, i.e. when you shall be both alive and in health. But if it belonged to them, it might seem better to understand it thus; in the time when God shall restore life, i.e. vigour and activity to you; for till then both Abraham’ s body and Sarah’ s womb are expressly said to be dead, Rom 4:19 , to which deadness this life may be opposite; and the time of restoring this lost power of generation may well be called a time of life, it being a kind of life from the dead, and an empowering of him for a vital action from which he was before disenabled, and for the conveying of life to a child, and perpetuating his own life in him. Or,

2. To the child, according to the time of life, i.e. in the time which is usual for the conception, quickening, and bringing forth of a living child. Which interpretation receiveth some countenance from 2Ki 4:16 , where we have the same phrase. Or,

3. To the year, according to the time, or this time of life, or living time, i.e. when this time or season of the year shall revive, i.e. return or be restored; as cities and buildings are said to be revived, when they are repaired or rebuilt, as 1Ch 11:8 Neh 4:2 . And this season might more properly be said to revive, and be called the time of life, because it may be gathered from the heat, Gen 18:1 , and their refreshing themselves under the shadow of a tree, that it was the spring time, when herbs and plants and trees, which seem to be dead in the winter, recover and show forth their life and vigour: and so the sense may be this, according to this time, which is a time of life, or reviving, wherein as the beauty and fruits of the earth will be renewed and revived, so thou and Sarah shall be revived, or receive, as it were, a new life in the son that shall be born to you. This sense seems more probable than either of the former, because he speaks of a certain set or appointed time, Gen 18:14 Rom 9:9 Gen 21:2 , and that time was about a year after this, as may appear by comparing Gen 17:24 , and Gen 21:5 .

In the tent door which was behind him i.e. at the back of the angel that spoke with him; which is here added, to show that he knew her laughter, not by the sight of his eyes, but by his all-seeing knowledge.

Haydock: Gen 18:10 - Time

Time, or season of the year ensuing, if I be alive; which he says after the manner of men, as he had assumed also the human form. (Haydock)

Gill: Gen 18:10 - And he said // I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life // and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son // and Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him

And he said,.... The same that put the question, Jehovah himself, as appears by what follows:

I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; not by a personal appearance as now, but by the fulfilment of his promise which he had before given to Abraham, that he should have a son by Sarah, and now renews it; and this would be about the same time in the next year, perhaps at the spring of the year, which may be called "a time of life", when all things revive, which in the winter season seem to be dead; a fit emblem this of the case and condition of Abraham and Sarah, both as they now were, and afterwards would be; for, though their bodies were as it were dead and unfit for generation, yet nature would revive in them again: unless it be understood of the whole time of the conception, quickening, and birth of an infant, at the usual time a woman goes with child, which is nine months, when the infant is a perfect living child. All the Targums paraphrase it,"in which ye shall be alive,''safe and well, and so most of the Jewish commentators; as if it was a promise to Abraham and Sarah, that they should live to see the promise made good next given; but this seems not so agreeable as either of the former, see 2Ki 4:16,

and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son; it was by degrees that this was made known to Abraham; first he was told he should have a son, but it was not said by whom he should have it; some years after that he is informed he should have a son by Sarah, but not when; but now it is revealed to him, that he should have one by her the next year:

and Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him; or, "and it was behind him" ^u; that is, the tent door was at the back of the person speaking; Sarah, hearing her name mentioned, got to the tent door to listen to what might be further said; and the place where she was, was behind the speaker, who stood between her and Abraham, with whom he was conversing; Abraham was before high, and Sarah behind him, so that he could not see her when she laughed, and yet he knew she did; and for the sake of that, this circumstance is remarked: both the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem paraphrase the clause,"and Ishmael stood behind it,''the tent door; and the former adds, and hearkened to what the angel said.