Clarke's Bible Commentary - Genesis 12:6
Verse 6. The plain of Moreh.] wla elon should be translated oak, not plain; the Septuagint translate thn drun thn uyhlhn, the lofty oak; and it is likely the place was remarkable for a grove of those trees, or for one of a stupendous height and bulk. The Canaanite was then in the land.] This is thought to be an interpolation, because it is supposed that these words must have been written after the Canaanites were expelled from the land by the Israelites under Joshua; but this by no means follows. All that Moses states is simply that, at the time in which Abram passed through Sichem, the land was inhabited by the descendants of Canaan, which was a perfectly possible case, and involves neither a contradiction nor absurdity. There is no rule of criticism by which these words can be produced as an evidence of interpolation or incorrectness in the statement of the sacred historian. See this mentioned again, chap. xiii. 7.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 6-9 - Abram found the country peopled by Canaanites, who were bad neighbours He journeyed, going on still. Sometimes it is the lot of good men to be unsettled, and often to remove into various states. Believers must loo on themselves as strangers and sojourners in this world, Heb 11:8, 13 14. But observe how much comfort Abram had in God. When he could have little satisfaction in converse with the Canaanites whom he foun there, he had abundance of pleasure in communion with that God, wh brought him thither, and did not leave him. Communion with God is kep up by the word and by prayer. God reveals himself and his favours to his people by degrees; before, he had promised to show Abram this land now, to give it to him: as grace is growing, so is comfort. It shoul seem, Abram understood it also as a grant of a better land, of whic this was a type; for he looked for a heavenly country, Heb 11:16. A soon as Abram was got to Canaan, though he was but a stranger an sojourner there, yet he set up, and kept up, the worship of God in his family. He not only minded the ceremonial part of religion, the offering of sacrifice; but he made conscience of seeking his God, an calling on his name; that spiritual sacrifice with which God is wel pleased. He preached concerning the name of the Lord; he taught his family and neighbours the knowledge of the true God, and his holy religion. The way of family worship is a good old way, no new thing but the ancient usage of the saints. Abram was rich, and had a numerou family, was now unsettled, and in the midst of enemies; yet, whereve he pitched his tent, he built an altar: wherever we go, let us not fai to take our religion along with us.
Original Hebrew
ויעבר 5674 אברם 87 בארץ 776 עד 5704 מקום 4725 שׁכם 7927 עד 5704 אלון 436 מורה 4176 והכנעני 3669 אז 227 בארץ׃ 776
