■^ Whether the Dead Sea originated in this catastrophe, or whether there ■was previously a lake, possibly a fresh water lake, at the north of the valley of Siddim, which was enlarged to the dimensions of the existing sea by the destruction of the valley with its cities, and received its present character at the same time, is a question which has been raised, since Capt. Lynch has discovered by actual measurement the remarkable fact, that the bottom of the lake consists of two totally different levels, which are separated by a peninsula that stretches to a very great distance into the lake from the eastern shore; so that whilst the lake to the north of this peninsula is, on an average, from 1000 to 1200 feet deep, the southern portion is at the most 16 feet deep, and generally much less, the bottom being covered with salt mud, and heated by hot springs from below.
" But when this pillar of salt is mentioned in Wisdom xi. 7 and Clemens
28, the account closes with a remark which points back to chap, xviii. 17 sqq., viz; that Abraham went in the morning to the place where he had stood the day before, interceding with the Lord for Sodom, and saw how the judgment had fallen upon the entire plain, since the smoke of the countiy went up like the smoke of a furnace. Yet his intercession had not been in vain.
Vers. 29-38. For on the destruction of these cities, God had thought of Abraham, and rescued Lot. This rescue is attributed to Elohim, as being the work of the Judge of the whole earth (chap, xviii. 25), and not to Jehovah the covenant God, because Lot was severed from His guidance and care on his separation from Abraham. The fact, however, is repeated here, for the purpose of connecting with it an event in the life of Lot of great significance to the future history of Abraham's seed. — Vers. 30 sqq. From Zoar Lot removed with his two daughters to the (Moabitish) mountains, for fear that Zoar might after all be destroyed, and dwelt in one of the caves ("TVyo with the generic article), in which the limestone rocks abound (vid. Lynch), and so became a dweller in a cave. While there, his daughters resolved to procure children through their father; and to that end on two successive evenings they made him intoxicated with wine, and then lay with him in the night, one after the other, that they might conceive seed. To this accursed crime they were impelled by the desire to preserve their family, because they thought there was no man on the earth to come in unto them, i.e. to marry them, " after the manner of all the earth." Not that they imagined the whole human race to have perished in the destruction of the valley of Siddim, but because they were afraid that no man would link himself with them, the only sur vivors of a country smitten by the curse of God. If it was not lust, therefore, which impelled them to this shameful deed, their conduct was worthy of Sodom, and shows quite as much as their previous betrothal to men of Sodom, that they were deeply imbued with the sinful character of that city. The words of vers. 33 and 35, " And he knew not of her lying down and of her ad Cor. xi. as still in existence, and JosepJius professes to have seen it, this legend is probably based upon the pillar-like Inmps of salt, which are still to be seen at Mount Usdum (Sodom), on the south-western side of the Dead Sea.
rising up," do not affirm that lie was in an unconscious state, as the Eabbins are said by Jerome to have indicated by the point over naiipa: " quasi incredihile et quod natura rerum non capiat^ coire quempiam nescierUem." They merely mean, that in his intoxicated state, tliough not entirely unconscious, yet he lay with his daughters without clearly knowing what he was doing. — Vers. 36 sqq. But Lot's daughters had so little feeling of shame in connection with their conduct, that they gave names to the sons they bore, which have immortalized their paternity. Moab, another form of 3^1^ " from the father," as is indicated in the clause appended in the LXX.: Xeyovcra €k tov irarpo'i fiov, and also rendered probable by the reiteration of the words " of our father" and "by their father" (vers. 32, 34, and 36), as well as by the analogy of the name Ben-Ammi = Ammon, 'AfMfidv, Xeyovaa T/09 'yivov; pov (LXX.). For |isy, the sprout of the nation, bears tlie same relation to DV, as ji^^'^, the rush or sprout of the marsh, to D3^^ (Belitzsch). — This account was neither the invention of national hatred to the Moabites and Ammonites, nor was it placed here as a brand upon those tribes. These discoveries of a criticism imbued with hostility to the Bible are overthrown by the fact, that, according to Deut. ii. 9, 19, Israel was ordered not to touch the territory of either of these tribes because of their descent from Lot; and it was their unbrotherly conduct towards Israel alone which first prevented their reception into the congregation of the Lord, Deut. xxiii. 4, 5. — Lot is never mentioned again. Separated both outwardly and inwardly from Abraham, he was of no further importance in relation to the history of salvation, so that even his death is not referred to. His descendants, however, frequently came into contact with the Israelites; and the history of their descent is given here to facilitate a correct appreciation of their conduct towards Israel.
Vers. 1-7. After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham removed from the grove of Marare at Hebron to the south country, hardly from the same fear as that which led Lot from Zoar, but probably to seek for better pasture. Here he dwelt between Kadesh (xiv. 7) and Shur (xvi. 7), and remained for some time in Gerar, a place the name of which has been preserved in the deep and broad Wady Jurfel Gerdr (i.e. torrent of Gerar) about eight miles S.S.E. of Gaza, near to which How land discovered the ruins of an ancient town bearing the name of Khirhet el Gerdr. Here Abimelech, the Philistine king of Gerar, like Pharaoh in Egypt, took Sarah, whom Abraham had again announced to be his sister, into his harem, — not indeed because he was charmed with the beauty of the woman of 90, which was either renovated, or had not yet faded {Kurtz), but in all probability " to ally himself with Abraham, the rich nomad prince" {Delitzsch). From this danger, into which the untruthful statement of both her husband and herself had brought her, she was once more rescued by the faithfulness of the covenant God. In a dream by night God appeared to Abimelech, and threatened him with death (np "^3n en te moriturum) on account of the woman, whom he had taken, because she was married to a husband. — Vers. 4 sqq. Abimelech, who had not yet come near her, because God had hindered him by illness (vers. 6 and 17), excused himself on the ground that he had done no wrong, since he had supposed Sarah to be Abraham's sister, according to both her husband's statement and her own. This plea was admitted by God, who told him that He had kept him from sinning through touching Sarah, and commanded him to restore the woman immediately to her husband, who was a prophet, that he might pray for him and save his life, and threatened him with certain death to himself and all belonging to him in case he should refuse. That Abimelech, when taking the supposed sister of Abraham into his harem, should have thought that he was acting " in innocence of heart and purity of hands," i.e. in perfect innocence, is to be fully accounted for, from his undeveloped moral and religious standpoint, by considering the customs of that day. But that God should have admitted that he had acted " in innocence of heart," and yet should have proceeded at once to tell him that he could only remain alive through the intercession of Abraham, that is to say, through his obtaining forgiveness of a sin that was deserving of death, is a proof that God treated him as capable of deeper moral discernment and piety. The history itself indicates this in the very charactei'istic variation in the names of God. First of all (ver. 3), Eloliim (without the article, i.e. Deity generally) appears to him in a dream; but Abimelech recognises the Lord, Adonai, i.e. Godj (ver. 4); whereupon the historian represents a\n^Nn (Elohim with] the article), the personal and true God, as speaking to him. Th»l address of God, too, also shows his susceptibility of divine truth.) Without further pointing out to him the wrong which he had] done in simplicity of heart, in taking the sister of the stranger! who had come into his land, for the purpose of increasing his] own harem, since he must have been conscious of this himself J God described Abraham as a prophet, whose intercession alone] could remove his guilt, to show him the way of salvation. A \ prophet: lit. the God-addressed or inspired, since the " inward] speaking " (Mn-sprache) or inspiration of God constitutes the j essence of prophecy. Abraham was 7rpo(f)i]Trj<; as the recipient j of divine revelation, and Avas thereby placed in so confidential a relation to God, that he could intercede for sinners, and atone for sins of infirmity through his intercession.
Vers. 8-15. Abimelech carried out the divine instructions. The next morning he collected his servants together and related what had occurred, at which the men were greatly alarmed. He then sent for Abraham, and complained most bitterly of his conduct, by which he had brought a great sin upon him and his kingdom. — Ver. 10. " What sawest thou" i.e. what hadst thou in thine eye, with thine act (thy false statement)? Abimelech did this publicly in the presence of his servants, partly for his own justification in the sight of his dependants, and partly to put Abraham to shame. The latter had but two weak excuses: (1) that he supposed there was no fear of God at all in the land, and trembled for his life because of his wife; and (2) that when he left his father's house, he had arranged with his wife that in every foreign place she was to call herself his sister, as she really ' was his half-sister. On the subject of his emigration, he expressed himself indefinitely and with reserve, accommodating himself to the polytheistic standpoint of the Philistine king: " when God (or the gods, Elohim) caused me to wander^^ i.e. led me to commence an unsettled life in a foreign land; and saying nothing about Jehovah, and the object of his wandering as revealed by Him. — Vers. 14 sqq. Abimelech then gave him back his wife with a liberal present of cattle and slaves, and gave him leave to dwell wherever he pleased in his land. To Sarah he said, " Behold, I have given a thousand shekels of silver to thy brother; behold, it is to thee a covering of the eyes (i.e. an expiatory gift) with regard to all that are with thee ("because in a mistress the whole family is disgraced," Del.), and with all — so art thou justified.^' The thousand shekels (about £131) were not a special present made to Sarah, but indicate the value of the present made to Abraham, the amount of which may be estimated by this standard, that at a later date (Ex. xxi. 32) a slave was reckoned at 30 shekels. By the " covering of the eyes " we are not to understand a veil, which Sarah was to procure for 1000 shekels; but it is a figurative expression for an atoning gift, and is to be explained by the analogy of the phrase 'S \3S "iS3 " to cover any one's face," so that he may forget a wrong donei(cf. chap, xxxii. 21; and Job ix. 24, " he covereth the faces of the judges," i.e. he bribes them), i^naij"; can only be the 2 pers. fern. sing. perf. Niphal, although the Dagesh lene is wanting in the n; for the rules of syntax will hardly allow us to regard this form as a participle, unless we imagine the extremely harsh ellipsis of nnaij for ^'^ nnaiJ, The literal meaning is " so thou art judged," i.e. justice has been done thee. — Vers. 17, 18. After this reparation, God healed Abimelech at Abraham's intercession; also his wife and maids, so that they could bear again, for Jehovah had closed up every womb in Abimelech's house on Sarah's account. niriDK, maids whom the king kept as concubines, are to be distinguished from riinsK' female slaves (ver. 14). That there was a material difference between them, is proved by 1 Sam. xxv. 41. ">>*y ^D"?. ''I does not mean, as is frequently supposed, to prevent actual childbirth, but to prevent conception, i.e. to produce barrenness (1 Sam. i. 5, 6). This is evident from the expression " He hath restrained me from bearing " in chap. xvi. 2 (cf. Isa. Ixvi. 9, and 1 Sam. xxi. 6), and from the opposite phrase, " open the womb," so as to facilitate conception (chap. xxix. 31, and xxx. 22). The plague brought upon Abimelech's house, therefore, consisted of some disease which rendered the begetting of children (the coitus) impossible. This might have occurred as soon as Sarah was taken into the royal harem, and therefore need not presuppose any lengthened stay there. There is no necessity, therefore, to restrict 1*1^*1 to the women and regard it as equivalent to '"IJ^— -> which would be grammatically inadmissible; for it may refer to Abimelech also, since 1^ signifies to beget as well as to bear. We may adopt KnoheVs explanation, therefore, though without approving of the inference that ver. 18 was an appendix of the Jehovist, and arose from a misunderstanding of the word np>l in ver. 17. A later addition ver. 18 cannot be; for the simple reason, that without the explanation given there, the previous verse would be unintelligible, so that it cannot have been wanting in any of the accounts. The name Jehovah, in contrast with Eloldm and Ha-EloUm in ver. 17, is obviously significant. The cure of Abimelech and his wives belonged to the Deity {EloJiim). Abraham directed his intercession not to Elohim, an indefinite and unknown God, but to cn^xn; for the God, whose prophet he was, was the personal and true God. It was He too who had brought the disease upon Abimelech and his house, not as Elohim or Ila-Elohim, but as Jehovah, the God of salvation; for His design therein was to prevent the disturbance or frustration of His saving design, and the birth of the promised son from Sarah.
But if the divine names Elohim and Ha-Elohim indicate the true relation of God to Abimelech, and here also it was Jehovah who intefposed for Abraham and preserved the mother of the promised seed, our narrative cannot be merely an Elohistic side-piece appended to the Jehovistic account in chap. xii. 14 sqq., and founded upon a fictitious legend. The thoroughly distinctive character of this event is a decisive proof of the fallacy of any such' critical conjecture. Apart from the one point of agreement — the taking of Abraham's wife into the royal harem, because he said she was his sister in the hope of thereby saving his own life (an event, the repetition of which in the space of 24 years is by no means startling, when we consider the customs of the age) — all the more minute details are entirely diffei-ent in the two cases. In king Abimelech we meet with a totally different character from that of Pharaoh. We see in him a heathen imbued with a moral consciousness of right, and open to receive divine revelation, of which there is not the slightest trace in the king of Egypt. And Abraham, in spite of his natural weakness, and the consequent confusion which he manifested in the presence of the pious heathen, was exalted by the compassionate grace of God to the position of His own friend, so that even the heathen king, who seems to have been in the right in this instance, was compelled to bend before him and to seek the removal of the divine punishment, which had fallen upon him and his house, through the medium of his intercession. In this way God proved to the Philistine king, on the one hand, that He suffers no harm to befall His prophets (Ps. cv. 15), and to Abraham, on the other, that He can maintain His covenant and secure the realization of His promise against all opposition from the sinful desires of earthly potentates. It was in this respect that the event possessed a typical significance in relation to the future attitude of Israel towards surrounding nations.
Vers. 1-7. Birth of Isaac. — Jehovah did for Sarah what God had promised in chap. xvii. 6 (cf. xviii. 14): she conceived, and at the time appointed bore a son to Abraham, when he was 100 years old. Abraham gave it the name of Jizchak (or Isaac), and circumcised it on the eighth day. The name for the promised son had been selected by God, in connection with Abraham's laughing (chap. xvii. 17 and 19), to indicate the nature of his birth and existence. For as his laughing sprang from the contrast between the idea and the reality; so through a miracle of grace the birth of Isaac gave effect to this contrast between the promise of God and the pledge of its fulfilment on the one hand, and the incapacity of Abraham for begetting children, and of Sarah for bearing them, on the other; and through this name, Isaac was designated as the fruit of omnipotent grace working against and above the forces of nature. Sarah also, who had previously laughed with unbelief at the divine promise (xviii. 12), found a reason in the now accomplished birth of the promised son for laughing with joyous amazement; so that she exclaimed, with evident allusion to his name, ",4 laiighing hath God prepared for me; every one who hears it will laugh to me " {i.e. will rejoice with me, in amazement at the blessing of God which has come upon me even in my old age), and gave a fitting expression to the joy of her heart, in this inspired tristich (ver. 7): " WJio would have said itnto Abraham: Sarah is giving suck; for I have born a son to his old age."??» is the poetic word for "i3'n, and ^p before the perfect has the sense of — whoever has said, which we should express as a subjunctive; cf. 2 Kings xx. 9; Ps. xi. 3, etc.
Vers. 8-21. Expulsion of Ishmael. — The weaning of the child, which was celebrated with a feast, furnished the outward occasion for this. Sarah saw Ishmael mocking, making ridicule on the occasion. " Isaac, the object of holy laughter, was made the butt of unholy wit or profane sport. He did not laugh (pnv), but he made fun (pn^p). The little helpless Isaac a father of nations! Unbelief, envy, pride of carnal superiority, were the causes of his conduct. Because he did not understand the sentiment, ' Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? ' it seemed to him absurd to link so great a thing to one so small" {Hengstenherg). Paul calls this the persecution of him that was after the Spirit by him that was begotten after the flesh (Gal. iv. 29), and discerns in this a prediction of the persecution, which the Church of those who are born after the spirit of faith endures from those who are in bondage to the righteousness of the law. — Ver. 9. Sarah therefore asked that the maid and her son might be sent away, saying, the latter " shall not be heir with Isaac." The demand, which apparently proceeded from maternal jealousy, displeased Abraham greatly ^^ because of Ms son" — partly because in Ishmael he loved his own flesh and blood, and partly on account of the promise received for him (chap. xvii. 18 and 20). But God (Elohim, since there is no appearance mentioned, but the divine will was made known to him inwardly) commanded him to comply with Sarah's demand: "/or in Isaac shall seed (posterity) he called to theer This expression cannot mean " thy descendants will call themselves after Isaac," for in that case, at all events, ^JTiT would be used; nor " in (through) Isaac shall seed be called into existence to thee," for Nip does not mean to call into existence; but, " in the person of Isaac shall there be posterity to thee, which shall pass as such," for ^li?3 includes existence and the recognition of existence. Though the noun is not defined by any article, the seed intended must be that to which all the pro raises of God referred, and with which God would establish His covenant (chap. xvii. 21, cf. Rom. ix. 7, 8; Heb. xi. 18). To make the dismissal of Ishmael easier to the paternal heart, God repeated to Abraham (ver. 13) the promise already given him with regard to this son (chap. xvii. 20). — Vers. 14 sqq. The next morning Abraham sent Hagar away with Ishmael. The words, " he took bread and a bottle of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it (Db> participle, not perfect) upon her shoulder, and the boy, and sent her away" do not state that Abraham gave her Ishmael also to carry. For ''^''T^??!' does not depend upon DK' and iri)'^ because of the copula 1, but upon nfp'', the leading verb of the sentence, although it is separated from it by the parenthesis " putting it upon her shoulder." It does not follow from these words, therefore, that Ishmael is represented as a little child. Nor is this implied in the statement which follows, that Hagar, when wandering about in the desert, " cast the boy under one of the shrubs," because the water in the bottle was gone. For 1.?^ like "1^3 does not mean an infant, but a boy, and also a young man (iv. 23); — Ishmael must have been 15 or 16 years old, as he was 14 before Isaac was born (cf. ver. 5, and xvi. 16); — and ^yK'n, " to throw," signifies that she suddenly left hold of the boy, when he fell exhausted from thirst, just as in Matt. xv. 30 pLirretv is used for laying hastily down. Though despairing of his life, the mother took care that at least he should breathe out his life in the shade, and she sat over against him weeping, "in the distance as archers," i.e. according to a concise simile very common in Hebrew, as far off as archers are accustomed to place the target. Her maternal love could not bear to see him die, and yet she would not lose sight of him. — Vers. 17 sqq. Then God heard the voice (the weeping and crying) of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, " What aileth thee, Hagar? Fear notf for God hath heard the voice of the boy, where he is" (")B'N2 for I^K Dipps, 2 Sam. xv. 21), i.e. in his helpless condition: ^' arise, lift up the lad," etc. It was Elohim, not Jehovah, who heard the voice of the boy, and appeared as the angel of Elohim, not of Jehovah (as in chap. xvi. 7), because, when Ishmael and Hagar had been dismissed from Abraham's house, they were removed from the superintendence and care of the covenant God to the guidance and providence of God the ruler of all nations. God then opened her eyes, and she saw what she had not seen before, a well of water, from which she filled the bottle and gave her son to drink. — Ver. 20. Having been miraculously saved from perishing by the angel of God, Ishmael grew up under the protection of God, settled in the wilderness of Paran, and " became as he grew up an archer." Although preceded by 7^31, the nnT is not tautological; and there is no reason for attributing to it the meaning of " archer," in which sense ^y] alone occurs in the one passage Gen. xlix. 23. The desert of Paran is tlie present large desert of et-2ih, which stretches along the southern border of Canaan, from the western fringe of the Arabah, towards the east to the desert of Shur (Jifar), on the frontier of Egypt, and extends southwards to the promontories of the mountahis of Horeb {vid. Num. x. 12). On the northern edge of this desert was Beersheha (proleptically so called in ver. 14), to which Abraham had removed from Gerar; so that in all probability Ha^ar and Ishmael were sent away from his abode there, and wandered about in the surrounding desert, till Hagar was afraid that they should perish with thirst. Lastly, in preparation for chap. xxv. 12-18, it is mentioned in ver. 21 that Ishmael married a wife out of Egypt.
Vers. 22-34. Abimelech's Treaty with Abraham. — Through the divine blessing which visibly attended Abraham, the Philistine king Ahimelech was induced to secure for himself and his descendants the friendship of a man so blessed; and for that purpose he went to Beersheba, with his captain Phicol, to conclude a treaty with him. Abraham was perfectly ready to agree to this; but first of all he complained to him about a well which Abimelech's men had stolen, i.e. had unjustly appropriated to themselves. Abimelech replied that this act of violence had never been made known to him till that day, and as a matter of course commanded the well to be returned. After the settlement of this dispute the treaty was concluded, and Abraham presented the king with sheep and oxen, as a material pledge that he would reciprocate the kindness shown, and live in friendship with the king and his descendants. Out of this present he selected seven lambs and set them by themselves; and when Abimelech inquired what they were, he told him to take them from his hand, that they might be to him (Abraham) for a witness that he had digged the well. It was not to redeem the well, but to secure the well as his property against any fresh claims on the part of the Philistines, that the present was given; and by the acceptance of it, Abraham's right of possession was practically and solemnly acknowledged. — Ver. 31. From this circumstance, the place where it occurred received the name ynK'lKa, i.e. seven-well, "because there they sware both of them." It does not follow from this note, that tlie writer interpreted the name " oath-well," and took V^^ in the sense of fiJ'??'. The idea is rather the following: the place received its name from the seven lambs, by which Abraham secured to himself possession of the well, because the treaty was sworn to on the basis of the agreement confirmed by the seven lambs. There is no mention of sacrifice, however, in connection with the treaty (see chap. xxvi. 33). V^^^ to swear, lit. to seven one's self, not because in the oath the divine number 3 is combined with the world-number 4, but because, from the sacredness of the number 7, the real origin and ground of which are to be sought in the number 7 of the work of creation,^ seven things were generally chosen to give validity to an oath, as was the case, according to Herodotus (3, 8), with the Arabians among others. Beersheha was in the Wady es-Seba, the broad channel of a winter-torrent, 12 hours' journey to the south of Hebron on the road to Egypt and the Dead Sea, where there are still stones to be found, the relics of an ancient town, and two deep wells Avith excellent water, called Bir es Seba, i.e. seven-well (not lion-well, as the Bedouins erroneously interpret it): of. RohinsorHs Pal. i. pp. 300 sqq. — ^Ver. 33. Here Abraham planted a tamarisk and called upon the name of the Lord {yid. chap. iv. 26), the everlasting God. Jehovah is called the everlasting God, as the eternally true, with respect to the eternal covenant, which He established with Abraham (chap. xvii. 7). The planting of this long-lived tree, with its hard wood, and its long, narrow, thickly clustered, evergreen leaves, was to be a type of the ever-enduring grace of the faithful covenant God. — Ver. 34. Abraham sojourned a long time there in the Philistines' land. There Isaac was probably born, and grew up to be a young man (xxii. 6), capable of carrying the wood for a sacrifice; cf. xxii. 19. The expression " in the land of the Philistines " appears to be at variance with ver. 32, where Abimelech and Phicol are said to have returned to the land of the Philistines. But the discrepancy is easily reconciled, on the supposition that at that time the land of the Philistines had no fixed boundary, at all events, towards the desert. Beersheha did not belong to Gerar, the kingdom of Abimelech in the stricter sense; but the Philistines extended their wanderings so far, and claimed the district as their own, as is evident from the fact that Abimelech's people had taken the well from Abraham. On the other hand, Abraham with his numerous flocks would not confine him- self to the Wady es Seba, but must have sought for pastureground in the whole surrounding country; and as Abimelech had given him full permission to dwell in his land (xx. 15), he would still, as heretofore, frequently come as far as Gerar, so that his dwelling at Beersheba (xxii. 19) might be correctly described as sojourning (nomadizing) in the land of the Phihstines.
Vers. 1-19. Offering up of Isaac. — For many years had Abraham waited for the promised seed, in which the divine promise was to be fulfilled. At length the Lord had given him the desired heir of his body by his wife Sarah, and directed him to send away the son of the maid. And now that this son had grown into a young man, the word of God came to Abraham to offer up this very son, who had been given to him as the heir of the promise, for a burnt-offering, upon one of the mountains which should be shown him. This word did not come from his own heart, — was not a thought suggested by the sight of the human sacrifices of the Canaanites, that he would offer a similar sacrifice to his God; nor did it originate with the tempter to evil. The word came from Ha-Eloldm, tlie personal, true God, who tried him (""l^J), i.e. demanded the sacrifice of the only, beloved son, as a proof and attestation of his faith. The issue shows, that God did not desire the sacrifice of Isaac by slaying and burning him upon the altar, but his complete surrender, and a willingness to offer him up to God even by death. Nevertheless the divine command was given in such a form, that Abraham could not understand it in any other way than as requiring an outward burnt-offering, because there was no other way in which Abraham could accomplish the complete surrender of Isaac, than by an actual preparation for really offering the desired sacrifice. This constituted the trial, which necessarily produced a severe internal conflict in his mind. Ratio humana simpliciter concluderet aut mentiri promissionem aut mandatum non esse Dei sed Diaboli; est enim contradictio manifesta. Si enim debet oecidi Isaac, irrita est promissio; sin rata- est promissio, impossibile est hoc esse Dei mandatum {Luther). But Abraham brought his reason into captivity to the obedience of faith. He I did not question the truth of the word of God, which had been addressed to him in a mode that was to his mind perfectly infallible (not in a vision of the night, however, of which there is not a syllable in the text), but he stood firm in his faith, " accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead" Heb. xi. 19). Without taking counsel with flesh and blood, Abraham started early in the morning (vers. 3, 4), with his son Isaac and two servants, to obey the divine command; and on the third day (for the distance from Beersheba to Jerusalem is about 20|- hours; Rob. Pal. iii. App. 6Q, 67) he saw in the distance the place mentioned by God, the land of Moriah, i.e. the mountainous country round about Jerusalem. The name '^^^P, composed of the Hophal partic. of nx"j and the divine name i^'', an abbreviation of nin^ (^Ht. " the shown of Jehovah," equivalent to the manifestation of Jehovah), is no doubt used proleptically in ver. 2, and given to the mountain upon which the sacrifice was to be made, with direct reference to this event and the appearance of Jehovah to Abraham there. This is confirmed by ver. 14, where the name is connected with the event, and explained in the fuller expression Jehovah-jireh. On the ground of this passage the mountain upon which Solomon built the temple is called n»"iiBn with reference to the appearance of the angel of the Lord to David on that mountain at the threshingfloor of Araunah (2 Sam. xxiv. 16, 17), the old name being revived by this appearance.
Ver. 5. When in sight of the distant mountain, Abraham left the servants behind with the ass, that he might perform the last and hardest part of the journey alone with Isaac, and, as he said to the servants, " worship yonder and then returnV The servants were not to see what would take place there; for they could not understand this " worship," and the issue even to him, notwithstanding his saying " we will come again to you," was still involved in the deepest obscurity. This last part of the journey is circumstantially described in vers. 6-8, to show how strong a conflict every step produced in the paternal heart of the patriarch. They go both together, he with the fire and the knife in his hand, and his son with the wood for the sacrifice upon his shoulder. Isaac asks his father, where is the lamb for the burntoffering; and the father replies, not " Thou wilt be it, my son,'* but " God (Eloliim without the article — God as the all-pervading supreme power) will provide it;" for he will not and cannc yet communicate the divine command to his son. Non vxdi filium macerare longa cruce et tentatione {Luther). — Vers. 9, lOJ Having arrived at the appointed place, Abraham built an altarJ arranged the wood upon it, bound his son and laid him upon the wood of the altar, and then stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. — ^Vers. 11 sqq. In this eventful moment, when Isaac lay bound like a lamb upon the altar, about to receive the fatal stroke, the angel of the Lord called down from heaven to Abraham to stop, and do his son no harm. For the Lord now knew that Abraham was CHpN Nni God-fearing, and that his obedience of faith did extend even to the sacrifice of his own beloved son. The sacrifice was already accomplished in his heart, and he had fully satisfied the requirements of God. He was not to slay his son: therefore God prevented the outward fulfilment of the sacrifice by an immediate interposition, and showed him a ram, which he saw, probably being led to look round through a rustling behind him, with its horns fast in a thicket pnj? adv. behind, in the background); and as an offering provided by God Himself, he sacrificed it instead of his son. — Ver. 14. From this interposition of God, Abraham called the place Jehovah-jireJi, " Jehovah sees," i.e. according to ver. 8, provides, providet; so that (^f^, as in chap. xiii. 16, is equivalent to 1??V, x. 9) men are still accustomed to say, " On the mountain where Jehovah appears" ('^^'^.Oj from which the name Moriah arose. The rendering " on the mount of Jehovah it is provided" is not allowable, for the Niphal of the verb does not mean provideriy but " appear." Moreover, in this case the medium of God's seeing or interposition was His appearing. — Vers. 15-19. After Abraham had offered the ram, the angel of the Lord called to him a second time from heaven, and with a solemn oath renewed the former promises, as a reward for this proof of his obedience of faith (cf. xii. 2, 3). To confirm their unchangeableness, Jehovah swore by Himself (cf. Heb. vi. 13 sqq.), a thing which never occurs again in His intercourse with the patriarchs; so that subsequently not only do we find repeated references to this oath (chap. xxiv. 7, xxvi. 3, 1. 24; Ex. xiii. 5, 11, xxxiii. 1, etc.), but, as Luther observes, all that is said in Ps. Ixxxix. 36, cxxxii. 11, ex. 4 respecting the oath given to David, is founded upon this. Sicut enim promissio seminis Abrahce derivata est in semen Davidis, ita Scriptura S.jusjurandum Abrahce datum in personam Davidis transfert. For in the promise upon which these psalms axe based nothing is said about an oath (cf. 2 Sam. vii.; 1 Chron. xvii.). The declaration on oath is still further confirmed by the addition of nin"' DN3 " edict (AussprucK) of Jeliovah^^ which, frequently as it occurs in the prophets, is met with in the Pentateuch only in Num. xir. 28, and (without Jehovah) in the oracles of Balaam, Num. xxiv. 3, 15, 16. As the promise was intensified in form, so was it also in substance. To express the innumerable multiplication of the seed in the strongest possible way, a comparison with the sand of the sea-shore is added to the previous simile of the stars. And this seed is also promised the possession of the gate of its enemies, i.e. the conquest of the enemy and the capture of his cities (cf. xxiv. 60).
This glorious result of the test so victoriously stood by Abraham, not only sustains the historical character of the event itself, but shows in the clearest manner that the trial was necessary to the patriarch's life of faith, and of fundamental importance to his position in relation to the history of salvation. The question, whether the true God could demand a human sacrifice, was settled by the fact that God Himself prevented the completion of the sacrifice; and the difficulty, that at any rate God contradicted Himself, if He first of all demanded a sacrifice and then prevented it from being offered, is met by the significant interchange of the names of God, since God, who commanded Abraham to offer up Isaac, is called Ha-Elohim, whilst the actual completion of the sacrifice is prevented by " the angel of Jehovah," who is identical with Jehovah Himself. The sacrifice of the heir, who had been both promised and bestowed, was demanded neither by Jehovah, the God of salvation or covenant God, who had given Abraham this only son as the heir of the promise, nor by Elohim, God as creator, who has the power to give life and take it away, but by Ha-Elohim, the true God, whom Abraham had acknowledged and adored as his personal God, and with whom he had entered into a personal relation. Coming from the true God whom Abraham served, the demand could have no other object than to purify and sanctify the feelings of the patriarch's heart towards his son and towards his God, in accordance with the great purpose of his call. It was designed to purify his love to the son of his body from all the dross of carnal self-love and natural selfishness which might! still adhere to it, and so to transform it into love to God, from whom he had received him, that he should no longer love the beloved son as his flesh and blood, but simply and solely as aj ffift of grace, as belonging to his God, — a trust committed to him, which he should be ready at any moment to give back to God. As he had left his country, kindred, and father's house at the call of God (xii. 1), so was he in his walk with God cheerfully to offer up even his only son, the object of all his longing, the hope of his life, the joy of his old age. And still more than this, not only did he possess and love in Isaac the heir of his possessions (xv. 2), but it was upon him that all the promises ' of God rested: in Isaac should his seed be called (xxi. 12). By the demand that he should sacrifice to God this only son of his wife Sarah, in whom his seed was to grow into a multitude of nations (xvii. 4, 6, 16), the divine promise itself seemed to be, cancelled, and the fulfilment not only of the desires of his heart, but also of the repeated promises of his God, to be frustrated. And by this demand his faith was to be perfected into unconditional trust in God, into the firm assurance that God could even raise him xip from the dead. — But this trial was not only one of significance to Abraham, by perfecting him, through the conquest of flesh and blood, to be the father of the faithful, the progenitor of the Church of God; Isaac also was to be prepared and sanctified by it for his vocation in connection with the history of salvation. In permitting himself to be bound and laid upon the altar without resistance, he gave up his natural life to death, to rise to a new life through the grace of God. On the altar he was sanctified to God, dedicated as the first beginning of the holy Church of God, and thus " the dedication of the first-born, which was afterwards enjoined in the law, was perfectly fulfilled in him." If therefore the divine command exhibits in the most impressive way the earnestness of the demand of God upon His people to sacrifice all to Him, not excepting the dearest of their possessions (cf. Matt. x. 37, and Luke xiv. 26); the issue of the trial teaches that the true God does not demand a literal human sacrifice from His worshippers, but the spiritual sacrifice of an unconditional denial of the natural life, even to submission to death itself. By the sacrifice of a ram as a burnt-offering in the place of his son, under divine direction, not only was animal sacrifice substituted for liuman, and sanctioned as an acceptable symbol of spiritual self-sacrifice, but the offering of human sacrifices by the heathen was condemned and rejected as an ungodly ede\o6p7)crKeLa. And this was done by Jehovah, the God of salvation, who prevented the outward completion of the sacrifice. By this the event acquires prophetic importance for the Church of the Lord, to which the place of sacrifice points with peculiar clearness, viz. Mount Moriah, upon which under the legal economy all the typical sacrifices were offered to Jehovah; upon which also, in the fulness of time, God the Father gave up His only-begotten Son as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, that by this one true sacrifice the shadows of the typical sacrifices might be rendered both real and true. If therefore the appointment of Moriah as the scene of the sacrifice of Isaac, and the offering of a ram in his stead, were primarily only typical in relation to the significance and intent of the Old Testament institution of sacrifice; this type already pointed to the antitype to appear in the future, when the eternal love of the heavenly Father would perform what it had demanded of Abraham; that is to say, when God would not spare His only Son, but give Him up to the real death, which Isaac suffered only in spirit, that we also might die with Christ spiritually, and rise with Him to everlasting life (Rom. viii. 32, vi. 5, etc.).
Vers. 20-24. Descendants of Nahoe. — With the sacrifice of Isaac the test of Abraham's faith was now complete, and the purpose of his divine calling answered: the history of his life, therefore, now hastens to its termination. But first of all there is introduced quite appropriately an account of the family of his brother Nahor, which is so far in place immediately after the story of the sacrifice of Isaac, that it prepares the way for the history of the marriage of the heir of the promise. The connection is pointed out in ver. 20, as compared with chap. xi. 29, in the expression, " she also." Nahor, like Ishmael and Jacob, had twelve sons, eight by his wife Alilcah and four by his concubine; whereas Jacob had his by two wives and two maids, and Ishmael apparently all by one wife. This difference with regard to the mothers proves that the agreement as to the number twelve rests upon a good historical tradition, and is no product of a later myth, which traced to Nahor the same number of tribes as to Ishmael and Jacob. For it is a perfectly groundless assertion or assumption, that Nahor's twelve sons were the fathers of as many tribes. There are only a few names, of which it is probable that their bearers were the founders of tribes of the same name. On Uz, see chap. x. 23. Buz is mentioned in Jer. xxv. 23 along with Dedan and Tema as an Arabian tribe; and Elihu was a Buzite of the family of Ram (Job xxxii. 2). Kemuel, the father of Aram, was not the founder of the Aramaeans, but the forefather of the family of Ram, to which the Buzite Elihu belonged, — Aram being written for Kam, like Arammim in 2 Kings vin. 29 for Kammim in 2 Chron. xxii. 5. Chesed again was not the father of the Chasdim (Chaldeans), for they were older than Chesed; at the most he was only the founder of one branch of the Chasdim, possibly those who stole Job's camels (Knohel; vid. Job i. 17). Of the remaining names, Bethuel was not the founder of a tribe, but the father of Laban and Rebekah (chap. xxv. 20). The others are never met with again, with the exception of Maachah, from whom probably the Maachites (Deut. iii. 14; Josh. xii. 5) in the land of Maacah, a small Arabian kingdom in the time of David (2 Sam. X. 6, 8: 1 Chron. xix. 6), derived their origin and name; though Maachah frequently occurs as the name of a person (1 Kings ii. 39; 1 Chron. xi. 43, xxvii. 16).
Vers. 1, 2. Sarah is the only woman whose age is mentioned in the Scriptures, because as the mother of the promised seed she became the mother of all believers (1 Pet. iii. 6). She died at the age of 127, thirty-seven years after the birth of Isaac, at Hebron, or rather in the grove of Mamre near that city (xiii. 18), whither Abraham had once more returned after a lengthened stay at Beersheba (xxii. 19). The name Kirjath Arba, i.e. the city of Arba, which Hebron bears here and also in chap. xxxv. 27, and other passages, and which it still bore at the time of the conquest of Canaan by the Israehtes (Josh. xiv. 15), was not the original name of the city, but was first given to it by Arba the Anakite and his family, who had not yet arrived there in the time of the patriarchs. It was probably given by them when they took possession of the city, and remained until the Israelites captured it and restored the original name. The place still exists, as a small town on the road from Jerusalem to Beersheba, in a valley surrounded by several mountains, and is called by the Arabs, with allusion to Abraham's stay there, el Khalil, i.e. the friend (of God), which is the title given to Abraham by the Mohammedans. The clause " in the land of Canaan'" denotes, that not only did Sarah die in the land of promise, but Abraham as a foreigner acquired a burialplace by purchase there. ^^ And Abraham came" (not from Beersheba, but from the field where he may have been with the flocks), "to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her" i.e. to arrange for the customary mourning ceremony.
Vers. 3-16. He then went to the Hittites, the lords and possessors of the city and its vicinity at that time, to procure from them " a possession of a burying-place." The negotiations were carried on in the most formal style, in a public assembly " of the people of the land," i.e. of natives (ver. 7), in the gate of the city (ver. 10). As a foreigner and sojourner, Abraham presented his request in the most courteous manner to all the citizens ("all that went in at the gate," vers. 10, 18; a phrase interchangeable with "all that went out at the gate," chap, xxxiv. 24, and those who " go out and in," Jer. xvii. 19). The citizens with the greatest readiness and respect offered "the prince of God," i.e. the man exalted by God to the rank of a prince, " the choice " (10*?^? ''"^' *^® most select) of their graves for his use (ver. 6). But Abraham asked them to request Ephron, who, to judge from the expression " his city " in ver. 10, was then ruler of the city, to give him for a possession the cave of Machpelah, at the end of his field, of which he was the owner, " for full silver," i.e. for its full worth. Ephron thereupon offered to make him a present of both field and cave. This was a turn in the affair which is still customary in the East; the design, so far as it is seriously meant at all, being either to obtain a present in return which will abundantly compensate for the value of the gift, or, what is still more frequently the case, to preclude any abatement in the price to be asked. The same design is evident in the peculiar form in which Ephron stated the price, in reply to Abraham's repeated declaration that he was determined to buy the piece of land: " a piece of land of 400 shekels of silver, what is that between. me and thee" (ver. 15)? Abraham understood it so {V^f] ver. 16), and weighed him the price demanded. The shekel of silver " current with the merchant," i.e. the shekel which passed, in trade as of standard weight, was 274 Parisian grains, so that the price of the piece of land was £52, 10s.; a very considerable amount for that time.
Vers. 17-20. '^ Thus arose (^i^t-) the field... to Abraham for a possession;" i.e. it was conveyed to him in all due legal form. The expression " the field of Ephron which is at Machpelah " may be explained, according to ver. 9, from the fact that the cave of Machpelah was at the end of the field; the field^ therefore, belonged to it. In ver. 19 the shorter form, " cave of Machpelah," occurs; and in ver. 20 the field is distinguished from the cave. The name Machpelah is translated by the LXX. as a common noun, to cirrjkaiov to SlttXovv, from npB^ip doubling; but it had evidently grown into a proper name, since it is used not only of the cave, but of the adjoining field also (chap. xlix. 30, 1. 13), though it undoubtedly originated in the form of the cave. The cave was before, i.e. probably to the east of, the grove of Mamre, which was in the district of Hebron. This description cannot be reconciled with the tradition, which identifies Mamre and the cave with Ramet el Khalil, where the strong foundation-walls of an ancient heathen temple (according to Rosenmiiller's conjecture, an Idumsean one) are still pointed out as Abraham's house, and where a very old terebinth stood in the early Christian times; for this is an hour's journey to the north of modern Hebron, and even the ancient Hebron cannot have stretched so far over the mountains which separate the modern city from Eameh, but must also, according to chap, xxxvii. 14, have been situated in the valley (see Eobinson's later Biblical Eesearches, pp. 365 sqq.). There is far greater probability in the Mohammedan tradition, that the Harem, built of colossal blocks with grooved edges, which stands on the western slope of the Geabireh mountain, in the north-western portion of the present town, contains hidden within it the cave of Machpelah with the tomb of the patriarchs (cf. Robinson, Pal. ii. 435 sqq.); and Rosen, is induced to look for Mamre on the eastern slope of the Rumeidi hill, near to the remarkable well Ain el Jedid. — Ver. 20. The repetition of the statement, that the field with the cave in it was conveyed to Abraham by the Hittites for a burialplace, which gives the result of the negotiation that has been described with, so to speak, legal accuracy, shows the great importance of the event to the patriarch. The fact that Abraham purchased a burying-place in strictly legal form as an hereditary possession in the promised land, was a proof of his strong faith in the promises of God and their eventual fulfilment. In this grave Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, were buried; there Jacob buried Leah; and there Jacob himself requested that he might be buried, thus declaring his faith in the promises, even in the hour of his death.
Vers. 1-9. After the death of Sarah, Abraham had still to arrange for the marriage of Isaac. He was induced to provide for this in a mode in harm.ony with the promise of God, quite as much by his increasing age as by the blessing of God in everything, which necessarily instilled the wish to transmit that blessing to a distant posterity. He entrusted this commission to his servant, " the eldest of his house," — i.e. his upper servant, who had the management of all his house (according to general opinion, to Eliezer, whom he had previously thought of as the heir of his property, but who would now, like Abraham, be extremely old, as more than sixty years had passed since the occurrence related in chap. xv. 2), — and made him swear that he would not take a wife for his son from the daughters of the Canaanites, but would fetch one from his (Abraham's) native country, and his kindred. Abraham made the servant take an oath in order that his wishes might be inviolably fulfilled, even if he himself should die in the interim. In swearing, the servant put his hand under Abraham's hip. This custom, which is only mentioned here and in chap, xlvii. 29, the so-called bodily oath, was no doubt connected with the significance of the hip as the part from which the posterity issued (xlvi. 26), and the seat of vital power; but the early Jewish commentators supposed it to be especially connected with the rite of circumcision. The oath was by ^^ Jehovah, God of heaven and earth," as the God who rules in heaven and on earth, not by Elohim; for it had respect not to an ordinary oath, but to a question of great importance in relation to the kingdom of God. " Isaac was not regarded as a merely pious candidate for matrimony, but as the heir of the promise, who must therefore be kept from any alliance with the race whose possessions were to come to his descendants, and which was ripening for the judgment to be executed by those descendants" {Hengstenherg, Dissertations i. 350). For this reason the rest of the negotiation was all conducted in the name of Jehovah. — Vers. 5 sqq. Before taking the oath, the servant asks whether, in case no woman of their kindred would follow him to Canaan, Isaac was to be conducted to the land of his fathers. But Abraham rejected the proposal, because Jehovah took him from his father's house, and had promised him the land of Canaan for a possession. He also discharged the servant, if that should be the case, from the oath which he had taken, in the assurance that the Lord through His angel would bring a wife to his son from thence.
Vers. 10-28. The servant then went, with ten camels and things of every description belonging to his master, into Mesopotamia to the city of Nahor, i.e. Haran, where Nahor dwelt (xi. 31, and xii. 4). On his arrival there, he made the camels kneel down, or rest, without the city by the well, " at the time of evening, the time at which the women come out to draiv water" and at which, now as then, women and girls are in the habit of fetching the water required for the house (yid. Bobinson's Palestine ii. 368 sqq.). He then prayed to Jehovah, the God of Abraham, "Let there come to meet me to-day,^' sc. the person desired, the object of my mission. He then fixed upon a sign connected with the custom of the country, by the occurrence of which he might decide upon the maiden (^V^i] puella, used in the Pentateuch for both sexes, except in Deut. xxii. 19, where nnyj occurs) whom Jehovah had indicated as the wife appointed for His servant Isaac. n^3in (ver. 14) to set right, then to point out as right; not merely to appoint. He had scarcely ended his prayer when his request was granted. Rebekah did just what he had fixed upon as a token, not only giving him to drink, but offering to water his camels, and with youthful vivacity carrying out her promise. Niehuhr met with similar kindness in those regions (see also Robinson, Pal. ii. 351, etc.). The servant did not give himself blindly up to first impressions, however, but tested the circumstances. — Ver. 21. " The man, loondering at her, stood silent, to know whether Jehovah had made his journey prosperous or not." '^^^^, from HKl^ to be desert, inwardly laid waste, i.e. confused. Others derive it from nxK' = nv^ to see; but in the Hithpael this verb signifies to look restlessly about, which is not applicable here. — Vers. 22 sqq. After the watering of the camels was over, the man took a golden nosering of the weight of a beka, i.e. half a shekel (Ex. xxxviii. 26), and two golden armlets of 10 shekels weight, and (as we find from vers. 30 and 47) placed these ornaments upon her, not as a bridal gift, but in return for her kindness. He then asked her about her family, and whether there was room in her father's house for him and his attendants to pass the night there; and it was not till after Eebekah had told him that she was the daughter of Bethuel, the nephew of Abraham, and had given a most cheerful assent to his second question, that he felt sure that this was the wife appointed by Jehovah for Isaac. He then fell down and thanked Jehovah for His grace and truth, whilst Rebekah in the meantime had hastened home to relate all that had occurred to " her mother s house," i.e. to the female portion of her family. "i?n the condescending love, DXDK the truth which God had displayed in the fulfilment of His promise, and here especially manifested to him in bringing him to the home of his master's relations.
Vers. 29-54. As soon as Laban her brother had seen the splendid presents and heard her account, he hurried out to the stranger at the well, to bring him to the house with his attendants and animals, and to show to him the customary hospitality of the East. The fact that Laban addressed him as the blessed of Jehovah (ver. 31), may be explained from the words of the servant, who had called his master's God Jehovah. The servant discharged his commission before he partook of the food set before him (the Kethibh db^ii in ver. 33 is the imperf. Kal of Dti;^ = D^K'); and commencing with his master's possessions and family affairs, he described with the greatest minuteness his search for a wife, and the success which he had thus far met with, and then (in ver. 49) pressed his suit thus: "And now, if ye will show kindness and truth to my lord, tell me; and if not, tell me; that I may turn to the right hand O'^ to the left^' sc. to seek in other families a wife for Isaac— Yer. 50. Laban and Bethuel recognised in this the guidance of God, and said, " From Jehovah (the God of Abraham) the thing proceedeth; we cannot speak unto thee had or good" i.e. cannot add a word, cannot alter anything (Num. xxiv. 13; 2 Sam. xiii. 22). That Rebekah's brother Laban should have taken part with her father in deciding, was in accordance with the usual custom (cf. xxxiv. 5, 11, 25, Judg. xxi. 22, 2 Sam. xiii. 22), which may have arisen from the prevalence of polygamy, and the readiness of the father to neglect the children (daughters) of the wife he cared for least. — Ver. 52. After receiving their assent, the servant first of all offered thanks to Jehovah with the deepest reverence; he then gave the remaining presents to the bride, and to her relations (brother and mother); and after everything was finished, partook of the food provided..
Yers. 54-60. The next morning he desired at once to set off on the journey home; but her brother and mother wished to keep her with them liiJ'I? ix Q'''?^, ^^ some days, or rather ten" but when she was consulted, she decided to go, sc. without delay. " Then they sent away Bebekah their sister (Laban being chiefly considered, as the leading person in the affair) and her nurse " (Deborah; Ch. xxxv. 8), with the parting wish that she might become the mother of an exceedingly numerous and victorious posterity. ^^ Become thousands of myriads" is a hyperbolical expression for an innumerable host of children. The second portion of the blessing (ver. 605) is almost verbatim the same as chap. xxii. 17, but is hardly borrowed thence, as the thought does not contain anything specifically connected with the history of salvation.
Yers. 61-67. When the caravan arrived in Canaan with Rebekah and her maidens, Isaac had just come from going to the well Lahai-Roi (xvi. 14), as he was then living in the south country; and he went towards evening (y}V niJDp, at the turning, coming on, of the evening, Deut. xxiii. 12) to the field " to meditate." It is impossible to determine whether Isaac had been to the well of Hagar which called to mind the omnipresence of God, and there, in accordance with his contemplative character, had laid the question of his marriage before the Lord (Delitzsch), or whether ho had merely travelled thither to look after his flocks and herds {Knobel). But the object of his going to the jield to meditate, was undoubtedly to lay the question of his marriage before God in solitude, nii^, meditari, is rendered " to pray " in the Chaldee, and by Luther and others, with substantial correctness. The caravan arrived at the time; and Rebekah, as soon as she saw the man in the field coming to meet them, sprang (723 signifying a hasty descent, 2 Kings v. 21) from the camel to receive him, according to Oriental custom, in the most respectful manner. She then inquired the name of the man; and as soon as she heard that it was Isaac, she enveloped herself in her veil, as became a bride when meeting the bridegroom. ^"'J/^, dipiarpov, the cloak-like veil of Arabia (see my Archdologie, § 103, 5). The servant then related to Isaac the result of his journey; and Isaac conducted the maiden, who had been brought to him by God, into the tent of Sarah his mother, and she became his wife, and he loved her, and was consoled after his mother, i.e. for his mother's death, ^^il^i^ with n local, in the construct state, as in chap. xx. 1, xxviii. 2, etc.; and in addition to that, with the article prefixed (cf. Ges. Gram. § 110, 2bc).
Vers. 1-4. Abraham's marriage to Keturah is generally supposed to have taken place after Sarah's death, and his power to beget six sons at so advanced an age is attributed to the fact, that the Almighty had endowed him with new vital and reproductive energy for begetting the son of the promise. But there is no firm ground for this assumption; as it is not stated anywhere, that Abraham did not take Keturah as his wife till after Sarah's death. It is merely an inference drawn from the fact, that it is not mentioned till afterwards; and it is taken for granted that the history is written in strictly chronological order. But this supposition is precarious, and is not in harmony with the statement, that Abraham sent away the sons of the concubines with gifts during his own lifetime; for in the case supposed, the youngest of Keturah's sons would not have been more than twenty-five or thirty years old at Abraham's death; and in those days^ when marriages were not generally contracted before the fortieth year, this seems too young for them to have been sent away from their father's house. This difficulty, however, is not decisive. Nor does the fact that Keturah is called a concubine in ver. 6, and 1 Chron. i. 32, necessarily show that she was cotemporary with Sarah, but may be explained on the ground that Abraham did not place her on the same footing as Sarah, his sole wife, the mother of the promised seed. Of the sons and grandsons of Keturah, who are mentioned in 1 Chron. i. 32 as well as here, a few of the names may still be found among the Arabian tribes, but in most instances the attempt to trace them is very questionable. This remark applies to the identification of Zimran with Zafipdfi (Ptol. vi. 7, 5), the royal city of the KivaiSoKoKTrlrat to the west of Mecca, on the Red Sea; of Jokshan with the Kaa-cravlrai,, on the Red Sea (Ptol. vi. 7, 6), or with the Himyaritish tribe of Jahish in Southern Arabia; of Ishbak with the name Shobek, a place in the Edomitish country first mentioned by Abulfeda; of Shuah with the tribe Syayhe to the east of Aila, or with Szyhhan in Northern Edom (Burckhardt, Syr. 692, 693, and 945), although the epithet the Shuhite, applied to Bildad, points to a place in Northern Idumsea. There is more plausibility in the comparison of Medan and Midlan with MoScdva on the eastern coast of the Elanitic Gulf, and MaSidva, a tract to the north of this (Ptol. vi. 7, 2, 27; called by Arabian geographers Madyan, a city five days' journey to the south of Aila). The relationship of these two tribes will explain the fact, that the Midianim, chap, xxxvii. 28, are called Medardm in ver. 36. — Ver. 3. Of the sons of Jokshan, Sheba was probably connected with the Sabaeans, who are associated in Job vi. 19 with Tema, are mentioned in Job i. 15 as having stolen Job's oxen and asses, and, according to Strabo (xvi. 779), were neighbours of the Nabataeans in the vicinity of Syria. Dedan was probably the trading people mentioned in Jer. xxv. 23 along with Tema and Bus (Isa. xxi. 13; Jer. xlix. 8), in the neighbourhood of Edom (Ezek. xxv. 13), with whom the tribe of Banu Dudan, in Hejas, has been compared. On their relation to the Cushites of the same name, vid. chap. x. 7 and 28. — Of the sons of Dedan, the Asshurim have been associated with the warlike tribe of the Asir to the south of Hejas, the Letushim with the Banu Leits in Hejas, and the Leummim with the tribe of the Banu Lam, which extended even to Babylon and Mesopotamia. Of the descendants of Midian, Ephah is mentioned in Isa. Ix. 6, in connection with Midian, as a people trading in gold and incense. Epher has been compared with the
Banu Gifar in Hejas; Hanoch, with the place called Hanahye, three clays' journey to the north of Medinah; Ahidah and Eldaah, with the tribes of Abide and Vadaa in the neighbourhood of Asir. But all this is very uncertain.
Vers. 5-11. Before his death, Abraham made a final disposition of his property. Isaac, the only son of his marriage with Sarah, received all his possessions. The sons of the concubines (Hagar and Keturah) were sent away with presents from their father's house into the east country, i.e. Arabia in the widest sense, to the east and south-east of Palestine. — Vers. 7, 8. Abraham died at the good old age of 175, and was ^^ gathered to his people J' This expression, which is synonymous with " going to his fathers" (xv. 15), or "being gathered to his fathers" (Judg. ii. 10), but is constantly distinguished from departing this life and being buried, denotes the reunion in Sheol with friends who have gone before, and therefore presupposes faith in the personal continuance of a man after death, as a presentiment which the promises of God had exalted in the case of the patriarchs into a firm assurance of faith (Heb. xi. 13). — ^Vers. 9, 10. The burial of the patriarch in the cave of Machpelah was attended to by Isaac and Ishmael; since the latter, although excluded from the blessings of the covenant, was acknowledged by God as the son of Abraham by a distinct blessing (xvii. 20), and was thus elevated above the sons of Keturah. — Ver. 11. After Abraham's death the blessing was transferred to Isaac, who took up his abode by Hagar's well, because he had already been there, and had dwelt in the south country (xxiv. 62). The blessing of Isaac is traced to Elohim, not to Jehovah; because it referred neither exclusively nor pre-eminently to the gifts of grace connected with the promises of salvation, but quite generally to the inheritance of earthly possessions, which Isaac had received from his father.
To show that the promises of God, which had been made to Ishmael (chap. xvi. 10 sqq. and xvii. 20), were fulfilled, a short account is given of his descendants; and according to the settled plan of Genesis, this account precedes the history of Isaac. This is evidently the intention of the list which follows of the twelve sons of Ishmael, who are given as princes of the tribes which sprang from them. Nehajoth and Kedar are mentioned in Isa. Ix. 7 as rich possessors of flocks, and, according to the current opinion which Wetzstein disputes, are the Nahatcei et Cedrei of Plin^ (h. n. 5, 12). The Nahatceans held possession of Arabia Petrcea, with Petra as their capital, and subsequently extended toward the south and north-east, probably as far as Babylon; so that the name was afterwards transferred to all the tribes to the east of the Jordan, and in the Nabatsean writings became a common name for Chaldeans (ancient Babylonians), Syrians, Canaanites, and others. The Kedarenes are mentioned in Isa. xxi. 17 as good bowmen. They dwelt in the desert between Arabia Petrsea and Babylon (Isa. xlii. 11; Ps. cxx. 5). According to Wetzstein, they are to be found in the nomad tribes of Arabia Petrsea up to Harra. The name Dumah, Aovfieda, AovfialOa (Ptol. v. 19, 7, Steph. Byz.), Domata (Plin. 6, 32), has been retained in the modern Dumat el Jendel in Nejd, the Arabian highland, four days' journey to the north of Taima. — Tema: a trading people (Job vi. 19; Isa. xxi. 14; mentioned in Jer. xxv. 23, between Dedan and Bus) in the land of Taima, on the border of Nejd and the Syrian desert. According to Wetzstein, Duma and Thna are still two important places in Eastern Hauran, three-quarters of an hour apart. Jetur and Naphish were neighbours of the tribes of Israel to the east of the Jordan (1 Chron. v. 19), who made war upon them along with the Hagrites, the "Aypaloi of Ptol. and Strabo. From Jetur sprang the Iturceans, who lived, according to Strabo, near the Trachonians in an almost inaccessible, mountainous, and cavernous country; according to Wetsztein, in the mountains of the Druses in the centre of the Hauran, possibly the forefathers of the modem Druses. The other names are not yet satisfactorily determined. For Adbeel, Mibsam, and Kedma, the Arabian legends give no corresponding names. MisJima is associated by Knohel with the Mai(raifjLav€L<; of Ptol. vi. 7, 21, to the N.E. of Medina; Massa with the Maaavoi on the N.E. of Duma; Hadad (the proper reading for Hadar, according to 1 Chron. i. 30, the LXX., Sam., Masor., and most MSS.) with the Arabian coast land, Chathth, between Oman and Bahrein, a district renowned for its lancers {X.arT'qvia, Polyb.; Attene, Plin.). — Ver. 16. These are the Ishmaelites "in their villages and encampments, twelve princes according to their tmhesP "ij»*n: premises hedged round, then a village without a wall in contrast with a walled town (Lev. xxv. 31). n'n''£p: a circular encampment of tents, the tent village of the Dudr of the Bedouins. nilsSj here and Num. xxv. 15, is not used of nations, but of the tribe-divisions or single tribes of the Ishmaelites and Midianites, for which the word had apparently become a technical term among them. — Vers. 17, 18. Ishmael died at the age of 137, and his descendants dwelt in Havilah — i.e. according to chap. X. 29, the country of the Chauloiceans, on the borders of Arabia Petraea and Felix — as far as Shur (the desert of Jifar, xvi. 7) to the east of Egypt, " in the direction of Assyria." Havilah and Shur therefore formed the south-eastern and south-western boundaries of the territories of the Ishmaelites, from which they extended their nomadic excursions towards the N.E. as far as the districts under Assyrian rule, i.e. to the lands of the Euphrates, traversing the whole of the desert of Arabia, or (as Josephus says. Ant. i. 12, 4) dwelling from the Euphrates to the Red Sea. Thus, according to the announcement of the angel, Ishmael " encamped in the presence of all his brethren." ^S3, to throw one's self, to settle down, with the subordinate idea of keeping by force the place you have taken (Judg. vii. 12). Lxither wavers between corruit, vel cecidit, vel fixit tahemaculum.
According to the plan of Genesis, the history (tholedoth) ofl Isaac commences with the birth of his sons. But to give it the] character of completeness in itself, Isaac's birth and marriagej are mentioned again in vers. 19, 20, as well as his age at the time of his marriage. The name given to the country of Re-' bekah (ver. 20) and the abode of Laban in chap, xxviii. 2, 6, 7, xxxi. 18, xxxiii. 18, xxxv. 9, 26, xlvi. 15, \iz. Padaii-Aram, or more concisely Pa(?aw (chap, xlviii. 7), "the flat, or flat land of Aram," for which Hosea uses " the field of Aram" (Hos. xii. 12), is not a peculiar expression employed by the Elohist, or in the so-called foundation-work, for Aram Naharaim, Mesopotamia (chap. xxiv. 10), but a more exact description of one particular district of Mesopotamia, viz. of the large plain, surrounded by mountains, in which the town of Haran was situated. The name was apparently transferred to the town itself afterwards. The history of Isaac consists of two stages: (1) the period of his active life, from his marriage and the birth of his sons till the departure of Jacob for Mesopotamia (xxv. 20-xxviii. 9); and (2) the time of his suffering endurance in the growing infirmity of age, when the events of Jacob's life form the leading feature of the still further expanded history of salvation (chap, xxviii. 10-xxxv. 29). This suffering condition, which lasted more than 40 years, reflected in a certain way the historical position which Isaac held in the patriarchal triad, as a passive rather than active link between Abraham and Jacob; and even in the active period of his life many of the events of Abraham's history were repeated in a modified form.
The name Jehovah prevails in the historical development of the tholedoth of Isaac, in the same manner as in that of Terah;J although, on closer examination of the two, we find, first, that in this portion of Genesis the references to God are less frequent than in the earlier one; and secondly, that instead of the name Jehovah occurring more frequently than Elohim, the name Elohim predominates in this second stage of the history.
The first difference arises from the fact, that the historical matter furnishes less occasion for the introduction of the name of God, just because the revelations of God are more rare, since the appearances of Jehovah to Isaac and Jacob together are not so numerous as those to Abraham alone. The second may be explained partly from the fact, that Isaac and Jacob did not perpetually stand in such close and living faith in.Tehovah as Abraham, and partly also from the fact, that the previous revelations of God gave rise to other titles for the covenant God, such as " God of Abraham," " God of my father," etc., which could be used in the place of the name Jehovah (cf. chap. xxvi. 24, xxxi. 5, 42, xxxv. 1, 3, and the remarks on chap. xxxv. 9).
Vers. 21-26. Isaac's marriage, like Abraham's, was for a long time unfruitful; not to extreme old age, however, but only for 20 years. The seed of the promise was to be prayed for from the Lord, that it might not be regarded merely as a fruit of nature, but be received and recognised as a gift of grace. At the same time Isaac was to be exercised in the patience of faith in the promise of God. After this lengthened test, Jehovah heard his prayer in relation to his wife. n3i3?j ver. 21 and chap. xxx. 38, lit. opposite to, so that the object is before the eyes, has been well explained by Luther thus: quod toto pectore et intentus in calamitatem uxoris oraverit. Sicut quando oro pro aliquo, propono ilium mihi in conspectum cordis mei, et nihil aliud video aut cogito; in eum solum animo intueor. — Vers. 22, 23. When Rebekah conceived, the children struco-led together in her womb. In this she saw an evil omen, that the pregnancy so long desired and entreated of Jehovah would bring misfortune, and that the fruit of her womb might not after all secure the blessing of the divine promise; so that in intense excitement she cried out, ^^Ifit be so, wherefore am I?" i.e. why am I alive? cf. chap, xxvii. 46. But she sought counsel from God: she went to inquire of Jehovah. Where and how she looked for a divine revelation in the mattei", is not recorded, and therefore cannot be determined with certainty. Some suppose that it was by prayer and sacrifice at a place dedicated to Jehovah. Others imagine that she applied to a prophet — to Abraham, Melchizedek, or Shem (Luther); a frequent custom in Israel afterwards (1 Sam. ix. 9), but not probable in the patriarchal age. The divine answer, couched in the form of a prophetic oracle, assured lier that she carried two nations in her womb, one stronger than the other; and that the greater (elder or first-bom) should serve the less (younger). 'T]Sn ^^jnst?: '^proceeding from thy womb, are separated:'— Vers. 24 sqq. Wheuj she was delivered, there were twins; the first-bom was reddish,: i.e. of a reddish-brown colour (1 Sam. xvi. 12, xvii. 42), and] " all over like a hairy cloak," i.e. his whole body as if covered with a fur, with an unusual quantity of hair (hypertrichosis)^ which is sometimes the case with new-born infants, but was a j sign in this instance of excessive sensual vigour and wildness. The second had laid hold of the heel of the first, i.e. he came i into the world with his hand projected and holding the heel of | the first-born, a sign of his future attitude towards his brother. From these accidental circumstances the children received their names. The elder they called Esau, the hairy one; the younger j Jacob, heel-holder: 3py;! from ^i^V (denom. of ^^V heel, Hos. xii. 3), to hold the heel, then to outwit (xxvii. 36), just as in wrestling an attempt may be made to throw the opponent by^ grasping the heel.
Vers. 27-34. Esau became "a cunning hunter, a man of the field^' i.e. a man wandering about in the fields. He was hisj father's favourite, for " venison was in his mouth," i.e. he was j fond of it. But Jacob was DJp ^ii, " a pious man " {Luther) DJ^, integer, denotes here a disposition that finds pleasure in the i quiet life of home. D vHi* IB'"', not dwelling in tents, but sitting | in the tents, in contrast with the wild hunter's life led by| his brother; hence he was his mother's favourite. — Vers. 29 sqq. The difference in the characters of the two brothers was j soon shown in a singular circumstance, which was the turningpoint in their lives. Esau returned home one day from the field quite exhausted, and seeing Jacob with a dish of lentils, still a favourite dish in Syria and Egypt, he asked with pas- 1 sionate eagerness for some to eat: ''Let me swallow some of that red, that red there;" DIX, the brown-red lentil pottage. Fromj this he received the name Edom, just as among the ancient Arabians persons received names from quite accidental circumstances, which entirely obscured their proper names. Jacob made use of his brother's hunger to get him to sell his birthright. The birthright consisted afterwards in a double portion of the father's inheritance (Deut. xxi. 17); but with the patriarchs it embraced the chieftainship, the rule over the brethren and the entire family (xxvii. 29), and the title -to the blessing of the promise (xxvii. 4, 27-29), which included the future possession of Canaan and of covenant fellowship with Jehovah (xxviii. 4). Jacob knew this, and it led him to anticipate the purposes of God. Esau also knew it, but attached no value to it. There is proof enough that he knew he was giving away, along with the birthright, blessings which, because they were not of a material but of a spiritual nature, had no particular value in his estimation, in the words he made use of: ^^ Behold I am going to die (to meet death), and what is the birthright to me?" The only thing of value to him was the sensual enjoyment of the present; the spiritual blessings of the future his carnal mind was unable to estimate. In this he showed himself to be ^e^r/Xa (Heb. xii. 16), a profane man, who cared for nothing but the momentary gratification of sensual desires, who " did eat and drink, and rose up, arid went his way, and so despised his birthright " (ver. 34). With these words the Scriptures judge and condemn the conduct of Esau. Just as Ishmael was excluded from the proraised blessing because he was begotten " according to the flesh," so Esau lost it because his disposition was according to the flesh. The frivolity with which he sold his birthright to his brother for a dish of lentils, rendered him unfit to be the heir and possessor of the promised grace. But this did not justify Jacob's conduct in the matter. Though not condemned here, yet in the further course of the history it is shown to have been wrong, by the simple fact that he did not venture to make this transaction the basis of a claim.
The incidents of Isaac's life which are collected together in this chapter, from the time of his sojourn in the south country, resemble in many respects certain events in the life of Abraham; but the distinctive peculiarities are such as to form a true picture of the dealings of God, which were in perfect accordance with the character of the patriarch.
Vers. 1-5. Renewal of the promise. — A famine " in the land " (z.«. Canaan, to which he had therefore returned from
Hagar^s well; xxv. 11), compelled Isaac to leave Canaan, as it had done Abraham before. Abraham went to Egypt, where his wife was exposed to danger, from which she could only be rescued by the direct interposition of God. Isaac also intended to go there, but on the way, viz. in Gerar, he received instruction through a divine manifestation that he was to remain there. As he was the seed to whom the land. of Canaan was promised, he was directed not to leave it. ' To this end Jehovah assured him of the fulfilment of all the promises made to Abraham on oath, with express reference to His oath (xxii. 16) to him and to his posterity, and on account of Abraham's obedience of faith. The only peculiarity in the words is the plural, " all these lands." This plural refers to all the lands or territories of the different Canaanitish tribes, mentioned in chap. xv. 19-21, like the different divisions of the kingdom of Israel or Judah in 1 Chron. xiii. 2, 2 Chron. xi. 23.?^n; an antique form of npxn occurring only in the Pentateuch. The piety of Abraham is described in words that indicate a perfect obedience to all the commands of God, and therefore frequently recur among the legal expressions of a later date, nin O'lDti'O "i»K' " to take care of Jehovah's care," i.e. to observe Jehovah, His person, and His will. Mishmereth, reverence, observance, care, is more closely defined by " commandments, statutes, laws,"" to denote constant obedience to all the revelations and instructions of God.
Vers. 6-11. Protection of Rebekah at Gerar. — As Abraham had declared his wife to be his sister both in Egypt and at Gerar, so did Isaac also in the latter place. But the manner in which God protected Eebekah was very different from that in which Sarah was preserved in both instances. Before any one had touched Eebekah, the Philistine king discovered the untruthfulness of Isaac's statement, having seen Isaac "sporting with Rebekah," so. in a manner to show that she was his wife; whereupon he reproved Isaac for what he had said, and forbade any of his people to touch Rebekah on pain of death. Whether this was the same Abimelech as the one mentioned in chap. XX. cannot be decided with certainty. The name proves nothing, for it was the standing official name of the kings of Gerar (cf. 1 Sam. xxi. 11 and Ps. xxxiv.), as Pharaoh was of the kings of Egypt. The identity is favoured by the pious conduct of Abimelech in both instances; and no difficidty is caused either by the circumstance that 80 years had elapsed between the two events (for Abraham had only been dead five years, and the age of 150 was no rarity then), or by the fact, that whereas the first Abimelech had Sarah taken into his harem, the second not only had no intention of doing this, but was anxious to protect her from his people, inasmuch as it would be all the easier to conceive of this in the case of the same king, on the ground of his advanced age.
Vers. 12-17. Isaac's increasing wealth. — As Isaac had experienced the promised protection (" I will be with thee," ver. 3) in the safety of his wife, so did he receive while in Gerar the promised blessing. He sowed and received in that year " a hundred measures,^' i.e. a hundred-fold return. This was an unusual blessing, as the yield even in very fertile regions is not generally greater than from twenty-five to fifty-fold {Niehuhr and Burckhardt), and it is only in the Ruhbe, that small and most fruitful plain of Syria, that wheat yields on an average eighty, and barley a hundred-fold. Agriculture is still practised by the Bedouins, as well as grazing (^Robinson, Pal. i. 77, and Seetzen); so that Isaac's sowing was no proof that he had been stimulated by the promise of Jehovah to take up a settled abode in the promised land. — Vers. 13 sqq. Being thus blessed of Jehovah, Isaac became increasingly (Jt>^>}, vid. chap. viii. 3) greater (i.e. stronger), until he was very powerful and his wealth very great; so that the Philistines envied him, and endeavoured to do him injury by stopping up and filling with rubbish aU the wells that had been dug in his father's time; and even Abimelech requested him to depart, because he was afraid of his power. Isaac then encamped in the valley of Gerar, i.e. in the " undulating land of Gerar," through which the torrent (Jurf) from Gerar flows from the south-east {Ritter, Erdk. 14, pp. 1084—5).
Vers. 18-22. Reopening and discovery of wells. — In this valley Isaac dug open the old wells which had existed from Abraham's time, and gave them the old names. His people also dug three new wells. But Abimelech's people raised a contest about two of these; and for this reason Isaac called them Esek and Sitnah, strife and opposition. The third there was no dis- pute about; and it received in consequence the name Eehoboth, " breadths," for Isaac said, " Yea now ('inj?-''3, as in chap. xxix. 32, etc.) Jehovah has provided for us a broad space, that we may he fruitful (multiply) in the land." This well was probably not in the land of Gerar, as Isaac had removed thence, but in the Wady Euhaibeh, the name of which is suggestive of Eehoboth, which stands at the point where the two roads from Gaza and Hebron meet, about 3 hours to the south of Elusa, 8^ to the south of Beersheba, and where there are extensive ruins of the city of the same name upon the heights, also the remains of wells {Robinson, Pal. i. 289 sqq.; Strauss, Sinai and Golgotha); where too the name Sitnah seems to have been retained in the Wady Shutein, with ruins on the northern hills between Huhaibeh and Khulasa (Elusa).
Vers. 23-25. Isaac's journey to Beeesheba. — Here, where Abraham had spent a long time (xxi. 33 sqq.), Jehovah appeared to him during the night and renewed the promises already given; upon which, Isaac built an altar and performed a solemn service. Here his servants also dug a well near to the tents* conclusion of this alliance was substantially only a repetition or renewal of the alliance entered into with Abraham; but the renewal itself arose so completely out of the circumstances, that there is no ground whatever for denying that it occurred, or for the hypothesis that our account is merely another form of the earlier alliance; to say nothing of the fact, that besides the agreement in the leading event itself, the attendant circumstances are altogether peculiar, and correspond to the events which preceded. Abimelech not only brought his chief captain Phicol (supposed to be the same as in chap. xxi. 22, if Phicol is not also an official name), but his y"iO ^^ friend" i.e. his privy councillor, Ahuzzath. Isaac referred to the hostility they had shown; to which Abimelech replied, that they (he and his people) did not smite him (W3), i.e. drive him away by force, but let him depart in peace, and expressed a wish that there might be an oath between them. npN the oath, as an act of self -imprecation, was to form the basis of the covenant to be made. From this rPK came also to be used for a covenant sanctioned by an oath (Deut. xxix. 11, 13). nb'^n DN "that thou do not: " DX a particle of negation used in an oath (xiv. 23, etc.). (On the verb with zere, see Ges. § 75, Anm. 17; Ewald, § 224.) — The same day Isaac's servants informed him of the well which they had dug; and Isaac gave it the name Shehah (^V^K^, oath), in commemoration of the treaty made on oath. " Therefore the city was called JBeersheba.'^ This derivation of the name does not shut the other (xxi. 31) out, but seems to confirm it. As the treaty made on oath between Abimelech and Isaac was only a renewal of his covenant concluded before M'ith Abraham, so the name Beersheha was also renewed by the well Shehah. The reality of the occurrence is supported by the fact that the two wells are in existence still {vid. chap. xxi. 31).
Vei-s. 34, 35. Esau's Maekiage. — To the various troubles which the Philistines prepared for Isaac, but which, through the blessing of God, only contributed to the increase of his wealth and importance, a domestic cross was added, which caused him great and lasting sorrow. Esau married two wives in the 40th year of his age, the 100th of Isaac's life (xxv. 26); and that not from his own relations in Mesopotamia, but from among the Canaanites whom God had cast off. On their names, see chap, xxxvi. 2, 3. They became " bitterness of spirit,^' the cause of deep trouble, to his parents, viz. on account of their Canaanitish character, which was so opposed to the vocation of the patriarchs; whilst Esau by these marriages furnished another proof, how thoroughly his heart was set upon earthly things.
Vers. 1-4. When Isaac had grown old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could no longer see (ni<"}0 from seeing, with the neg. }D as in chap. xvi. 2, etc.), he wished, in the consciousness of approaching death, to give his blessing to his elder son. Isaac was then in his 137th year, at which age his half-brother Ishmael had died fourteen years before; ^ and this, with the increasing infirmities of age, may have suggested the thought
^ Cf. Lightfoot, opp. 1, p. 19. This correct estimate of Luther s is based upon the following calculation: — When Joseph was introduced to Pharaoh, he was thirty years old (xli. 46), and when Jacob went into Egypt, thirty- of death, though he did not die till forty-three years afterwards ^ (xxxv. 28). Without regard to the words which were spoken by God with reference to the children before their birth, and without taking any notice of Esau's frivolous barter of his birthright and his ungodly connection with Canaanites, Isaac maintained his preference for Esau, and directed him therefore to take his things (^^ V?j hunting gear), his quiver and bow, to, hunt game and prepare a savoury dish, that he might eat, and his soul might bless him. As his preference for Esau was fostered and strengthened by, if it did not spring from, his liking for game (xxv. 28), so now he wished to raise his spirits for imparting the blessing by a dish of venison prepared to his taste. In this the infirmity of his flesh is evident. At the same time, it was not merely because of his partiality for Esau, but unquestionably on account of the natural rights of the firstborn, that he wished to impart the blessing to him, just as the desire to do this before his death arose from the consciousness of his patriarchal call.
Vers. 5-17. Rebekah, who heard what he said, sought to frustrate this intention, and to secure the blessing for her (favourite) son Jacob. Whilst Esau was away hunting, she told Jacob to take his father a dish, which she would prepare from two kids according to his taste; and, having introduced himself as Esau, to ask for the blessing " before Jehovah'^ Jacob's objection, that the father would know him by his smooth skin, and so, instead of blessing him, might pronounce a curse upon him as a mocker, i.e. one who was trifling with his blind father, she silenced by saying, that she would take the curse upon herself. She evidently relied upon the word of promise, and thought that she ought to do her part to secure its fulfilment by directing the father's blessing to Jacob; and to this end she thought any means allowable. Consequently she was so assured of the success of her stratagem as to have no fear of the possibility of a curse. Jacob then acceded to her plan, and nine, as the seven years of abundance and two of famine had then passed by (xlv. 6). But Jacob was at that time 130 years old (xlvii. 9). Consequently Joseph was born before Jacob was ninety-one; and as his birth took place in the fourteenth year of Jacob's sojourn in Mesopotamia (cf- XXX, 25, and xxix. 18, 21, and 27), Jacob's flight to Laban occurred in the seventy-seventh year of his own life, and the 137th of Isaac's.
fetched the goats. Rebekah prepared them according to her husband's taste; and having told Jacob to put on Esau's best clothes which were with her in the dwelling (the tent, not the house), she covered his hands and the smooth (i.e. the smooth parts) of his neck with the skins of the kids of the goats,^ and sent him with the savoury dish to his father.
Vers. 18-29. But Jacob had no easy task to perform before his father. As soon as he had spoken on entering, his father asked him, " Who art thou, my son? " On his replying, " lam Esau, thy Jirst-horn^^ the father expressed his surprise at the rapid success of his hunting; and when he was satisfied with the reply, " Jehovah thy God sent it (the thing desired) to meet m^," he became suspicious about the voice, and bade him come nearer, that he might feel him. But as his hands appeared hairy like Esau's, he did not recognise him; and " so he blessed himj" In this remark (ver. 23) the writer gives the result of Jacob's attempt; so that the blessing is merely mentioned proleptically here, and refers to the formal blessing described afterwards, and not to the first greeting and salutation. — Vers. 24 sqq. After his father, in order to get rid of his suspicion about the voice, had asked him once more, " Art thou really my son Esau? " and Jacob had replied, '■^ I am" ("'3X=yes), he told him to hand him the savoury dish that he might eat. After eating, he kissed his son as a sign of his paternal affection, and in doing so he smelt the odour of liis clothes, i.e. the clothes of Esau, which were thoroughly scented with the odour of the fields, and then imparted his blessing (vers. 27—29). The blessing itself is thrown, as the sign of an elevated state of mind, into the poetic style of parallel clauses, and contains the peculiar forms of poetry, such as nx") for nsn^ nin for t^'^}}_, etc. The smell of the clothes with the scent of the field suggested to the patriarch's mind the image of his son's future prosperity, so that he saw him in possession of the promised land and the full enjoyment of its valuable blessings, having the smell of the field which Jehovah blessed, i.e. the garden of paradise, and broke out into tlic wish, " God (Ha-Elohim, the personal Giod., not Jehovah, \\ic
^ We must not think of our European goats, whose skins would be quite unsuitable for any such deception. " It is the camel-goat of the East, whose black, silk -like hair was used even by the Romans as a substitute for human hair. Martial xii. 46." — Tuch on ver. IG.
covenant God) give thee from the dew of heaven, and the fat felds of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine," i.e. a land blessed with the dew of heaven and a fruitful soil. In Eastern countries, where there is so little rain, the dew is the most important prerequisite for the growth of the fruits of the earth, and is often mentioned therefore as a source of blessing (Dent, xxxiii. 13,28; Hos. xiv. 6; Zech. viii. 12). In ^3ppa, notwithstanding the absence of the Dagesh from the ^, the D is the prep, p, as the parallel?t?p proves; and D''30K' both here and in, 1 ver. 39 are the fat (fertile) districts of a country. The rest of the blessing had reference to the future pre-eminence of his He was to be lord not only over his brethren {i.e. over kindred tribes), but over (foreign) peoples and nations also. The blessing rises here to the idea of universal dominion, which was to be reahzed in the fact that, according to the attitude assumed by the people towards him as their lord, it would secure to them either a blessing or a curse. If we compare this blessing with the promises which Abraham received, there are two elements of the latter which are very apparent; viz. the possession of the land, in the promise of the rich enjoyment of its produce, and the numerous increase of posterity, in the promised dominion over the nations. The third element, however, the blessing of the nations in and through the seed of Abraham, is so generalized in the expression, which is moulded according to chap. xii. 3, " Cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee," that the person blessed is not thereby declared to be the medium of salvation to the nations. Since the intention to give the blessing to Esau the first-born did not spring from proper feelings towards Jehovah and His promises, the blessing itself, as the use of the word Elohim instead of Jehovah or El Shaddai (cf. xxviii. 3) clearly shows, could not rise to the full height of the divine blessings of salvation, but referred chiefly to the relation in which the two brothers and their descendants would stand to one another, the theme with which Isaac's soul was entirely filled. It was only the painful discovery that, in blessing against his will, he had been compelled to follow the saving counsel of God, which awakened in him the consciousness of his patriarchal vocation, and gave him the spiritual power to impart the " blessing of Abraham " to the son whom he had kept back, but "whom Jehovah had chosen, when he was about to send him away to Haran (xxviii. 3, 4).
Vers. 30-40. Jacob had hardly left his father, after receiving the blessing (i*y^ ^i?, was only gone out), when Esau returned and came to Isaac, with the game prepared, to receive the blessing. The shock was inconceivable which Isaac received, when he found that he had blessed another, and not Esau — that, in fact, he had blessed Jacob. At the same time he neither could nor would, either curse him on account of the deception which he had practised, or withdraw the blessing imparted. For he could not help confessing to himself that he had sinned and brought the deception upon himself by his carnal preference for Esau. Moreover, the blessing was not a matter of subjective human affection, but a right entrusted by the grace of God to paternal supremacy and authority, in the exercise of which the person blessing, being impelled and guided by a higher authority, imparted to the person to be blest spiritual possessions and powers, which the Avill of man could not capriciously withdraw. Regarding this as the meaning of the blessing, Isaac necessarily saw in what had taken place the will of God, which had directed to Jacob the blessing that he had intended for Esau. He therefore said, " / have blessed him; yea, he will he (remain) blessed" (cf. Heb. xii. 17). Even the great and bitter lamentation into which Esau broke out could not change his father's mind. To his entreaty in ver. 34, " Bless me, even me also, 0 my father.'" he replied, " Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing." Esau answered, " Is it that C^D.) they have named him Jacob (overreacher), and he has overreached me twice V^ i.e. has he received the name Jacob from the fact that he has twice outwitted me? ''^n is used " when the cause is not rightly known" (cf. chap. xxix. 15). To his further entreaty, ^^ Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?" (/^^, lit. to lay aside), Isaac repeated the substance of the blessing given to Jacob, and added, " and to thee (p^^ for 1? as in chap. iii. 9), now, what can I do, my son?" When Esau again repeated, with tears, the entreaty that Isaac would bless him also, the father gave him a blessing (vers. 39, 40), but one which, when compared with the blessing of Jacob, was to be regarded rather as " a modified curse," and which is not even described as a blessing, but " introduced a disturbing element into Jacob's blessing, a retribution for the impure means by which he had obtained it." ^'Behold" it states, "from the fat fields of the earth will thy dwelling be, andfrom the dew of heaven from above."" By a play upon the words Isaac uses the same expression as in ver. 28, " from the fat fieldsof the earth, and from the dew," but in the opposite sense, 10 being partitive there, and privative here, "from=away from." The context requires that the words should be taken thus, and not in the sense of " thy dwelling shall partake of the fat of the earth and the dew of heaven" {Vulg., Luth., etc.).^ Since Isaa& said (ver. 37) he had given Jacob the blessing of the superabundance of corn and wine, he could not possibly promise Esau also fat fields and the dew of heaven. Nor would this agree with the words which follovr, "By thy sword wilt thou live.'' Moreover, the privative sense of |p is thoroughly poetical (cf. 2 Sam. i. 22; Job xi. 15, etc.). The idea expressed in the words, therefore, was that the dwelling-place of Esau would be the very opposite of the land of Canaan, viz. an unfruitful land. This is generally the condition of the mountainous country of Edom, which, although not without its fertile slopes and valleys, especially in the eastern portion (cf. Robinson, Pal. ii. p. 552), is thoroughly waste and barren in the western; so that Seetzen says it consists of "the most desolate and barren mountains probably in the world." The mode of life and occupation of the inhabitants were adapted to the country. " By (lit. on) thy sword thou wilt live;" i.e. thy maintenance will depend on the sword (J>V as in Deut. viii. 3 cf. Isa. xxxviii. 16), "live by war, rapine, and freebooting" (Knobel). " And thy brother thou wilt serve; yet it will come to pass, as (p^^^, lit. in proportion as, cf. Num. xxvii. 14) thou shakest (tossest), thou wilt break his yoke from thy neck.'* nn, "to rove about" (Jer. ii. 31; Hos. xii. 1), Hiphil "to cause (the thoughts) to rove about" (Ps. Iv. 3); but Ilengstenberg' a rendering is the best here, viz. " to shake, sc. the yoke." In the wild, sport-loving Esau there was aptly prefigured the character of his posterity. Josephus describes the Idumgean people as " a tumultuous and disorderly nation, always on the watch on every