30 and Esau said to Jacob, Let me eat, I pray thee, of that red, that red pottage; for I am weary: therefore was his name called Edom (red). 31 And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. 32 And Esau said, Behold, I am on the way to die and what profit shall this birthright do to me? 33 And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright. XXVI. 1 And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in

.

the point to die," chooses the third. Kalisch and Keil prefer the first, Knobel the second.

33, 34.] Jacob is not slow to follow up his advantage, and to shew his value for that which Esau despised. The narrative accumulates terms of contempt to shew the lightness and profanity of Esau. He behaved as if it were an ordinary meal and nothing especial had happened. But he had by his conduct thrown himself out of the line of that world's blessing, to record which the sacred writer held his pen.

XXVI. 1-33.] Further history of Isaac. The whole portion is Jehovistic in character. This is shewn both by the Divine name, vv. 2, 12, 24, 25, 28, 29, and by the reference to previous Jehovistic matters, as God's oath to Abraham, ver. 3, Abraham's sojourn in Gerar, ver. 15, &c. Various other tokens of the same are enumerated by Knobel and others.

Tristram says: "There are several varieties Of these the A. V., by rendering, "I am at recognized, and the Red Lentil is considered the best. It is generally used as a pottage, or cooked as the Spaniards cook haricot beans, stewed with oil, and flavoured with red pepper. It is by no means an unsavoury dish." Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 462. The words here are literally, cooked a cooked (dish): brewed a broo. 30.] The words run in the Hebrew, Let me eat now of that edom (red), that edom (red); for I am weary: therefore his name was called edom (red). In the heat of hunger he omits the name, and merely asks for the mess by its outward appearance, as that red (stuff). 31.] Jacob, the quiet but sly man, on the watch for his advantage, seizes the opportunity. We may supply in the background, from the intimation of his mother's favouritism, that the promises attaching to the birthright, unheeded by the free-rover Esau, were thoroughly understood and valued by Rebekah and her son. That such a consideration has two sides to it, one looking towards good, the other towards evil, is an inconsistency found in history because it is found in 32.] This saying of Esau, "Behold, I am on the way to die," may be understood in three ways: they may have (1) a general meaning,-I care only for the present: I shall die, and the birthright will pass on and be of no use to me; (2) a particular one, referring to his way of life,-I am meeting death every day in the field, and am not the man to benefit by the birthright, constantly exposed as I am to the risk of life; or (3) one belonging to the occasion then present," I am ready to die of faintness and fatigue, and so hold a present meal of more value than a distant contingency."

man.

1-6.] Renewal of the promise to Isaac in Gerar. 1. in the land] viz. of Canaan, where Isaac appears to have been dwelling since ch. xxv. 11. There is great similarity in this part of Isaac's life to that of Abraham. In fact, the son seems to be a faint copy of the father. Like him, he is the inheritor of the Divine promises, and the father of the chosen seed; but there is not in Isaac, as there was in Abraham, any great personal character, and he falls into the track of his father's life and habits, as we so often find in corresponding cases among ourselves. Even his very standing in the blessing of the promise is dependent on the past righteousness of Abraham, ver. 5. It would appear that the design of Isaac in going to Gerar had been to proceed further into Egypt, as

r ch. xxii. 16.

9 ch. xv. 5; xxii. 17.

t ch. xii. 3; xxii. 18.

u ch. xxii. 18.

the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech
king of the Philistines unto Gerar. 2 And JEHOVAH ap-
peared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt;
dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: 3 sojourn in
this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for
unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these coun-
tries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto
Abraham thy father; 4 and I will make thy seed to mul-
tiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed
all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations
of the earth be blessed; 5 because that Abraham "obeyed
my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my
statutes, and my laws. 6 And Isaac dwelt in Gerar.
7 ¶ And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and
he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my
wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for
Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon. 8 And it
came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that
Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window,
and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah

had been done by Abraham under similar
distress. It must be remembered that there
was an oath of friendliness between Abra-
ham and Abimelech (ch. xxi. 22-24).
This can hardly be the same Abimelech: at
the time of Abraham's sojourn in Gerar he
was an hundred years old, and Isaac was
born; sixty years then elapsed before Esau
and Jacob were born, and the boys were
now grown up.
So that it must have been
at least eighty years since that former visit,
even considering that it lasted many days.
But Abimelech seems to have been the royal
title among the Philistines, rather than a
personal name. In 1 Sam. xxi. 10-15 the
name of the king of Gath with whom David
took refuge is Achish; but in the title of
Ps. xxxiv. the same king is called Abime-
lech.

On Phichol, see below, ver. 26.
2.] The command with which the verse ends
is general-choose not thine own habitation,
but be guided by My Divine intimations.
3. this land] viz. Philistia, Gerar.
all these countries] viz. Canaan and its
surroundings: this is the only place where
the promise to the chosen seed is thus ex-
pressed. The reff. will shew how entirely

these promises are a recapitulation of those made to Abraham. The accumulation of words in ver. 5, by which Abram's obedience is described, is one oftener occurring when the law was fully revealed. This was natural, supposing Moses to have been the writer. He would express the Divine sayings in terms familiar to himself.

7-11.] He gives out his wife as his sister; it is detected, and she is saved. See on this incident notes on ch. xii. 10, ff. It is at all events characteristic of Isaac to tread almost servilely in the steps of Abraham his father; and it is to be noted, that the fraud has not the same result here as it had on the latter occasion in Abraham's time; for Rebekah was not taken into Abimelech's harem. We may also note two other things: 1. It is against this being the same Abimelech, that no suspicion arises at the repetition of the allegation of sisterhood. 2. It is for the identity that Abimelech expresses no chance of his own having taken Rebekah, but only of one of the people having outraged her. 8, ff.] There is here no Divine interference: all is human detection and human foresight. There is no

his wife. 9 And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife: and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her. 10 And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us. 11 And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. 12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and JEHOVAH blessed him. 13 And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: 14 and he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him. 15 And all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped them, and filled them with earth. 16 And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we. 17 And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. 18 And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they

further meaning in ver. 8 than appears in the words. What passed was no more than is related, but was enough to justify the king's inference.

12-16.] Isaac's prosperity in Gerar. 12.] Knobel remarks that we do not read of Abraham that he sowed the land: he appears only as a nomad with flocks and herds. But we do read it of Jacob and his sons (ch. xxxvii. 7). "The fact," Kalisch observes, "marks a progress in the history of the patriarchs: it is the transition from uncertain migrations to a more settled mode of life; it implies a more permanent interest in the land itself; during one season at least the Hebrew could call his own, not only the grave of his parents, but the soil which gives life and wealth." The neighbourhood of Gaza is to this day exceedingly fertile, and Knobel quotes from Burckhardt cases of as rich a return. Ver. 15 appears to relate, not what the Philistines had done, but what they did, in consequence of their envy of Isaac. On the wells, see ch. xxi. 25, ff.; and on the practice of filling up wells as an act of hostility, 2 Kings iii. 25, and Isa. xv.

6, note. It is said to he practised by the
Arabs of modern times along the lines of
passage of the pilgrims when their demands
of black mail are not paid. 17-33.]
Isaac moves to the valley of Gerar, and
thence to Beer-sheba-disputes about wells;
final reconciliation, and treaty with Abime-
lech. It is evident from our narrative that
the valley of Gerar was at some distance
from Gerar itself, a circumstance which has
not been taken into account in Dr. Hay-
man's art. in Biblical Dict. Stanley men-
tions the Wady Kibab as being probably
that which was known in ancient times as
the valley, i. e. the torrent-bed or Wâdy of
Gerar (Sinai and Pal. p. 159).
These wells are not mentioned in ch. xxi.,
but only one, which Abimelech's servants
had taken away. There were other occasions
of strife of which the history takes no ac-
count. Knobel maintains, with his confi-
dent "evidently," that the wells mentioned
in this verse and those in vv. 19, 21 are
identical, and that we have here a mixture of
two accounts. But never was an assumption
more groundless. It has no support what-

18.]

v Lev. xiv. 5.
Cant. iv. 15.
Jer. ii. 13.
Zech. xiv. 8.
John iv.10,11.

had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them. 19 And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water. 20 And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is our's: and he called the name of the well Esek [Contention]; because they strove with him. 21 And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah [Strife]. 22 And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth [Enlargement]; and he said, For now Jehovah hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land. 23 And he went up from thence to Beer-sheba. 24 And JEHOVAH appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for servant Abraham's sake. 25 And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of JEHOVAH, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac's servants digged a well. 26 Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath his friend, and Phichol the chief captain of

my

ever in the context. The two wells of vv.
19, 20 are manifestly new wells. 19.]
springing, literally living: see reff.
20, 21.] The Gerar herdsmen may have laid
claim to these wells as being in their valley;
but when 22.] Isaac left the valley,
there was no longer any such claim possible.
Robinson found at the junction of the roads
to Gaza and Hebron ruins of a city, now
called in Arabic Ruhaibeh, and naturally
suggesting Rehoboth; but he says there are
no traces of a well, the water supply having
been by means of cisterns. 23-25.] Isaac
leaves the neighbourhood of Gerar for the
neighbouring district of Beer-sheba, appar-
ently from the desire of peaceful habitation
and enjoyment of water for his flocks. Here
the promise is renewed to him, but again
for Abraham's sake. The very place was
full of the memories of the great patriarch,
who had dwelt and worshipped there, ch. xxi.
33. The occurrence of the Divine intima-
tion induces, as in ch. xii. 8; xiii. 18; see

also ch. xxxv. 6, the building of an altar
and setting up a place of worship. Here
also Isaac seems to have fixed his home for
most of the remainder of his life: see ch.
xxviii. 10. He died, however, at Hebron,
ch. xxxv. 27. The well dug at Beer-sheba
by Isaac's servants would seem to have been
one of the two larger at present remaining
there: see on ch. xxi. 25. It may have
been a characteristic act, by way of repeat-
ing what had been done by his father.
26.] The motive of this visit seems to have
been, that Isaac had now grown sufficiently
important, having established himself near
their frontiers, for definite relations to be
cultivated with him. And the memory of
their somewhat churlish dismissal of him,
and the quarrels which had happened since,
may have made them the more anxious to
remove cause of offence from his mind.

Ahuzzath his friend] Thus we have in 1 Kings iv. 5, Zabud son of Nathan "principal officer, and the king's

his army.

27 And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you? 28 And they said, We saw certainly that JEHOVAH was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee; 29 that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou art now the blessed of JEHOVAH. 30 And he made them a

feast, and they did eat and drink. 31 And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. 32 And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water. 33 And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba unto this day. 34 And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: 35 which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah. XXVII. 1 And it came to

friend;" and 1 Chron. xxvii. 33, Hushai the Archite, "the king's companion." The visit was one of official state. On the name Phichol appearing as that of the commander of Abimelech's army both here and in the history of Abraham also, various conjectures have been made. The safest conclusion is that of Mr. Grove (Biblical Dict.), that it is a Philistine name of the meaning of which we are ignorant. We have no means of saying whether it may or may not have been an official name. See note on ver. 1: and on Abimelech's speech to Isaac, see above. There is evidently, from ver. 29, a desire to have a different interpretation put on the former, sending him away from the true one. In this characteristic trait Knobel sees inconsistency between this account and that in ver. 16! 31.] So in ch. xxxi. 46 a meal was the accompaniment of a solemn 33.] He called it, i. e. the well, Shibgah, oath see on the whole ch. xxi. 31, note. The account of this second origin of the name Beer-sheba must be regarded as rather an intimation of a coincidence than as to be pressed in its literal sense.

contract.

It is useless to attempt to evade the difficulty, as some have done by a suggestion which we forbear to characterize, that the former narrative gives the origin only of the name of the well, whereas this speaks of the city. Far rather would we seek a solution in the fact, so apparent throughout the life of Isaac, that his whole bent and plan seems to have been to copy Abraham his father, and as it were to retrace the lines which he had previously traced.

34, 35.] The double marriage of Esau. Esau, like his father, marries at 40. He takes two wives, which is not, as some have said, attributed to him as a sin: Abraham had done the same, and so did Jacob. The sin, and that which brought grief to his parents, was that he took those wives, being himself ungodly, out of the heathen race of the Canaanites. On the names of these wives see note, ch. xxxvi. 2. They were both Hittites, of the children of Heth: see ch. x. 15. They introduced misery into the family tents. We see its depth and power in ch. xxvii. 46.

XXVII. Jacob's fraud upon his father