These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and embraced them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 13. 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.
TR adds “and being convinced of”