the Third Week after Epiphany
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Updated Bible Version
Genesis 21:27
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
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- InternationalParallel Translations
Then Abraham tooke sheepe and beeues, and gaue them vnto Abimelech: and they two made a couenant.
And Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimeleck; and both of them made a covenant.
Avraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them to Avimelekh. Those two made a covenant.
So Abraham and Abimelech made an agreement. Abraham gave Abimelech some sheep and cattle as proof of the agreement.
So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant.
And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and they two made a covenant.
And Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made an agreement together.
Abraham gave Abimelech some sheep and cattle, and then the two men made a peace treaty.
Avraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to Avimelekh, and the two of them made a covenant.
And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them to Abimelech; and both of them made a covenant.
And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and they two made a covenant.
And Abraham tooke sheepe and oxen, and gaue them vnto Abimelech: and both of them made a couenant.
And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and both of them made a covenant.
So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant (binding agreement).
And Abraam took sheep and calves, and gave them to Abimelech, and both made a covenant.
And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and they two made a covenant.
So Abraham brought sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant.
And Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech. And the two of them made a covenant.
And Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave to Abimelech, and both of them cut a covenant.
Then Abraham gave Abimelech some sheep and cattle, and they made an agreement.
Abraham took some sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech. The two of them made a treaty.
So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant.
Abraham then gave some of his sheep, goats, and cattle to Abimelech, and they made a treaty.
So Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech. Then the two men made an agreement.
And Abraham took sheep and oxen, stud gave to Abimelech, - and they two solemnised a covenant
Then Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them to Abimelech: and both of them made a league.
So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abim'elech, and the two men made a covenant.
Then Abraham gave some sheep and cattle to Abimelech, and the two of them made an agreement.
And so Abraham took scheep and oxun, and yaf to Abymalech, and bothe smyten a boond of pees.
And Abraham taketh sheep and oxen, and giveth to Abimelech, and they make, both of them, a covenant;
Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them to Abimelech. Those two made a covenant.
And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them to Abimelech: and both of them made a covenant.
And Abraham toke sheepe and Oxen, and gaue them vnto Abimelech: & they made both of them a leage together.
Abraham took flocks and herds and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant.
The toke Abraham shepe and oxen, and gaue them vnto Abimelech, and they both made a bonde together.
So the two of them made a covenant. Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech. Abraham set aside seven sheep from his flock.
So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant.
So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant.
Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant.
So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them cut a covenant.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
took: Genesis 14:22, Genesis 14:23, Proverbs 17:8, Proverbs 18:16, Proverbs 18:24, Proverbs 21:14, Isaiah 32:8
made: Genesis 26:28-31, Genesis 31:44, 1 Samuel 18:3, Ezekiel 17:13, Romans 1:31, Galatians 3:15
Reciprocal: Genesis 21:32 - General Judges 14:3 - thy brethren
Cross-References
And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech and Phicol the captain of his host spoke to Abraham, saying, God is with you in all that you do.
Now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son. But according to the kindness that I have done to you, you shall do to me, and to the land wherein you have sojourned.
And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.
Therefore he called that place Beer-sheba. Because there they swore both of them.
And now come, let us make a covenant, I and you; and let it be for a witness between me and you.
Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.
A bribe is [as] a precious stone in the eyes of him that has it; Wherever it turns, it prospers.
A gift of man makes room for him, And brings him before great men.
He that makes many friends [does it] to his own destruction; But there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
A gift in secret pacifies anger; And a present in the bosom, strong wrath.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech,.... In gratitude for former favours he had received from him, in token of the friendship that subsisted between them, and for the confirmation of it; and to show that he was fully satisfied with Abimelech's answer to his complaint, as well as willing to enter into covenant by sacrifice, when such creatures were divided, and the covenanters passed between the pieces, for so it follows:
and both of them made a covenant; or, "cut or struck a covenant" s; cut the sacrifice in pieces and passed between them, in token of the compact and agreement they entered into with each other; signifying that whoever broke it deserved to be cut in pieces as those creatures were.
s יכרתו "foedus percusserunt", Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius; "secuerunt", Cocceius.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
- The Birth of Isaac
7. מלל mı̂lēl “speak,” an ancient and therefore solemn and poetical word.
14. חמת chêmet “bottle,” akin to חמה chāmâh, “surround, enclose,” and הוּם chûm “black. באר שׁבע beêr-sheba‛, Beer-sheba‘, “well of seven.”
22. פיכל pı̂ykol, Pikhol, “mouth or spokesman of all.”
23. נין nı̂yn “offspring, kin;” related: “sprout, flourish.” נכד neked “progeny,” perhaps “acquaintance,” cognate with נגד ngd, “be before” (the eyes) and נקד nqd, “mark.”
33. אשׁל 'êshel “grove;” ἄρουρα aroura, Septuagint.; אילבה 'ı̂ylābâh, “a tree,” Onkelos.
This chapter records the birth of Isaac with other concomitant circumstances. This is the beginning of the fulfillment of the second part of the covenant with Abraham - that concerning the seed. This precedes, we observe, his possession of even a foot-breadth of the soil, and is long antecedent to the entrance of his descendants as conquerors into the land of promise.
Genesis 21:1-8
Isaac is born according to promise, and grows to be weaned. “The Lord had visited Sarah.” It is possible that this event may have occurred before the patriarchal pair arrived in Gerar. To visit, is to draw near to a person for the purpose of either chastising or conferring a favor. The Lord had been faithful to his gracious promise to Sarah. “He did as he had spoken.” The object of the visit was accomplished. In due time she bears a son, whom Abraham, in accordance with the divine command, calls Isaac, and circumcises on the eighth day. Abraham was now a hundred years old, and therefore Isaac was born thirty years after the call. Sarah expressed her grateful wonder in two somewhat poetic strains. The first, consisting of two sentences, turns on the word laugh. This is no longer the laugh of delight mingled with doubt, but that of wonder and joy at the power of the Lord overcoming the impotence of the aged mother. The second strain of three sentences turns upon the object of this admiring joy. The event that nobody ever expected to hear announced to Abraham, has nevertheless taken place; “for I have borne him a son in his old age.” The time of weaning, the second step of the child to individual existence, at length arrives, and the household of Abraham make merry, as was wont, on the festive occasion. The infant was usually weaned in the second or third year 1 Samuel 1:22-24; 2 Chronicles 31:16. The child seems to have remained for the first five years under the special care of the mother Leviticus 27:6. The son then came under the management of the father.
Genesis 21:9-21
The dismissal of Hagar and Ishmael. “The son of Hagar ... laughing.” The birth of Isaac has made a great change in the position of Ishmael, now at the age of at least fifteen years. He was not now, as formerly, the chief object of attention, and some bitterness of feeling may have arisen on this account. His laugh was therefore the laugh of derision. Rightly was the child of promise named Isaac, the one at whom all laugh with various feelings of incredulity, wonder, gladness, and scorn. Sarah cannot brook the insolence of Ishmael, and demands his dismissal. This was painful to Abraham. Nevertheless, God enjoins it as reasonable, on the ground that in Isaac was his seed to be called. This means not only that Isaac was to be called his seed, but in Isaac as the progenitor was included the seed of Abraham in the highest and utmost sense of the phrase. From him the holy seed was to spring that was to be the agent in eventually bringing the whole race again under the covenant of Noah, in that higher form which it assumes in the New Testament. Abraham is comforted in this separation with a renewal of the promise concerning Ishmael Genesis 17:20.
He proceeds with all singleness of heart and denial of self to dismiss the mother and the son. This separation from the family of Abraham was, no doubt, distressing to the feelings of the parties concerned. But it involved no material hardship to those who departed, and conferred certain real advantages. Hagar obtained her freedom. Ishmael, though called a lad, was at an age when it is not unusual in the East to marry and provide for oneself. And their departure did not imply their exclusion from the privileges of communion with God, as they might still be under the covenant with Abraham, since Ishmael had been circumcised, and, at all events, were under the broader covenant of Noah. It was only their own voluntary rejection of God and his mercy, whether before or after their departure, that could cut them off from the promise of eternal life. It seems likely that Hagar and Ishmael had so behaved as to deserve their dismissal from the sacred home. “A bottle of water.”
This was probably a kid-skin bottle, as Hagar could not have carried a goat-skin. Its contents were precious in the wilderness, but soon exhausted. “And the lad.” He took the lad and gave him to Hagar. The bread and water-skin were on her shoulder; the lad she held by the hand. “In the wilderness of Beer-sheba.” It is possible that the departure of Hagar occurred after the league with Abimelek and the naming of Beer-sheba, though coming in here naturally as the sequel of the birth and weaning of Isaac. The wilderness in Scripture is simply the land not profitable for cultivation, though fit for pasture to a greater or less extent. The wilderness of Beer-sheba is that part of the wilderness which was adjacent to Beer-sheba, where probably at this time Abraham was residing. “Laid the lad.” Ishmael was now, no doubt, thoroughly humbled as well as wearied, and therefore passive under his mother’s guidance. She led him to a sheltering bush, and caused him to lie down in its shade, resigning herself to despair. The artless description here is deeply affecting.
Genesis 21:17-21
The fortunes of Ishmael. God cares for the wanderers. He hears the voice of the lad, whose sufferings from thirst are greater than those of the mother. An angel is sent, who addresses Hagar in the simple words of encouragement and direction. “Hold thy hand upon him.” Lay thy hand firmly upon him. The former promise Genesis 16:10 is renewed to her. God also opened her eyes that she saw a well of water, from which the bottle is replenished, and she and the lad are recruited for their further journey. It is unnecessary to determine how far this opening of the eyes was miraculous. It may refer to the cheering of her mind and the sharpening of her attention. In Scripture the natural and supernatural are not always set over against each other as with us. All events are alike ascribed to an ever-watchful Providence, whether they flow from the ordinary laws of nature or some higher law of the divine will. “God was with the lad.” Ishmael may have been cured of his childish spleen. It is possible also his father did not forget him, but sent him a stock of cattle with which to begin the pastoral life on his account. “He became an archer.” He grew an archer, or multiplied into a tribe of archers. Paran Genesis 14:6 lay south of Palestine, and therefore on the way to Egypt, out of which his mother took him a wife. The Ishmaelites, therefore, both root and branch, were descended on the mother’s side from the Egyptians.
Genesis 21:22-34
According to the common law of Hebrew narrative, this event took place before some of the circumstances recorded in the previous passage; probably not long after the birth of Isaac. Abimelek, accompanied by Phikol, his commander-in-chief, proposes to form a league with Abraham. The reason assigned for this is that God was with him in all that he did. Various circumstances concurred to produce this conviction in Abimelek. The never-to-be-forgotten appearance of God to himself in a dream interposing on behalf of Abraham, the birth of Isaac, and the consequent certainty of his having an heir, and the growing retinue and affluence of one who, some ten years before, could lead out a trained band of three hundred and eighteen men-at-arms, were amply sufficient to prove that God was the source of his strength. Such a man is formidable as a foe, but serviceable as an ally. It is the part of sound policy, therefore, to approach him and endeavor to prevail upon him to swear by God not to deal falsely with him or his. “Kin and kith.” We have adopted these words to represent the conversational alliterative phrase of the original. They correspond tolerably well with the σπέρμα sperma and ὄνομα onoma, “seed” and “name,” of the Septuagint. Abraham frankly consents to this oath. This is evidently a personal covenant, referring to existing circumstances. A similar confederacy had been already formed with Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre. Abraham was disposed to such alliances, as they contributed to peaceful neighborhood. He was not in a condition to make a national covenant, though it is a fact that the Philistines were scarcely ever wholly subjugated by his descendants.
Genesis 21:25-26
Abraham takes occasion to remonstrate with Abimelek about a well which his people had seized. Wells were extremely valuable in Palestine, on account of the long absence of rain between the latter or vernal rain ending in March, and the early or autumnal rain beginning in November. The digging of a well was therefore a matter of the greatest moment, and often gave a certain title to the adjacent fields. Hence, the many disputes about wells, as the neighboring Emirs or chieftains were jealous of rights so acquired, and often sought to enter by the strong hand on the labors of patient industry. Hence, Abraham lays more stress on a public attestation that he has dug, and is therefore the owner of this well, than on all the rest of the treaty. Seven is the number of sanctity, and therefore of obligation. This number is accordingly figured in some part of the form of confederation; in the present case, in the seven ewe-lambs which Abraham tenders, and Abimelek, in token of consent, accepts at his hand. The name of the well is remarkable as an instance of the various meanings attached to nearly the same sound. Even in Hebrew it means the well of seven, or the well of the oath, as the roots of seven, and of the verb meaning to swear, have the same radical letters. Bir es-Seba means “the well of seven or of the lion.”
Genesis 21:32-34
Returned unto the land of the Philistines. - Beer-sheba was on the borders of the land of the Philistines. Going therefore to Gerar, they returned into that land. In the transactions with Hagar and with Abimelek, the name God is employed, because the relation of the Supreme Being with these parties is more general or less intimate than with the heir of promise. The same name, however, is used in reference to Abraham and Sarah, who stand in a twofold relation to him as the Eternal Potentate, and the Author of being and blessing. Hence, the chapter begins and ends with Yahweh, the proper name of God in communion with man. “Eshel is a field under tillage” in the Septuagint, and a tree in Onkelos. It is therefore well translated a grove in the King James Version, though it is rendered “the tamarisk” by many. The planting of a grove implies that Abraham now felt he had a resting-place in the land, in consequence of his treaty with Abimelek. He calls upon the name of the Lord with the significant surname of the God of perpetuity, the eternal, unchangeable God. This marks him as the “sure and able” performer of his promise, as the everlasting vindicator of the faith of treaties, and as the infallible source of the believer’s rest and peace. Accordingly, Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Genesis 21:27. Took sheep and oxen — Some think that these were the sacrifices which were offered on the occasion, and which Abraham furnished at his own cost, and, in order to do Abimelech the greater honour, gave them to him to offer before the Lord.
