Hebrews 11:20
in Hebrews 11By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning the future.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even concerning things to come.
KJV
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.
⋯
This verse in Hebrews 11
Commentary
13 notes on this verse"By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau." First he gave it to Jacob, then to Esau, not according to the sequence of their birth but according to the order of spiritual blessing.
This site's exposition
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come
The blessing of Genesis 27 is credited to faith rather than to the deception that surrounded it, because the content of what Isaac spoke reached forward, concerning things to come, further than his own eyes could see or his own preference would have chosen. Faith is located in the substance of the blessing, not in the family's conduct around it, which the letter elsewhere leaves exactly as Genesis records it, unsmoothed.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
"By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come." From where were such good things promised to his sons, if he did not believe that God would give the promises? And what is it, concerning things to come? Or concerning what is to …
"By Faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come" (and yet Esau was the elder; but he puts Jacob first for his excellence). Seest thou how great was his Faith? Whence did he promise to his sons so great blessings? Entirely from his having faith in God.
The Medieval Church2 voices
607. – Above, the Apostle gave an example of Abraham's faith; here he gives the example of the faith of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph: and first of Isaac's faith. He says, therefore, that by faith of things to come, i.e., of things that extended into …
How could he have promised his sons so many good things, himself living in a foreign land, if he did not believe that God would grant what was promised? What does "concerning things to come" mean? Either the good things of the age to come, …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau,.... The history of this is in Gen 27:33. The former of these was a good man, and, though the youngest son, he is set before, and was blessed before the eldest; and the latter was a wicked man, and yet had a blessing; for temporal blessings are enjoyed in common: and this blessing was prophetic, it was concerning things to come.
6 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
But, notwithstanding all this, Isaac's faith recovered itself, and he ratified the blessing: I have blessed him yea, and he shall be blessed. Rebecca and Jacob are not to be justified in the indirect means they used to obtain this blessing, but God will be justified in overruling even the sins of men to serve the purposes of his glory.
It is a great privilege to be the offspring of good parents, and often the wicked children of good parents fare the better in this world for their parents' sake, for things present are in the covenant; but they are not the best things, and no man knoweth love or hatred by having or wanting such things.
The advantages that we have in the gospel for the exercise of this grace above what those had who lived in the times of the Old Testament,
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau - He believed that God would fulfill his promise to his posterity; and God gave him to see what would befall them in their future generations. The apostle does not seem to intimate that one should be an object of the Divine hatred, and the other of Divine love, in reference to their eternal states. This is wholly a discovery of later ages. For an ample consideration of this subject, see the notes on Genesis 27 (note).
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Jacob is put before Esau, as heir of the chief, namely, the spiritual blessing. concerning things to come--Greek, "even concerning things to come": not only concerning things present. Isaac, by faith, assigned to his sons things future, as if they were present.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come - see Gen 27:26-40. The meaning is, that he pronounced a blessing on them in respect to their future condition. This was by faith in God who had communicated it to him, and in full confidence that he would accomplish all that was here predicted. The act of faith here was simply what believes that all that God says is true. There were no human probabilities at the time when these prophetic announcements were made, which could have been the basis of his calculation, but all that he said must have rested merely on the belief that God had revealed it to him. A blessing was pronounced on each, of a very different nature, but Isaac had no doubt that both would be fulfilled.
The words behind it
11 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Πίστει | pistei | By faith | G4102 → | 242 times |
| καὶ | kai | also | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| περὶ | peri | concerning | G4012 → | 332 times |
| μελλόντων | mellonton | [the things] coming | G3195 → | 109 times |
| εὐλόγησεν | eulogesen | blessed | G2127 → | 41 times |
| Ἰσαὰκ | isaak | Isaac | G2464 → | 20 times |
| τὸν | ton | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| Ἰακὼβ | iakob | Jacob | G2384 → | 27 times |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| τὸν | ton | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| Ἠσαῦ.¶ | esau | Esau. | G2269 → |
ΠίστειBy faith
pisteiG4102 →242 times
καὶalso
kaiG2532 →9120 times
περὶconcerning
periG4012 →332 times
μελλόντων[the things] coming
mellontonG3195 →109 times
εὐλόγησενblessed
eulogesenG2127 →41 times
ἸσαὰκIsaac
isaakG2464 →20 times
τὸν<the>
tonG3588 →19766 times
ἸακὼβJacob
iakobG2384 →27 times
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
τὸν<the>
tonG3588 →19766 times
Ἠσαῦ.¶Esau.
esauG2269 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies17
On this verse
On this chapter
- Enoch, the Man Who Walked with God
- The Seven Brothers and Their Mother
- Adam to Noah
- The Binding of Isaac (Genesis 22)
- The Apocrypha
- The General Epistles
- The Covenants
- The Hall of Faith
- Moses in the Bulrushes: Exodus 2
- Rahab and the Scarlet Cord: Joshua 2 & 6
- Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
- Taw: The Mark of God
- The City
- The Intertestamental Period
- The Judges Cycle: the Downward Spiral
- The Red Sea Crossing: Exodus 14-15
About Hebrews
Who and where
3 names in this verse with a page on the site.
- PersonPatriarchsEsauIsaac's elder son who despised his birthright (Heb 12:16); father of Edom, Israel's perennial neighbor and adversary.
- PersonPatriarchsIsaacThe son of promise and of laughter — bound on Moriah, the quiet inheritor of the covenant.
- PersonPatriarchsJacobThe heel-grasping supplanter reshaped at Peniel into 'Israel, he who strives with God' — father of the twelve tribes.
This page draws on 12 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Homily on Hebrews 26; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Oecumenius, The Pseudo-Oecumenian Catena on Hebrews; Severian of Gabala, FRAGMENTS ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 11.2; Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Hebrews and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Hebrews.