ed in Gerar." Here he and his descendants dwelt for a long time at BEERSHEBA, at the south-western extremity of the maritime plain, upon the borders of the desert. This was Abraham's fourth resting-place in the Holy Land. It continued till the latest times to be the southern boundary of the Holy Land, so that from Dan to Beersheba became the established formula to indicate the whole country. In this district the Philistines had already begun to form settlements, and a warlike king of this race, whose hereditary name was ABIMELECH (Father-King), reigned in the valley of Gerar. Here the deceit which Abraham had put upon Pharaoh, by calling Sarah his sister, was acted again, and with the like result. The repeated occurrence of such an event, which will meet us again in the history of Isaac, can surprise no one acquainted with Oriental manners; but it would have been indeed surprising if the author of any but a genuine narrative had exposed himself to a charge so obvious as that which has been founded on its repetition. independent truth of each story is confirmed by the natural touches of variety; such as, in the case before us, Abimelech's keen but gentle satire in recommending Sarah to buy a veil with the thousand pieces of silver which he gave to her husband. We may also observe the traces of the knowledge of the true God among Abimelech and his servants." The A dispute subsequently arose between Abraham and Abimelech respecting a well in the neighborhood, marking "the importance which, in the migratory land of the East, was and is always attached to the possession of water." This dispute led to a treaty between Abraham and Abimelech, which gave to the well the name of "Beer-sheba," or the well of the oath, "because there they sware both of them." Here also "Abraham planted a grove, and called on the name of Jehovah, the everlasting God," in opposition doubtless to the deified heroes of the surrounding heathen.1 § 4. It was during Abraham's abode at Beersheba that his hopes were crowned by the birth of his son ISAAC, when he AMMON, see Notes and Illustrations (B). 17 Gen. xx.: throughout this and the following chapter, the name of God is constantly Elohim, not Jehovah. on the entrance into Palestine from the south, and being highly characteristic of the life of the Bible, never fail to call forth the enthusiasm of the traveller. The two principal wells lie just a hundred yards apart. The larger 18 Gen. xxi. 22-23. There are at of the two, which lies to the east, is present on the spot two principal wells 12 feet diam., and at the time of Dr. and five smaller ones. They are Robinson's visit was 44 feet to the among the first objects encountered surface of the water. The other well himself was a hundred years old." At the "great feast" made in celebration of the weaning, "Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking," and urged Abraham to cast out him and his mother. The patriarch, comforted by God's renewed promise that of Ishmael He would make a nation, sent them both away, and they departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. Here the water being spent in the bottle, Hagar cast her son under one of the desert shrubs, and went away a little distance, "for she said, Let me not see the death of the child," and wept. "And God heard the voice of the lad, and the angel of the Lord called to Hagar out of heaven, renewed the promise already thrice given, "I will make him a great nation," and "opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water." Thus miraculously saved from perishing by thirst, "God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness; and became an archer." It is doubtful whether the wanderers halted by the well, or at once continued their way to "the wilderness of Paran," where he dwelt, and where "his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt."20 9921 99 § 5. Henceforward the story of Abraham is intertwined with that of Isaac, of whom it was said, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." The plan of the sacred narrative passes over every detail that does not bear upon the history of the covenant itself, and carries us on to a period when Isaac had reached the age of intelligence. A tradition preserved by Josephus makes Isaac twenty-five years old at the time of the crowning trial of Abraham's faith;22 and we certainly gather from the Scripture narrative that he was an intelligent and willing party to the sacrifice of his life at the command of God. It is impossible to repeat this story, the most perfect specimen of simple and pathetic narrative, in any other words than those of the sacred writer. "And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham. And he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer is 5 feet diam., and was 42 feet to the broken, others nearly entire, lying at water. The curb-stones round the a distance of 10 or 12 feet from the mouth of both wells are worn into edge of the well. deep grooves by the action of the ropes of so many centuries. Round the larger well there are nine, and round the smaller five large stone 8; troughs some much worn and 19 Gen. xxi. 1-7. 21 Gen. xxi. 12; comp. Rom. ix. 7, 22 Joseph. Ant. i. 13, § 2. it him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt-offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering: so they went both of them together. And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order; and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh : as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen. "23 The primary doctrines taught are those of sacrifice and substitution, as the means appointed by God for taking away sin; and, as co-ordinate with these, the need of the obedience of faith, on the part of man, to receive the benefit." A confusion is often made between Isaac and the victim actually offered. Isaac himself is generally viewed as a type of the Son of God, offered for the sins of men; but Isaac, himself one of the sinful race for whom atonement was to be made -Isaac, who did not actually suffer death-was no fit type of Him who "was slain, the just for the unjust." But the 83 Gen. xxii. 1-14. 24 Heb. xi. 17. animal, not of the human race, which God provided and Abraham offered, was, in the whole history of sacrifice, the recognized type of " the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world." Isaac is the type of humanity itself, devoted to death for sin, and submitting to the sentence. Once more the covenant is renewed in its special blessing to the descendants of Abraham, and in its full spiritual extension to all families of the earth, as the reward of his obedience; and now, for the first time, God confirmed it with an oath.25 9927 § 6. The next event recorded in Abraham's life is the death of Sarah, at the age of 127, at Hebron; so that Abraham must have returned from Beersheba to his old home." This led to an interesting transaction between the patriarch and the people of the land in which he was a sojourner. God had "given him none inheritance in the land, no not so much as to set his foot on. He had used it to pitch his tent and feed his flocks on, but not a foot of it was actually his property. But now the sanctity of the sepulchre demanded that his burying-place should be his own; and he makes a bargain with Ephron the Hittite, in the presence of all the people of the city, in the course of which he behaves, and is treated by them, like a generous and mighty prince. Courteously refusing both the use of their sepulchres, and the of fer of a place for his own as a gift, he buys for its full value of four hundred skekels' weight of silver, "current money with the merchant,"28 the Cave of Machpelah (or the Double Cave), close to the oak of Mamre, with the field in which it stood. Here he buried Sarah; here he was buried by his sons Isaac and Ishmael; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, Jacob and his wife Leah, and perhaps Joseph." The sepulchre still exists under the Mosque of Hebron, and was first permitted to be seen by Europeans since the Crusades, when it was visited by the Prince of Wales in 1862.00 29 § 7. After the burial of Sarah Abraham appears to have returned to Beersheba. His last care was for the marriage 25 Gen. xxii. 15-18; Psalm cv. 9; Luke i. 73; and especially Heb. vi. 13, 14. The sacrifice is said to have taken place upon a mountain in "the land of Moriah;" but whether this was the hill in Jerusalem on which the Temple afterward stood, or Mount Gerizim, is discussed in Notes and Illustrations (C). 26 Gen. xxiii. 1, 2. 27 Acts vii. 5. This is the first mention of money in the history of the world, but it was uncoined. 29 Gen. xxv. 9, 10, xxxv. 29, xlix. 31, 1. 13. 30 For an account of this visit, see Stanley's Lectures on the Jewish Church, part i., App. II. Hebron is held by the Mussulmans to be the fourth of the Holy Places, Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem being the other three. of his son Isaac to a wife of his own kindred, and not to one of the daughters of the Canaanites. His oldest servant undertook the journey to Haran, in Mesopotamia, where Nahor, the brother of Abraham, had settled, and a sign from God indicated the person he sought in Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, son of Nahor.31 The whole narrative is a vivid picture of pastoral life, and of the simple customs then used in making a marriage contract, not without characteristic touches of the tendency to avarice in the family of Bethuel, and particularly in his son Laban." The scene of Isaac's meeting with Rebekah seems to exhibit his character as that of quiet pious contemplation. He was 40 years old when he married, and his residence was by the well of Lahai-roi, in the extreme south of Palestine.s 33 § 8. It was not till twenty years later that Rebekah, whose barrenness was removed through the prayers of Isaac, bore twin sons, ESAU (hairy) or EDOM (the Red) and JACOB (the Supplanter), whose future destiny was prophetically signified by the strange incidents which accompanied their birth. Their struggle in the womb portended the deadly animosity of the two nations that were to spring from them; and the grasp of the younger on the elder's heel betokened that craft in taking advantage of his brother which answered to his name. Their physical appearance was as different as their characters afterward proved: the ruddy and hairy Esau became a rough, wild hunter, the smooth Jacob a quiet denizen of the tent. These differences of character were fostered by the foolish partiality of their parents, the great curse of all family life- "Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison but Rebekah loved Jacob. 9935 § 9. It was after the marriage of Isaac that Abraham formed a new union with Keturah, by whom he became the father of the Keturaïte Arabs. Keturah seems to have been only a concubine, and her sons were sent away eastward, enriched with presents, as Ishmael had been during Abraham's life, lest the inheritance of Isaac should be disputed. To him Abraham gave all his great wealth, and died apparently at Beersheba "in a good old age, an old man, and full of 'years," his age being 175. His sons Isaac and Ishmael met at his funeral, and buried him in the Cave of Machpelah." Ishmael survived him just 50 years; and died at the age of 137.37 1 Gen. xxiv. See the Genealogy on p. 68. 92 Gen. xxiv. 30. 33 Gen. xxiv. 63. Gen. xxv. 62, xxvi. 11, 20. 95 Gen. xxv. 21-28. 36 Gen. xxv. 1-10. 7 Gen. xxv. 17. |