Genesis 25:8

8 And decaying he died in a good old age, and having lived a long time, and being full of days: and was gathered to his people.

Genesis 25:8 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 25:8

Then Abraham gave up the ghost
Very readily and cheerfully, without any previous sickness or present pain, but through the decay of nature by reason of old age, in a very easy quiet manner:

and died in a good old age, an old man;
for quantity, in those times few arriving to a greater; for quality, not attended with those inconveniences and disadvantages with which old age generally is, and therefore called evil:

and full [of years];
in the original it is only, "and full"; the Targum of Jonathan adds, "of all good"; temporal and spiritual, with which he was filled and satisfied; or he had had enough of life, and was willing to depart, and was full of desires after another and better world:

and was gathered to his people;
which is to be understood not of his interment, there being only the body of Sarah in the sepulchre in which he was laid; but of the admission of his soul into the heavenly state upon its separation from the body, when it was at once associated with the spirits of just men made perfect. The Arabic writers F6 say that he died in the month of Nisan, others say Adar, in the year of the world 3563; but, according to Bishop Usher, he died A. M. 2183, and before Christ 1821.


FOOTNOTES:

F6 Elmacinus, p. 34. Patricides, p. 21. Apud Hottinger. Smegma Oriental. p. 315.

Genesis 25:8 In-Context

6 And to the children of the concubines he gave gifts, and separated them from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, to the east country.
7 And the days of Abraham’s life were a hundred and seventy-five years.
8 And decaying he died in a good old age, and having lived a long time, and being full of days: and was gathered to his people.
9 And Isaac and Ismael his sons buried him in the double cave, which was situated in the field of Ephron the son of Seor the Hethite, over against Mambre,
10 Which he had bought of the children of Heth: there was he buried, and Sara his wife.
The Douay-Rheims Bible is in the public domain.