These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
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George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
All these died in the faith of God's promises; that is, of their posterity, being to be introduced into the promised land of Chanaan, but chiefly into the happy country of heaven. For had they only aspired and wished for the country of Chaldea, out of which Abraham came, they had time enough to have returned thither. (Witham)
A metaphor taken from sailors, who, after a long and dangerous voyage, no sooner descry their native country, but they hail it with transports of joy: thus in Virgil: Italiam, Italiam, primus conclamat Achates. Thus the Patriarchs, when beholding at a distance, and through faith, their heavenly country, hailed it with joyous and repeated accents, eagerly desiring to reach the envied port.
The first virtue, yea the whole of virtue, is to be a stranger to this world, and a sojourner, and to have nothing in common with things here, but to hang loose from them, as from things strange to us; As those blessed disciples did, of whom he says, They wandered about in sheepskins, and in goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented: of whom the world was not worthy. c. xi. 37, 38
They called themselves therefore strangers; but Paul said somewhat much beyond this: for not merely did he call himself a stranger, but said that he was dead to the world, and that the world was dead to him. For the world (he says) has been crucified to me and I to the world. Galatians 6:14 But we, both citizens and quite alive, busy ourselves about everything here as citizens. And what righteous men were to the world, strangers and dead, that we are to Heaven. And what they were to Heaven, alive and acting as citizens, that we are to the world. Wherefore we are dead, because we have refused that w...
These all died in faith, he says, not having obtained the promises. At this place it is worth while to make two enquiries; how, after saying that [God] translated Enoch, and he was not found, so that he did not see death, does he say, These all died in Faith. And again, after saying, they not having obtained the promises, he declares that Noah had received a reward, to the saving of his house, and that Enoch had been translated, and that Abel yet speaks, and that Abraham had gained a hold on the land, and yet he says, These all died in Faith, not having obtained the promises. What then is [meant]?
It is necessary to solve the first [difficulty], and then the second. These all (he says) died in faith. The word all is used here not because all had died, but because with that one exception all these had died, whom we know to be dead.
And the [statement] not having obtained the promises, is true: for surely the promise to Noah was not to be this [which is here spoken of]. But furthe...
