There is no improbability, as has been asserted, that the same sort of event should happen in rude times at different intervals, and, therefore, no reason for main- taining that these events have the same historical basis, and arc, in fact, the same event differently represented. Neither is it an unfair assumption that Abimelech was the common title of the kings of Gerar, as Pharaoh was of the kings of Egypt, or that it may have been the proper name of several kings in succession, as George has been of several English kings.
In all respects except this incident, Isaac's connection Avith the Philistine territory was every way creditable to himself, and marked with tokens of the divine favor. He cultivated a i)ortion of ground, and in the same year reaped a hundred fold — a remarkable increase, to en- courage him to abide under (iod's protection in Canaan. His flocks and herds multiplied exceedingly, so that he rose to the jjossession of very great wealth ; he even be- came, on account of it, an object of envy to the Philis- tines, who could not rest till they drove him from their territory, lie reopened the wells which his father had digge<l, and which the Philistines had meanwhile filled up, and himself dug several new ones, but they disputed with him the right of possession, and obliged him to withdraw from tluin one after another. Finally, at a greater distance, lie dug a well, which he was allowed to keep unmolested ; and in token of his satisfaction at the peace he enjoyed, he called it Kehoboth (romn) ((Jen. XXV, 22). Thence he returned to Beersheba, where the Lord again apjicared to him, and gave him a fresh assurance of the eovenant-ljlessing; and Abime- lech, partly ashamed of the unkind treatment Isaac had received, and partly desirous of standing well with one who was so evidently prospering in his course, sent some of his leading men to enter formally into a cove- nant of peace with him. Isaac showed his meek and
kindly disposition in giving courteous entertainment to the messengers, and cordially agreed to their proposal
It was probably a period considerably later still than even the latest of these transactions to which the next notice in the life of Isaac must be referred. This is the marriage of Esau to two of the daughters of Canaan (Judith and Bashemath), which is assigned to the for- tieth year of Esau's life, coeval with Isaac's hundredth. These alliances were far from giving satisfaction to the aged patriarch ; on the contrar^^ they were a grief of mind to him and his wife Rebekah (Gen. xxvi, 36).
6. The last prominent event in the life of Isaac is the blessing of his sons (Gen. xxvii, 1 sq.). B.C. 1927. It has been plausibly suggested (Browne, Ordo Saeclo- rum, p. 310) that the forebodings of a speedy demise (ver. 2) on the part of Isaac, whose health always ap- pears to have been delicate (Kitto's Daily Bible Jlh/st. ad loc), maj' have arisen from the fact that his brother Ishraael died at the age he had just now reached (Gen. XXV, 17), although he himself survived this point for many years (Gen. xxxv, 28). When old and dim of sight (which fails much sooner in Eastern countries than with us), supposing that the time of his depar- ture was at hand, he called for his beloved son Esau, and sent him to '• take some venison" for him, and to make his favorite " savorj'' meat," that he might eat and "bless" him before his death. Esau prepared to obey his father's will, and set forth to the field; but through the deceptions stratagem of Rebekah the '• sa- vory meat" was provided before Esau's return ; and Ja- cob, disguised so as to resemble his hairy brother, im- posed on his father, and obtained the blessing. Yet, on the discovery of the cheat, when Esau brought in to his father the dish he had prepared, Isaac, remembering no doubt the prediction that " the elder should serve the ycunger," and convinced that God intended the blessing for Jacob, would not, perhaps rather could not, rcA'erse the solemn words he had uttered, but bestowed an infe- rior blessing on Esau (comp. Heb. xii, 17). See Edom. This paternal blessing, if fuU, conveyed, as was usual, the right of headship in the family, together with the chief possessions. In the blessing -which the aged patriarch pronounced on Jacob, it deserves notice how entirely the wiohed-for good is of an earthly and temporal na- ture, while the imagery which is employed sers-es to show the extent to wl'.ich the poetical element prevail- ed as a constituent part of the Hebrew character (Gen. xxvii, 27 sq.). Most natural, too, is the extreme agi- tation of the poor blind old man on discoveruig the cheat which had been put upon him. All the parties to this nefarious transaction were signally punished by divine Providence (comp. Jarvis, Church of the Redeem- ed, p. 47). The entire passage is of itself enough to vindicate the historical character and entire credibility of those sketches of the lives of the patriarchs which Genesis presents.
Yet Isaac's tacit acquiescence in the conduct of his sons has been brought into discussion. Fairbairn ( Tij- poloejii, i, 334) seems scarcely justified by facts in his conclusion that the later days of Isaac did not fulfil the promise of his earlier; that, instead of reaching to high attainments in faith, he fell into general feebleness and decay moral and bodily, and made account only of the natural element in judging of his sons. The inexact translation (to modern ears) of T^^, prey taken in hunt- ing, by " venison" (Gen. xxv, 28), may have contribu- ted to form, in the minds of English readers, a low opinion of Isaac. Nor can that opinion be supported by a reference to xxvii, 4 ; for Isaac's desire at such a time for savorj' meat may have sprung either from a dangerous sickness under which he was laboring (Blunt, Undesirined CoincidmceK, pt. i, ch. A-i), or from the seme kind of impidse preceding inspiration as prompted Eli- sha (2 Kings iii, 15) to demand the soothing influence of music before he spoke the word of the Lord. For sadness and grief are enumerated in the Gemara among the impediments to the exercise of the gift of prophecy