All these people died in faith, without having received the things they were promised. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
For they that say such things,.... That they are strangers and pilgrims on earth: declare plainly that they seek a country; heaven, so called, for the largeness of it; it is a good land, a land of uprightness; a pleasant land, a land of rest, though a land afar off; here the Father of Christ, and Christ himself, and all his people dwell: the Syriac...
Verse 13. These all died in faith. That is those who had been just mentioned--Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Sarah. It was true of Abel and Noah also, that they died in faith, but they are not included in this declaration, for the "promises" were not particularly entrusted to them; and if the word "these" be made to include them, it must include Enoch also, who did not die at all.
That is, all the before-mentioned saints, Abel, Noah, Abraham, and Sarah, they all died in the faith of the promised Messiah, believing he should come, and expecting salvation by his coming. It is not enough for a Christian to live in the faith, but he must also die in the faith; and to die in the faith is an honourable happy manner of dying; it...