Isaac subsequently journeyed to Beersheba (Gn '26-^), where J" appeared to him by night and blessed him. He built an altar there to J", ami his servants digged a well. And while encamped in this spot, he received overtures for an alliaiuo with the Philistines. Abimelech the king, Ali\i?.- zath 'his friend,' and Phicol the ca|)tain of the host, came over from Gerar ; and Isaac made a covenant with them, and gave them a banquet. They plighted their faith to him by an oath (iVjf) ; and on the day of their departure Isiuic lieard that his servants had come upon water in the well they were digging. Accordingly he gave the well the name of Sltihah, as if equivalent to ShebuaU ; and thus the name liecrsheba, according to one tradition (cf. foranotherGn21"),took its rise. In the remaining iiiussages in which Isiuic is referred to, he is an old and feeble man. In Gn 27 he appears as a man u|>on his deathbed, practically blind, and ilcsirous to bestow his lost ble.s.sing upon his elder son, Esau, whom 'he loved . . . becau.se he did eat of bis veni.son' (tin iS*). Through Rchckah's cunning, Jacob the younger son Hupiilants his brother. Isjuic, too blind to distinguish l>etweeu them by sight, is suspicious of the voice, but is reo-ssured liy .lacob's hair)' gar- ments, by their feel and smell. He pruuoiuicci
184
ISAAC
ISAAC
upon Jacob the blessing of the birthri;;ht, in words of a lii^h poetical strain (Gn 27-''"^). Sliortly after- wards Esau returns ; and Isaac is greatly a":itated when he realizes the deception practised l)y his younger son. But he cannot go back. He pro- nounces a blessing— or rather a prediction of a wild and independent destiny — upon his elder son.
Isaac's days were nearly numbered (Gn 2V'). And Kebekah, to save Jacob from Esau's fury and revenge, induces Isaac to send Jacob away to Mesopotamia, there to obtain a wife from his own kindred, and not to imitate Esau l)y marriage witli Canaanite women. I.saac invokes another blessing upon the head of Jacob, and sends hira away to Paddan-aram unto Laban, Rebekah's brother (Gn 27*'-2S»).
Once more only do we hear of Isaac ; and that is when we read of his death, after the return of Jacob from his 21 years' sojourn in Mesopotamia. The mention of it occurs just after the enumera- tion of Jacob's twelve sons ; and we then read that ' Jacob came unto Isaac his father to Mamre to Kiriath • arba (the same is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.' Here Isaac died, being 180 years old, and his two sons Esau and Jacob buried him (Gn 35""'").
2. These somewhat disjointed notices of Isaac's life were drawn from the three main sources of tradition preserved in the Book of Genesis.
J records the promise of a son to Abraham and Sarah (Gn 18''"), and the fultilment of the promise, in Gn 21'"'. From the same source (Gn 21'") we gather that Isaac's early years were spent at Beorsheba. J records the narrative of the servant's journey to Mesopotamia ; and the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah (Gn 24). It mentions Isaac's inheritance from Abraham and the sojourn at Beer-lahai-roi (Gn 25'"'- "). J had also the account of Isaac's dealings Avith the Philistines (Gn 26), and of the deception practised by Jacob upon his father (Gn 27).
E recorded the birth of Isaac and the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael (Gn 21^ *"") ; and from E we have the narrative of the sacrifice of Isaac (Gn 22'""). Portions also of Gn 27 are ascribed to E, showing that this source contained the narra- tive of Isaac's commission to Esau to bring him the venison that he loved, and of Jacob's deception.
The Isaac narrative in P was evidently very brief. It mentions that Isaac at 40 years of age married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian (Aramjean), in Paddan-aram ; that his two sons were bom when he was 60 years of age (Gn 2511). a). 26) . lYiiif, Esau grieved his father and mother 40 years later by marrying two Hittite wives (Gn 26**- ") ; that Isaac, to prevent Jacob marry- ing a Canaanite wife, sent him to Laban m Paddan-aram to obtain a wife from his kindred, and blessed him as he set forth (Gn 27^"'-28') ; and that, after Jacob's return, Isaac died at Hebron 180 years old, and was buried by his sons (Gn SS^-"").
3. The recognition of these different strata of tradition will enable the student to understand the cause of certain apparently contradictory state- ments in the narrative. Thus attention has often been called to the fact that in Gn 27 Isaac is repre- sented as old, blind, and on his deathbed, wliile his death is recorded as occurring possibly 80 years later (cf. Gn 26" with Gn 27'-" and Gn 35-''). But the narrative in Gn 27 is from the Prophetic, that in Gn 26*" 35" is from the Priestly tradition. Similarly, whereas in Gn 27*'"''° Jacob is sent away to escape Esau's vengeance, which will take a murderous form as soon as Isaac dies, we find in Gn 27*'-28'"* that Isaac sends Jacob away to take a wife from Paddan-aram, and blesses him, ^vith- out any reference bein" made to the blessing obtain^ by guile, which has been described in the