Genesis 21:8

_AND THE CHILD GREW, AND WAS WEANED: AND ABRAHAM MADE A GREAT FEAST THE SAME DAY THAT ISAAC WAS WEANED._ The child grew, ... Children are suckled longer in the East than in Europe-boys usually for two or three years; in some cases even for four or five (1 Samuel 1:22-28; 2 Chronicles 31:16: cf. 2Ma 8:27), 'My sons, have pity upon me that bare thee, and gave thee suck three years.' ABRAHAM MADE A GREAT FEAST, ... In Eastern countries this is always a season of domestic festivity, and the newly-weaned child is formally brought, in presence of the assembled relatives and friends, to partake of some simple viands. Isaac, attired in the symbolic robe-the badge of birthright-was then admitted heir of the tribe (Rosenmuller)....

8._And the child grew, and was weaned_. Moses now begins to relate the manner in which Ishmael was rejected from the family of Abraham, in order that Isaac alone might hold the place of the lawful son and heir. It seems, indeed, at first sight, something frivolous, that Sarah, being angry about a mere nothing, should have stirred up strife in the family. But Paul teaches, that a sublime mystery is here proposed to us, concerning the perpetual state of the Church. (Galatians 4:21.) And, truly, if we attentively consider the persons mentioned, we shall regard it as no trivial affair, that the father of all the faithful is divinely commanded to eject his firstborn son; that Ishmael, although a partaker of the same circumcision, becomes so transformed into a strange nations as to be no more reckoned among the blessed seed; that, in appearance, the body of the Church is so rent asunder, th

1-8 Few under the Old Testament were brought into the world with such expectations as Isaac. He was in this a type of Christ, that Seed which the holy God so long promised, and holy men so long expected. He was born according to the promise, at the set time of which God had spoken. God's promised mercies will certainly come at the time which He sets, and that is the best time. Isaac means "laughter," and there was good reason for the name, ch. Genesis 17:17; Genesis 18:13. When the Sun of comfort is risen upon the soul, it is good to remember how welcome the dawning of the day was. When Sarah received the promise, she laughed with distrust and doubt. When God gives us the mercies we began to despair of, we ought to remember with sorrow and shame our sinful distrust of his power and promise, when we were in purs...

Verse Genesis 21:8. _THE CHILD GREW AND WAS WEANED_] [-----Anglo-Saxon-----]. _Anglo-Saxon_ VERSION. _Now the child waxed and became weaned_. We have the verb _to wean_ from the Anglo-Saxon [A.S.] _awendan_, to _convert, transfer, turn from one thing to another_, which is the exact import of the Hebrew word גמל _gamal_ in the text. Hence [A.S.] _wenan_, to _wean_, to turn the child from the breast to receive another kind of ailment. And hence, probably, the word WEAN, _a young child_, which is still in use in the northern parts of Great Britain and Ireland, and which from its etymology seems to signify _a child taken from the breast_; surely not from the Scotch _wee-ane, a little one_, much less from the German _wenig,_ _little_, as Dr. Johnson and others would derive it. At what time children were weaned among the ancie...

- 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 _b__e__êr_-_sheba‛_, Beer-sheba‘, “well of seven.” 22. פיכל _pı̂ykol_, Pikhol, “mouth or spokesman of all.” 23. נין _nı̂yn_ “offspring, kin;” related: “sprout, flourish.”...

EXPOSITION GENESIS 21:1 AND THE LORD_—Jehovah_;_ _not because the verse is Jehovistic (Knobel, Bleek, _et alii_)_, _but because the promise naturally falls to be implemented by him who gave it (_vide_ Genesis 18:10)—VISITED—remembered with love (Onkelos), ἐπισκέψατο (LXX.; cf. Genesis 1:24; Exo 4:31; 1 Samuel 2:21; Isaiah 23:17); though it sometimes means to approach in judgment (_vide _

AND THE CHILD GREW, AND WAS WEANED,.... He throve under the nursing of its mother, and through the blessing of God upon him; and being healthy and robust, and capable of digesting stronger food, and living upon it, he was weaned from the breast: at what age Isaac was when weaned is not certain, there being no fixed time for such an affair, but it was at the discretion of parents, and as they liked it, and the case of their children required; and in those times, when men lived to a greater age than now, they might not be weaned so early, as we find their marrying and begetting children were when they were more advanced in years. The Jewish writers are not agreed about this matter. Jarchi and Ben Melech say that Isaac was weaned twenty four months after his birth; a chronologer of theirs says q it was in the hundred and third year of Abraham, that is, when Isaac was three years old, which...

CHAPTER 21 ISAAC AND ISHMAEL AND THE COVENANT WITH ABIMELECH _ 1. Isaac's birth (Genesis 22:1) 2. His circumcision (Genesis 22:4)_ 3. Ishmael mocking (Genesis 22:9) 4. Sarah's demand (Genesis 22:10) 5. God speaks to Abraham (Genesis 22:12) 6. Hagar and Ishmael cast out (Genesis 22:14) 7. The intervention of God (Genesis 22:17)

GENESIS 12:1 TO GENESIS 25:18. THE STORY OF ABRAHAM. In this section the three main sources, J. E, P are present. Gunkel has given strong reasons for holding that J is here made up of two main sources, one connecting Abraham with Hebron, the other with Beersheba and the Negeb. The former associates Abraham with Lot. (For details, see ICC.) On the interpretation to be placed on the figures of Abraham and the patriarchs, see the Introduction. The interest, which has hitherto been diffused over the fortunes of mankind in general, is now concentrated on Abraham and his posterity, the principle of election narrowing it down to Isaac, Ishmael being left aside, and then to Jacob, Esau being excluded....

GREW. Compare Luke 2:40....