Not because the action of circumcision is important in itself, but because if that is neglected the covenant itself is treated with contempt when the seal by which it is recognised and ratified is not made perfect.
From the same author, on #Ge 19:23.
Why did the sun go forth upon the land when Lot entered into Segor? And he says the very same place is a safety for those who are making progress, and a punishment to those who are inwardly wicked. And again the moment that the sun rises in the beginning of the day it brings with it justice; wishing to show that the sun, and the day, and the light, and everything else in the world which is beautiful and honourable, are given only to the virtuous and to no worthless man who embraces incurable wickedness.
From the same author, on #Ge 27:24û27.
Having been spies rather than friends under truce, and being prepared for either alternative; for war if they saw that the other was weak, and for peace if they found him stronger than themselves.
From the same author, on #Ge 26:28, etc.
These are the covenants which they made, not to be destroyed as the other nations had been, and the Philistines were at a subsequent period by the Israelites; whom the holy scriptures call sometimes Canaanites, and sometimes Cappadocians; but afterwards the Cappadocians emigrated.
From the same author, on #Ge 26:30.
Not on account of praise, for the wise man is not attracted by flattery or by any other kind of subserviency, but because he has accepted their repentance.
From the same author, on #Ge 27:6, etc.
When he had two sons, the one good and the other guilty, he says that he will bless the guilty one, not because he preferred him to the good one, but because he knew that the other one could do right by himself, but that the other was convicted by his own disposition, and had no hope whatever of salvation except in the prayers of his father; and if he did not obtain them, then he would be the most miserable of all men.
From the same author, on #Ge 27:11, etc.
It is proper here to admire also the good will of his mother, who confessed herself willing to take upon herself the cause for his sake, in order that her son might have the honour to which the two were entitled, for she is carried away by her affection for both of them; for she had feared his father, lest she should be looked upon as imposing on him, and to be filching away the honour to which the other was entitled; and his mother, lest he should be considered by her as disobedient to her when she urged him vehemently; on which account he says, with great prudence and propriety, Will not my father curse me? and I shall be bringing a curse on myself. He had confidence because of the promise of God, which said, “The elder shall serve the younger.” But, on the other hand, he feared as a man, lest the blessing of his father, as a just man, should overturn the assertion of God.
From the same author, on #Ge 27:30.
He is not so indignant at his disappointment in not obtaining the blessings, as at the fact of his brother having been thought worthy of them; for being of an envious disposition, he regarded his want of success as more desirable than even his own advantage, and he shows this by his great and bitter lamentations, and by his subsequent exclamation, “Bless me now also, O my father.”
From the same author.
But if he obtained it by fraud, a man will be inclined to say, he was not to be praised. What then does his father say? “And he shall be blessed.” But he appears by what he here says to intimate, in an enigmatical and obscure manner, that it does not follow that every stratagem is blameable, since guardians of the night when they lie in wait for robbers, and generals when they form ambuscades for enemies whom they would not be able to subdue by open force, appear to act rightly: and what are called stratagems proceed on the same principle as the contests of wrestlers, for in these cases too tricks are accounted honourable; and those who by trickery get the better of their antagonists are thought worthy of the prize, and of the crown of victory; so that it is not a charge against a man to say, he has done a thing by trick, but it is rather a panegyric, being equivalent to saying, he has done it skilfully, for the virtuous man does not do anything unskilfully.
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