Matthew Poole and continuators on Genesis 18:10

10 And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life , and lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door which was behind him .

Not in a visible shape, but with my powerful and effectual presence, to fulfill my promise.

This time may respect, either 1. Abram and Sarah, in the time of Life, i. e. when you shall be both alive and in health. But that it belonged to them, it might seem better to understand it thus, in the time when God shall restore life, (i. e.) vigour and activity, to you; for till then both Abrahams body, and Sarahs Womb are expresly said to be dead, Rom. 4. 19. to which deadness this Life may be opposite, and the time of restoring this lost power of Generation may well be called a time of Life, it being a kind of life from the dead, and an impowring of him for a vital action from which he was before disenabled, and for the conveying of Life to a Child, and perpetuating his own life in him. Or, 2. to the Child, according to the time of Life, i. e. in the time which is usual for the Conception, Quickning, and Bringing forth of a living Child. Which interpretation recieveth some countenance, from 2 King. 4. 16. where we have the same phrase. Or, 3. To the year, according to the time, or this time of Life, or living time, i. e. when this time or season of the year shall revive, i. e. return or be restored: As Cities and Buildings are said to be revived when they are Repaired or Rebuilt, as 1 Chron. 11 8. Nehem. 4. 2. And this season might more properly be said to revive and be called the time of Life, because it may be gathered from the heat ver. 1. and their refreshing themselves under the shadow of a tree, that it was the Spring time, when Herbs and Plants and Trees, which seem to be dead in the Winter, recover and shew forth their Life and Vigour: and so the sense may be this, according to this time which is a time of Life, or reviving, wherein as the beauty and Fruits of the Earth will be renewed and revived, so thou and Sarah shall be revived or receive as it were a new Life in the Son that shall be born to you. This sense seems more probable than either of the former; because he speaks of a certain set or appointed time, v. 14. Rom. 9. 9. Gen. 21. 2. and that time was about a year after this, as may appear by comparing Gen. 17 24. and Gen. 21. 5.

(i. e.) At the back of the Angel that spoke with him. Which is here added to shew that he knew her laughter not by the sight of his Eyes, but by his all-seeing Knowledge.

Marginal references: Heb. to the living time.; Chap. 17. 19▪ 21 and 21. [illegible: 1+ letters].