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Matthew George Easton

Easton’s Bible Dictionary

Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition (1897) · 3,964 entries on site

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Isaac

Laughter. (1) Israel, or the kingdom of the ten tribes ( Amos 7:9 , 16 ). (2.) The only son of Abraham by Sarah. He was the longest lived of the three patriarchs ( Gen. 21:1-3 ). He was circumcised when eight days old (4-7); and when he was probably two years old a great feast was held in connection with his being weaned. The next memorable event in his life is that connected with the command of God given to Abraham to offer him up as a sacrifice on a mountain in the land of Moriah ( Gen. 22 ). (See ABRAHAM .) When he was forty years of age Rebekah was chosen for his wife ( Gen. 24 ). After the death and burial of his father he took up his residence at Beer-lahai-roi (25:7-11), where his two sons, Esau and Jacob, were born (21-26), the former of whom seems to have been his favourite son (27, 28). In consequence of a famine ( Gen. 26:1 ) Isaac went to Gerar, where he practised deception as to his relation to Rebekah, imitating the conduct of his father in Egypt (12:12-20) and in Gerar (20:2). The Philistine king rebuked him for his prevarication. After sojourning for some time in the land of the Philistines, he returned to Beersheba, where God gave him fresh assurance of covenant blessing, and where Abimelech entered into a covenant of peace with him. The next chief event in his life was the blessing of his sons ( Gen. 27:1 ). He died at Mamre, “being old and full of days” (35:27-29), one hundred and eighty years old, and was buried in the cave of Machpelah. In the New Testament reference is made to his having been “offered up” by his father ( Heb. 11:17 ; James 2:21 ), and to his blessing his sons ( Heb. 11:20 ). As the child of promise, he is contrasted with Ishmael ( Rom. 9:7 , 10 ; Gal. 4:28 ; Heb. 11:18 ). Isaac is “at once a counterpart of his father in simple devoutness and purity of life, and a contrast in his passive weakness of character, which in part, at least, may have sprung from his relations to his mother and wife. After the expulsion of Ishmael and Hagar, Isaac had no competitor, and grew up in the shade of Sarah’s tent, moulded into feminine softness by habitual submission to her strong, loving will.” His life was so quiet and uneventful that it was spent “within the circle of a few miles; so guileless that he let Jacob overreach him rather than disbelieve his assurance; so tender that his mother’s death was the poignant sorrow of years; so patient and gentle that peace with his neighbours was dearer than even such a coveted possession as a well of living water dug by his own men; so grandly obedient that he put his life at his father’s disposal; so firm in his reliance on God that his greatest concern through life was to honour the divine promise given to his race.”, Geikie’s Hours, etc.

Ishmael

God hears. (1.) Abraham’s eldest son, by Hagar the concubine ( Gen. 16:15 ; 17:23 ). He was born at Mamre, when Abraham was eighty-six years of age, eleven years after his arrival in Canaan (16:3; 21:5). At the age of thirteen he was circumcised (17:25). He grew up a true child of the desert, wild and wayward. On the occasion of the weaning of Isaac his rude and wayward spirit broke out in expressions of insult and mockery (21:9, 10); and Sarah, discovering this, said to Abraham, “Expel this slave and her son.” Influenced by a divine admonition, Abraham dismissed Hagar and her son with no more than a skin of water and some bread. The narrative describing this act is one of the most beautiful and touching incidents of patriarchal life ( Gen. 21:14-16 ). (See HAGAR .) Ishmael settled in the land of Paran, a region lying between Canaan and the mountains of Sinai; and “God was with him, and he became a great archer” ( Gen. 21:9-21 ). He became a great desert chief, but of his history little is recorded. He was about ninety years of age when his father Abraham died, in connection with whose burial he once more for a moment reappears. On this occasion the two brothers met after being long separated. “Isaac with his hundreds of household slaves, Ishmael with his troops of wild retainers and half-savage allies, in all the state of a Bedouin prince, gathered before the cave of Machpelah, in the midst of the men of Heth, to pay the last duties to the ‘father of the faithful,’ would make a notable subject for an artist” ( Gen. 25:9 ). Of the after events of his life but little is known. He died at the age of one hundred and thirty-seven years, but where and when are unknown (25:17). He had twelve sons, who became the founders of so many Arab tribes or colonies, the Ishmaelites, who spread over the wide desert spaces of Northern Arabia from the Red Sea to the Euphrates ( Gen. 37:25 , 27 , 28 ; 39:1), “their hand against every man, and every man’s hand against them.” (2.) The son of Nethaniah, “of the seed royal” ( Jer. 40:8 , 15 ). He plotted against Gedaliah, and treacherously put him and others to death. He carried off many captives, “and departed to go over to the Ammonites.”

Ishmeelites

( Gen. 37:28 ; 39:1 , A.V.) should be “Ishmaelites,” as in the Revised Version.