EXPOSITION. Vor. 12.-Then Ie&ac sowed in that lo.nd, tilled the ground, which these robbers never -viz., rhilistin. Though 11 distinct 11dv11nco do; and they accommodated themselves, on the purely nomadic life pursued by Abra- without difficulty or rcluctanc~, to town and hnm, this did not imply fixed property in, city when necessary, which wilu Arabs can- or even permanent settlement on, the soil, not .endure" (' Land and Book,' p. 290)- "but only annual tenancy" thereof. Robin- and received in the same year an hundred- son (i. 77) mentions o. colony of the Tawnrah fold-literally, an hundred meas1tres, i. e. Arnbs, abont fifty families, living near Abu for each measure of that which ho sowed ; Zo.bel, in Egypt, wl10 cultivuted the soil o.nd an exceptionlll return even for Philistia, yet dwelt in tents. "The Biblico.1 patri- though "tho country is no less fertile than archs were not mere Bedo.wtn wanderers, the very best of the Mississippi Vullcy " like thoso who now occupy tho Eastern (' Land nDll Book,' p. 557); und Amb grain deserts. They had l11rge herds of cattle, stores at NuttO!r-abu-Sumar, in the vicinity which genuine Bede.wins have not ; they of Gazn, still proclaim the remuncratiyc yial<l 328 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [clt. XltVI. 12-22,
of its harvests (Robinson, vol. i. p. 292). -depa.rted thence (i. e. from Gere.r), and Herodotus (i. 193) speaks of two nnd three pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, lrnndred-folcl. as having been reaped on the -a valley or nahal meant a low, flat region plain. of Babylonia. ; but in Palesti!le the watered by a mountain stream. The Wadl usual rate of increa.se wa.s from thirty to Gernr hns bean identified with the Joorf-e - a hundred-fold ('V'ide Matt. xiii. 23). The Gerar, the rush or rapid of Gerar, three reading "an hundred of barley" (LXX., hours south-east of Gaza-and dwelt there. Syriac, l\iiche.elis) is not to be preferred to Ver. 18. -And Iae.e.c digged again- that in the Textus Receptus. And the Lord Iiterally, ,·eturned and digged, L e. re-dug blessed him-as he had promised (ver. 3). (cf. 2 Kings x.x. 6)-the wells of water, Ver. 13.-And the ma.n wu:ed gree.t,- which they (the servants of Abraham) had like his father before him (cf. eh. xxiv. 1, digged in the de.ye of Abraham his father; 35)- and went forward, -literally, went -from which it appears the.t Abraham had going, the verb followed by the infinitive digged other wells besides that of Beersheba expressing constant growth or pro!rrcssive (eh. xxi. 31 )-for the l'hilisti.nes he.d stopped increase (cf. eh. viii. 3 ; xii. 9 ; Judges iv. them after the death of Abraham :-which 24)-e.nd grew until he beca.me very grea.t was a violation of the league into which - " as e.ny other farmer would who reaped Abimelech had entered with the patriarch such harvests" (' Land and Book'). (vide eh. xxi 23)-and he called their Ver. 14.-For he he.d (literally, there was names after the names by which his father to him) possession of :flocks, a.nd possession he.d called them-and with which Isaac was of herds, e.nd great store of servants :- sufficiently acquainted. y,wpy,a ,roX\a (LXX.), i.e. much husbandry, Ver. 19. -And Isaac's servants digged the nbstract being put for the concrete, in the valley, and found there e. well of "implying all manner of work and service springing water. Literally, livinr, water belonging to a family, and so servants and (cf. Levit. xiv. 5, 6; Zech. xiv. 8; Rev. xxi. tillage of all sorts" (Ainsworth) ; but the 6). reference mther seems to be to the number Ver. 20.-And the herdmen of Gere.r- of his household, or domestic slaves, pluri- i. e. Abimelech's servants (eh, x.x:i. 25)-did mum Jamili-a (Vulgate)-a.nd the l'hilis- strive with Isaa.c's herdmen,-e.s Lot's with tines envied him. The patrio.rch's posses- those of Abraham (eh. xiii. 7)-se.yi.ng, The sions (mikneh, from karuzh, to acquire) water is ours :-literally, to us (belong) tlie excited jealous feeling (from root kana, to waters-and he called the name of the well burn) in the breasts of his neighbours (cf. Esek ("Strife"); bece.nse they strove with Eccles. iv. 4). him-the verb being p~, to strive about Ver. 15. -For all the wells which his father's servants had d.igged in the days of anything. Abraham his father (vuk eh. xxi 30), the Ver. 21.-And they digged another well l'hilistines had stopped them, and filled (Isaac having yielded up the first), and strove them with earth. This act, commonly for that also :-" The beginning of strife regarded as legitimate in ancient wan:are, is as when one letteth out water" (Prov. was practically to Isaac an act of expulsion, xvii. 14)- e.nd he called the name of it it being impossible for flocks and h_erds to Sitnah-" Contention" (from I~~. to lie exist without access to water supplies. It in ,vait as an adversary; whence Satan) ; was proLably as the text indicates, the out- probably in W ady-es-Shutein, near Reho both come of envy, rather than inspire~ by fear (vide infra). that Isaac in digging e.nd posses~mg wells Ver. 22.-And he removed from thence '1'US tacitly claiming tho ownership of the (yielding that too), and digged another land. well; and for that they strove not (pcrhnps Yer. lG.-And Abimelech said unto Isaac as being beyond the boundaries of Gcrar) : (ahnost leading to the s~icion that the and he called the name of it Rehoboth;- Philistine monarch had instigated the out- i. e. " Wide spaces " (hence " streets," eh. bree.k of hostilities amongst his people), Go xix. 2) ; from :IIJ1, to be or become broacl ; from us (a royal command rather ~han_ a conjectured to have bcon situated in the friendly advice); for thon art much nu.ght1er Wady Ruhaibeh, about eight and a half than we. The same apprehension of the hours to the south of Beersheba, where e.ro growing numbers and strength ~f Isaac's still found a well namecl Bir-Rohebeh and descendants in Egypt took posse8:'1on of the ruins of a city of the same name (Robinson, heart of Pharaoh, and lecl to thell' enslaYe- vol. i. p. 289; Thomson, 'Land and Book,' ment (vide Exod. i. 9). p. 558)-and he said, For now the Lord Ver. 17 .-And Isaac-perhaps not without hath me.de room (literally, hatli, made a remonstrance, but without offering resist- broad space) for ns, and we shall be fruitful ance, as becnme e. saint (Matt. v. 5; Rom. in the le.nd, 'I.ii. 17, 18; Heb. xii. 14; 1 Pet. iii. 9) CR, llVI. 12-22.] THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 329