Genesis 25:11-18

B.

ISAAC, AND HIS FAITH-ENDURANCE. Genesis 25:12 to Genesis 28:9

FIRST SECTION

Isaac and Ishmael

Genesis 25:11-18

11And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac; and [but] Isaac dwelt by the well Lahai-roi [wells of the quickener of vision].

12Now [and] these are the generations [genealogies, Toledoth] of Ishmael, Abraham’s 13son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s handmaid, bare unto Abraham. And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names according to their generations: the first-born of Ishmael, Nebajoth [heights; Nabathei, a tribe of Northern Arabia]; and Kedar 14[dark skin. An Arabian tribe], and Adbeel [miracle of God], and Mibsam [sweet odor]. And Mishma [hearing, report, what is heard], and Dumah [silence, solitude], and Massah [bearing, burden, 15 uttering what is said], Hadar [inner apartment, tent], and Tema [desert, uncultivated region], Jetur 16[Seven? a nomadic village], Naphish [recreation], and Kedemah [eastward]; These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns [fixed abodes], and by their castles; 17twelve princes according to their nations. And these are the years of the life of Ishmael: an hundred and thirty and seven years; and he gave up the ghost and died; and was gathered unto his people. 18And they dwelt from Havilah [a region of Arabia inhabited by the descendants of Joctan, upon the eastern boundary of the Ishmaelites] unto Shur [a place east of Egypt, in the borders of the desert], that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward [in the direction of] Assyria: and he died in the presence of all his brethren [he settled eastward of all his brethren].

GENERAL REMARKS

See the remarks upon the previous section.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1.Genesis 1:25. Isaac after the death of Abraham. God blessed Isaac.—The blessing of Abraham continues in the blessing of Isaac; this is manifested in his welfare and prosperity, or rather in a grateful consciousness which refers his welfare to the kindness of God. We read: Elohim blessed Isaac; for Isaac, as future ancestor of Edom and Jacob, sustained now a universal relation. In earthly respects Edom is Isaac’s heir as well as Jacob, or even by preference. By the well Lahai-roi.—By the well of Hagar. According to Genesis 35:27, Jacob met his aged father Isaac at Hebron. Doubtless this city bore the same relation from the time of Abraham onwards; Hebron was the principal residence, Beer-sheba the principal station for overseeing their flocks. At this station Isaac, as steward of his father, had already taken up his abode, and in consequence of his love of solitude and seclusion he became so fond of it that now he dwelt here regularly, without yielding up the principal residence at Hebron; he even moved his tent from Beer-sheba farther into the deep solitude of Hagar’s well.

2.Genesis 25:12. The Toledoth of Ishmael. [Upon the documentary hypothesis, each of these phrases marks the beginning of a new document. But if we are to regard each of these documents as the work of a separate author, then this author contributes only seven verses to the narrative. This is obviously running the theory into the ground, and shows how unreasonable it is to regard these phrases as indicating any change of author. They open new themes or sections of the history. A. G.] Here also it is obvious that the Toledoth of Genesis does not begin the separate section of the history, but frequently concludes them. In Genesis 1:4 the first human race, together with the Toledoth of Adam, is dismissed from history. So is it also in Genesis 1:10, in respect to the heathen nations, descendants of Japheth, Ham, and Shem. Ch. 11 dismisses the more theocratic Shemites, together with their Toledoth. In Genesis 22:20, the Nahorites, the last of the Shemites and nearest to Abraham, retire from the history, just as the Haranites, or Lot and his descendants in Genesis 19:36; and as the Abrahamites descending from Keturah, in Genesis 1:25; and in our section the Ishmaelites. After the close of the history of Isaac the Edomites, Genesis 36:1, etc., appear. The theocracy permits no branch of the human race to vanish out of its circle of vision without fixing it in its consciousness. In Genesis 37:2 Jacob also retires into the background as compared with the history of his sons. With the Toledoth of Ishmael comp. 1 Chronicles 1:28-31. Whom Hagar the Egyptian.—Besides the names of the twelve sons of Ishmael that here present themselves, there occurs also (1 Chronicles 5:10) the name of the Hagarites, Ishmaelites called after the mother, whose name is no doubt assumed in one or more of the names before us. In respect to the frequent occurrence of the name Hagar in Arabic authors, see Knobel, p. 211. Nebajoth and Kedar.—Delitzsch: “The names of the twelve sons of Ishmael are in part well known. Nebajoth and Kedar are not only mentioned together in Isaiah 60:7, but also by Plin.: Hisi. Nat., 6, 7 (Nabatæi et Cedrei; Kaidhâr and Nâbat (Nabt) are also known to Arabian historians as descendants of Ishmael. In respect to the meaning of the word Nabatæans, both in a stricter and a more comprehensive sense, as also in regard to their abodes in Arabia Petrea and beyond, see Knobel, Delitzsch, Keil. The Kadarenes, described Isaiah 21:17 as good bowmen, lived in the desert between Arabia Petrea and Babylonia (Isaiah 42:11; Psalms 120:5). “The Rabbins use their name to denote the Arabians in general.” Knobel. Adbeel and Mibsam.—In respect to these names, as well as to that of Kedma, we can only reach conjectures (see Knobel). Mishma (Septuagint and Vulgate: Masma). Connected by Knobel with Μαισαμανε͂ις of Ptol., Genesis 6:7; Genesis 6:21. In Arabic authors we have beni Mismah. Duma.—Probably Dumath al Djendel, on the border between Syria and Babylonia. Massa.—Apparently the same as Μασανοί, on the northeast side of Duma according to Ptol., Genesis 5:19; Genesis 5:2. Hadar (a more correct reading, 1 Chronicles 1:30, is חֲדַד, as compared with the maritime country Chathth, famous among the ancient Arabians on account of its lances), between Omam and Bahrein. For further information see Knobel, etc. Hadar is taken together with Thema, which Knobel connects with Θεμοί of Ptolemy, on the Persian Gulf, or with the Arabic banu Teim, a celebrated tribe in Hamasa, probably different from the Tema, Isaiah 21:14; Jeremiah 25:23; Job 6:19. Jetur, Naphisch (see 1 Chronicles 5:18). “Neighbors to the Israelites on the east side of Jordan. Knobel refers Jetur to the Ituræans. The present Druses are probably their descendants.” Kedma.—“As a separate Arabic tribe we can only refer it, in its narrower sense, to בְּנֵי קֶדֶם, who in Judges 6:3; Judges 6:33; Judges 7:12, are distinguished from other Arabians, and must have dwelt in the vicinity of the country east of Jordan. Perhaps they are the same with those enumerated with the Moabites and Ammonites in Isaiah 11:14 and Ezekiel 25:4; Ezekiel 25:10.” Knobel. The sons of the East in a more comprehensive sense denotes the Arabians generally, the Saracens. By their towns, and by their castles, i.e., their movable and fixed habitations. Twelve princes according to their nations (Lange renders “to their nations”). The translation, according to their nations, can only mean, as moulded, determined by their nations. We hold, therefore, the expression to mean: twelve princes chosen for governing and representing their twelve tribes.

3.Genesis 25:17. The death of Ishmael and the expansion of the Ishmaelites.—The years of the life of Ishmael.—This hale man attained only an age of a hundred and thirty-seven years, while on the contrary, the more delicate appearing Isaac reaches the age of a hundred and eighty years. Possibly the natural passions of the one consumed life sooner; no doubt also the quiet, peaceful, believing disposition of the other, exercised a life-prolonging influence. Ishmael dies, the Ishmaelites spread themselves abroad. From Havilah unto Shur.—Havilah, see Genesis 10:29. Knobel: “From Chaulan in the south to the eastern boundary of Egypt.” Schur. From Egypt to the east in the direction of Assyria. According to Josephus: “Antiq.” i. 12, 4, the Ishmaelites dwelt from the Euphrates to the Red Sea. In the presence of all his brethren, i.e., Hebrews, Edomites, and the children of Keturah. If we understand by Havilah the Chaulotæans on the boundary of Arabia Petrea (Keil), we must assign a different meaning to these words. Keil: “From southeast to southwest.” Knobel: “From southeast to northwest.” Delitzsch: “The capital of the Ishmaelitic tribes was Hezaz, situated south of Yemen. From this they spread themselves to the west side of the Siniaitic peninsula, and still further in a northerly and northeasterly direction beyond Arabia Petrea and Deserta to the countries under Assyrian sway.” [He died. He had fallen into the lot of his inheritance. The Heb. word includes the idea of a deliberate settlement, and an assertion by force of his rights and possessions. Thus the promise uttered before his birth was now fulfilled. A. G.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Ishmael in his development precedes Isaac, as Esau precedes Jacob, as the world gets the start of the kingdom of heaven. It looks well for the development of Ishmael that he buries his father in company with his brother Isaac, though the latter had been preferred to him.
2. The twelve princes of Ishmael are also mentioned as witnesses that God has faithfully fulfilled his promises concerning their ancestor. The Arabs, too, count twelve sons of Ishmael.
3. The Ishmaelites, the germ of the Arabic people in its historic significance. The country of Arabia. Its history. Mohammed. The mission of the Mohammedans. The mission among the Mohammedans. Since Ishmael did not subject himself to Israel, he has become subject to the Turk.
4. Ishmael’s genealogy seems to have been preserved in the house of Isaac, just as Therah’s in the house of Abraham, or as the genealogy of the nations in house of Shem. The father’s house does not lose the memory or the trace of the lost son.
5. How the blessing of Abraham descends upon Isaac. The hereditary blessing in the descendants of Abraham, an antithesis to the hereditary curse in the descendants of Adam generally. The inclination to solitude in the life of Isaac. The nature, rights, and limit of contemplation. Contemplative characters. History of a contemplative life.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

See Doctrinal and Ethical. Isaac the blessed son of a blessed father. The great divine miracle, that the blessing of a saving faith was preserved in one line (in spite of all partial obscurations) from Adam to Christ. Isaac’s inclination to solitary contemplation. Perhaps he believed already that a special blessing was confined to that particular place, the well of vision. That Isaac selected Hagar’s well as a favorite spot, testifies to the nobility of his soul (for Hagar was the rival of his mother, and Ishmael was her son). Ishmael’s death; or the robust often die before the feeble. From Ishmael, a child once languishing and perishing from thirst in the wilderness, God’s providence made a great (world-conquering) nation. We may in fact best comprehend the patriarchal triad by regarding Abraham as constituting especially an example of faith, Isaac an example of love, Jacob an example of hope. We have prominently presented to us the still more predominating features: the man of the deeds of faith, the man of the sufferings of faith, the man of the struggles of faith.

Starke: The temporal blessing (of Isaac) a prelude: a. As an earnest for the whole land of Canaan; b. as a type and pledge of the eternal and spiritual blessing of salvation in Christ. Misma, Duma, Masa. From these three names, meaning: hearing; silence, patience, the Hebrews formed the proverb: We must hear many things, keep secret many things, and suffer many things. (The Ishmael ites called Hagarites after Hagar. In later times they preferred to be called Saracens, after Sarah, as if dwelling in the tents of Sarah.)

Ver, 17. Some cite this to prove the happy death of Ishmael, some to prove the contrary. Luther does not wish to decide, but leaves it with God

Genesis 25:18. (Psalms 112:2.)—What God promises he will surely perform. Let us only have faith in his promises (Genesis 17:20; Genesis 21:13). Bibl. Wirt.: People of no note may become eminent and distinguished persons if it is God’s will (Genesis 41:40-43).

Lisco: Ishmael becomes the ancestor of the Bedouins of Arabia; these, therefore, and the Edomites descending from Esau, are the nations nearest related to the Hebrews,—Calwer Handbuch: The father’s blessing descends upon the children. After Abraham, that hero of faith, had gone to his rest, Isaac appears in the foreground of the history. In his character love appears predominant, the less powerful and independent love, or love itself with its weaknesses. He appears as a gentle, pliable link between Abraham and Jacob, possessing neither the manly strength of the father nor of the son. Nevertheless, he wears an amiable aspect, which, when closely viewed, immediately wins our affections. He does not make his appearance as a fictitious and an artfully embellished personage, but as a historical character; so much so, that his faults appear in the foreground, whilst his good qualities fall into the background and lie concealed to the superficial observer. Isaac is of a predominantly kind nature, and therefore appears reserved, outwardly, but inwardly and really, frank. Schröder: As to the character of Abraham and Isaac, see pp. 442 and 443. With Abraham, who, as father of the faithful, was to begin the long line of believing souls, and in whose peculiar form of life their life was to have its way prepared, everything is vigorous and peculiarly independent. With Isaac, on the contrary, who only continues this line, everything appeared perfectly arranged, just as it is with Joshua in relation to Moses, etc. (Hengstenberg: However, we must not mistake the peculiar characteristics of Isaac, Joshua, Elisha.)—It seems to me, one might know that he is the son of a dead body, but on this very account is he eminently a gift of God (Ziegler). Could the memory of the knife drawn over him by the hand of the father ever become extinguished in the mind of the son? Perhaps this affords us a partial solution of his life and character (Krumm.). Let us not overlook the fact that he was the only monogamist among the patriarchs, remaining satisfied with his Rebekah. Abraham’s piety descends as an heritage to Isaac, therefore the grace of God also descends upon Isaac (Val. Herberger)—The dwelling of Isaac at a place so important in the life of Ishmael (Hagar’s well), attests his friendly relation to his step-brother. Gathered unto his people. A beautiful and charming description of immortality. We are now living among the gross people of this world, who seek but little after God, yea, in the very kingdom of the devil. But when we depart from this wretched life, we shall die peacefully, and be gathered unto our people, and there will be no distress, no misery, no tribulation, but peace and rest. (Luther).

Footnotes:

[6][Genesis 25:18. Lit., he fell down, or it fell to him. A. G.]