Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Isaac is born, circumcised, and weaned. Secondly, verse 10, Ishmael and Hagar are driven from the house of Abraham; an angel comforts them in the desert. Thirdly, verse 22, Abraham enters into a covenant with Abimelech.
Vulgate Text: Genesis 21:1-34
1. And the Lord visited Sarah as He had promised: and fulfilled what He had spoken. 2. And she conceived and bore a son in her old age, at the time which God had foretold to her. 3. And Abraham called the name of his son, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac: 4. and he circumcised him on the eighth day, as God had commanded him, 5. when he was a hundred years old: for at this age of the father, Isaac was born. 6. And Sarah said: God has made laughter for me: whoever hears of it will laugh with me. 7. And she said again: Who would have believed that Abraham would hear that Sarah would nurse a son, whom she bore to him already old? 8. And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast on the day of his weaning. 9. And when Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian playing with her son Isaac, she said to Abraham: 10. Cast out this handmaid and her son: for the son of the handmaid shall not be heir with my son Isaac. 11. Abraham took this grievously on account of his son. 12. And God said to him: Let it not seem harsh to you concerning the boy and your handmaid: in all that Sarah has said to you, hear her voice: because in Isaac shall your seed be called. 13. But I will also make the son of the handmaid into a great nation, because he is your seed. 14. So Abraham rose in the morning, and taking bread and a skin of water, placed it on her shoulder, and handed over the boy, and sent her away. And when she had departed, she wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. 15. And when the water in the skin was consumed, she cast the boy under one of the trees that were there, 16. and she went away and sat down at a distance, as far as a bow can shoot; for she said: I will not see the boy die: and sitting opposite, she lifted up her voice and wept. 17. And God heard the voice of the boy: and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, saying: What are you doing, Hagar? Do not fear: for God has heard the voice of the boy from the place where he is. 18. Arise, take up the boy, and hold his hand, because I will make him into a great nation. 19. And God opened her eyes: and seeing a well of water, she went and filled the skin and gave the boy to drink. 20. And God was with him: and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became a young archer. 21. And he dwelt in the desert of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. 22. At the same time Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham: God is with you in all that you do. 23. Swear therefore by God that you will not harm me, nor my descendants, nor my posterity: but according to the mercy which I have shown you, you will do to me, and to the land in which you have sojourned as a stranger. 24. And Abraham said: I will swear. 25. And he rebuked Abimelech on account of a well of water which his servants had taken by force. 26. And Abimelech answered: I did not know who did this thing: and you did not tell me, and I did not hear of it until today. 27. So Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them to Abimelech: and they both made a covenant. 28. And Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs of the flock. 29. And Abimelech said to him: What do these seven ewe lambs mean, which you have set apart? 30. And he said: You shall receive seven ewe lambs from my hand, that they may be a testimony for me, that I dug this well. 31. Therefore that place was called Beersheba, because there both swore. 32. And they entered into a covenant for the well of the oath. 33. And Abimelech arose, and Phicol, the commander of his army, and they returned to the land of the Philistines: and Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and there called upon the name of the Lord, the eternal God. 34. And he was a sojourner in the land of the Philistines for many days.
Verse 1: And the Lord Visited Sarah
'And the Lord visited Sarah' — by giving her the promised conception and offspring. So Rupert. Secondly, after Isaac was conceived and born, the angel, as God's vicar, visited Sarah in bodily form, to congratulate her on her offspring, according to what He had promised in chapter 18, saying: 'I will return to you at this time, and Sarah shall have a son.'
Verse 2: In His Old Age
'In his old age.' — "His," that is, of him, namely of Abraham, is a Hebraism: for the Hebrew reads thus: Sarah bore Abraham a son in his old age, or for his old age, who would be a consolation and delight to the aged Abraham. Add that the Hebrews say that offspring is born to the father, not to the mother, because the offspring is the father's heir, and propagates the father's name and family, not the mother's.
Verse 3: And Abraham Called His Son Isaac
'And Abraham called the name of his son, etc., Isaac' — because Isaac in Hebrew means the same as laughter. For Isaac was the laughter and joy of the aged Abraham and the barren Sarah, and indeed of the whole world; for from him Christ was to be born. Whence in verse 6 Sarah says: 'God has made laughter for me; whoever hears of it will laugh with me.' Hence allegorically St. Ambrose, in his book On Isaac, chapter 1: 'Isaac,' he says, 'by his very name signifies a figure and grace. For Isaac in Latin means laughter: and laughter is the mark of joy. And who does not know that He (Christ) is the joy of all, who, with the dread of fearful death either suppressed or the sorrow removed, has become for all the remission of sins? And so the one was named, and the Other was designated; the one was expressed, and the Other was announced.'
Verse 5: When He Was a Hundred Years Old
'When he was a hundred years old.' — This refers not to "had commanded" but to "circumcised." For Isaac was circumcised, as he was also born, in the hundredth year of Abraham. Note: At this time Terah, the father of Abraham and grandfather of Isaac, was still living in Haran. For Terah begot Abraham in the seventieth year of his age; when therefore Abraham was a hundred years old and begot Isaac, Terah was 170 years old; after this Terah lived yet 35 years: for he died in the 205th year of his age, Genesis 11:32.
Tropologically St. Ambrose, book 1 On Abraham, chapter 7: 'If you shall be a centenarian, that is, perfect, you shall have posterity, the joy of exultation, the inheritance of eternal life:' for a hundred is the number of perfection, and Isaac signifies laughter and exultation.
Verse 6: God Has Made Laughter for Me
'God has made laughter for me.' — The Chaldean translates: God has made joy for me, everyone who hears will congratulate me. Sarah was a type of the Blessed Mary giving birth to Christ, who is the desire and joy of the eternal hills, whence she sings: 'My spirit has exulted in God my Savior, because He has regarded the lowliness of His handmaid: for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.'
Verse 7: Who Would Have Believed That Abraham Would Hear
'Who would have believed that Abraham would hear.' — In Hebrew mi millel, who would have said to Abraham? 'That Sarah would nurse.' — God together with the birth restored milk to Sarah by a miracle, because He wished her as a mother to nurse Isaac herself, not through a wet-nurse.
Let mothers learn here that they ought to nurse and suckle their own offspring themselves: for nature has imposed this duty upon them. Hence it has bestowed upon them breasts and nipples, as it were little vessels suited for nourishing offspring. And some indeed think it is a mortal sin to employ a wet-nurse without cause; yet we think it better to say with Navarro in his Enchiridion, chapter 14, number 17, that it is only venial: yet by reason of certain circumstances it can be a graver sin. But if it is done with a legitimate reason, there will be no sin. Therefore those mothers sin who, without just cause and necessity, disdain to nurse their children: and those sin still more gravely who hand them over without discrimination to almost any wet-nurses, often unknown, sickly, etc., from which many evils arise: for besides the fact that sometimes other children are substituted, first, the infant either does not survive, or lives more weakly, because it is compelled to suck milk not suited to its nature; whereas if it were fed from the same body from which it was born, and warmed by the heat of the mother's body, it would grow up robust and of better talent and character. See Pliny, book 28, chapter 9, where he writes that mother's milk is most beneficial and most suited to the nature of the offspring. See also in Aulus Gellius, book 12, Attic Nights, chapter 1, the Oration of Phavorinus the Philosopher, in which very many disadvantages are enumerated that flow from such rearing by another's milk. That this is most true is evident from the fact that if kids are fed with sheep's milk, their hair grows more delicate; and if lambs are fed with goat's milk, their wool becomes coarser; indeed trees, if transplanted from their natural place, from the moisture which the transplanted roots draw, are often either changed or perish. If therefore the wet-nurses are rustic, or wicked, or unchaste, or irascible, or given to drink, or cruel, or perhaps even infected with leprosy or some other kind of disease, the offspring will generally turn out the same. So Dido in Virgil reproaches Aeneas as degenerate, as one who was not raised by his own mother. Lampridius writes that Titus, the son of Emperor Vespasian, labored under ill health his whole life, because he had been nursed by a sickly wet-nurse; and the same happened to many others. It is also reported of Tiberius Caesar that he was a great drinker, because his wet-nurse was such.
Secondly, from the fact that a son is not nursed by his own mother, it comes about that the mother loves the son less, and the son loves the mother less. Hence St. Ambrose, book 1 On Abraham, chapter 7, from the fact that Sarah nursed her son, infers: Women are urged to remember their dignity, and to nourish their children: for this is the grace of mothers, this their honor; finally, he says, mothers tend to love more those whom they themselves have nursed.
Whence we see a greater natural love of parents and children among the common people than in noble families: because noble women generally have their infants nursed by wet-nurses, and often neither see them nor are seen by them before a year or two.
Thirdly, St. Basil, homily 9 on the Hexaemeron, shows that there is hardly any species that commits its offspring to another for rearing, however fierce and cruel it may be. We see, he says, that in a large flock of sheep, a lamb springing from the stalls immediately recognizes the voice of its mother, hastens to her, and goes straight to its own milk-sources, and the mother recognizes her own among countless lambs; wolves, lions, tigers, and other savage beasts cherish their young so that they almost always have them at their breast or in their bosom. Birds often have 5, 6, 7 and 8, and more under their wings, and although nature has given them no milk, and they have no grain or other seeds with which to feed their chicks, yet they take care to supply them with what is necessary; indeed, what is more admirable, so great is the desire of nursing and brooding in these very beasts and birds, that sometimes male and female compete for this duty, as is evident in swans and bears, otherwise wild animals, which even shape their formless cubs by licking. And so only among humans are offspring abandoned by mothers and exposed to who knows what kind of wet-nurses.
Let them therefore be ashamed that they are surpassed in the duty of charity by brute animals; and let them imitate the holy women who nourished their children with their own milk, as Sarah did Isaac, Rebecca Jacob, Anna Samuel, and that noble mother of the seven Maccabean brothers, 2 Maccabees 7, and the Mother of God herself nursed her Son Christ the Lord. St. Augustine also in his Confessions acknowledges that along with his mother's milk he imbibed the honor and reverence of God. From all of which it follows that a depraved custom has caused, contrary to nature itself (as St. Gregory says in response to the question of Augustine, Bishop of the English, chapter 10), that women disdain to nurse the children they bear, and hand them over to other women, which seems to have been devised from a cause of incontinence: because while they refuse to contain themselves, they despise nursing those whom they bear.
Verse 8: He Was Weaned
'He was weaned.' — Which used to happen then around the fifth year, as it now happens in the third: especially if the offspring was the only one and uniquely beloved; Isaac was therefore five years old when Ishmael harassed and persecuted him.
'He made a great feast on the day of the weaning.' — Because it was then the custom, says Cajetan, that the beginning of the firstborn's eating, as one now beginning to live on his own and destined to be viable, was celebrated with the common joy of a feast.
Secondly, so that the guests, and people everywhere in abundance, might see from Sarah's milk that the birth had been genuine, not substituted, nor surreptitious, says St. Chrysostom.
Tropologically St. Augustine and Rupert: Great, they say, is the joy when a person is fed not with milk, but with the solid food of wisdom and virtue.
Verse 9: Playing
'Playing' — mocking, ridiculing, harassing, indeed persecuting Isaac, as the Apostle explains, Galatians 4:29. So the duel of Joab with Abner is called play, 2 Samuel 2:14: 'Let the young men arise, and play,' that is, fight a duel; so dogs play with cats, and cats with mice.
The reason why Ishmael mocked and harassed Isaac seems to have been envy of so solemn a feast (which Abraham made at the weaning of Isaac), and of the birthright and the promise of the blessed seed to be born from Isaac: for Ishmael thought these things were owed rather to himself, as the firstborn and 12 years older, than to Isaac. So St. Jerome and others.
Furthermore, Sarah was justly angry not only at Ishmael, but also at his mother Hagar, because she did not restrain the mockery and insolence of her son.
Verse 10: Cast Out the Handmaid
'Cast out the handmaid.' — Sarah said this moved by God, as is gathered from verse 12; for with a prudent and prophetic spirit she feared that Ishmael, who so soon was harassing her Isaac, would later, as hatreds grew, supplant or overpower him; she wanted him therefore to be separated and expelled from the house. So we see that it is much better and more peaceful for children of different beds to be separated and live apart, namely those born from the same parent but from a different mother.
Allegorically, Ishmael was cast out and rejected, that is the Synagogue, because he mocked the son of the free woman, that is, because it mocked, scourged, and crucified Christ the King of liberty, and persecuted His household freedmen, namely the Apostles and Christians, with stubborn hatred.
Verse 12: And God Said to Him
'And God said to him' — at night in dreams through a vision, as is clear from verse 14. 'In Isaac shall your seed be called' — in Isaac and the Isaacites your posterity shall be reckoned and called: for the sons of Isaac shall be called the sons of Abraham, and shall be heirs of the promise which I made to you, O Abraham; but not the sons of Ishmael: for these shall not be called Abrahamites, but Ishmaelites, Hagarenes, and Saracens.
Allegorically, in Isaac, that is in Christ the son of Isaac, and in Him alone, the faithful Christians shall be called sons of Abraham, who is the father of believers, and consequently sons of God and heirs of eternal life, Galatians 3:17, 23 and 24.
Verse 14: He Sent Her Away
'He sent her away.' — Here Abraham makes a divorce from Hagar, by God's command; whence Hagar and Abraham were no longer bound to render the conjugal debt to each other, just as a spouse is not now bound to render the debt to an adulterous spouse, or to one separated by divorce on account of quarrels or other just causes. However, there was no dissolution of the marriage between Hagar and Abraham here, so that it would be permitted for Hagar to marry another. For Hagar was cast out not from the marriage, but only from the house of Abraham by divorce, on account of her quarrels with Sarah, just as an adulteress is cast out. So Abulensis.
'He handed over the boy' — not to be carried on her shoulders, but to be led on foot; for Ishmael was already 17 years old, as is clear from what was said at verse 8. Wherefore what we now read in the Septuagint: 'And he placed the little boy upon her shoulder,' seems to be corrupt; and so, with the words rearranged, it should be read: "Abraham gave Hagar bread and a skin of water, and placed it upon her shoulder, and the boy," that is, gave him to her, not to carry on her shoulder, but to lead by the hand.
Verse 15: She Cast Him Down
'She cast him down' — not so much with her arms, as in her spirit, that is to say: She let go and abandoned him, fainting with hunger under a tree, as though hopeless and about to die. So St. Augustine.
Verse 16: And She Wept
'And she wept' — Hagar wept, and the boy Ishmael also wept, whence God heard him weeping, and had mercy on him. 'So,' says St. Chrysostom, homily 46, 'whenever God shall will it, even if we are in the wilderness and in the extremity of afflictions, and have no hope of salvation, we shall have need of nothing else, with divine grace supplying us all things. For if we have obtained His grace, no one shall prevail against us, but we shall be more powerful than all.' Therefore in strait and desperate circumstances God is nearest, and when invoked immediately comes to aid. For, as the Psalmist says: 'To You the poor person is entrusted, You will be a helper to the orphan.' So God was present to David in the desert, and snatched him, as though already captured, from the hands of the pursuing Saul, 1 Samuel 23 and following.
Verse 17: Do Not Fear
'Do not fear' — my coming and brightness, or the death of the boy; for he shall not die.
Verse 19: And He Opened Her Eyes
'And He opened her eyes' — He caused her to see the nearby spring, which previously, troubled and prostrated with grief, she had not seen, that is, God turned, directed Hagar's eyes, and showed her the well.
So, allegorically, says Rupert, at the end of the world God will show to the Jews who have fled from the Church and are wandering, the way of truth, and the well of Scripture, and in it the water of life, namely Christ.
'God' — the angel acting in God's place. See Canon 16.
Verse 20: And God Was with Him
'And God was with him' — supply God, as the Hebrew, Chaldean and Septuagint have it, that is to say: God favored, helped, directed, advanced Ishmael, for the sake of his father Abraham. Therefore it seems fabulous what the Hebrews relate, that Ishmael devoted himself to robbery.
'And he became a young archer' — from his youth he devoted himself to hunting and shooting wild beasts.
Verse 23: That You Will Not Harm Me
'That you will not harm me' — that you will not harm me and my descendants; in Hebrew it is im tiscor, that you will not lie to me, that is, that you will not deal with me deceitfully. So Vatablus. Secondly, that you will not deal unjustly with me, that you will not be injurious to me, that you will not oppress me and mine by force: for in Scripture a lie is called iniquity and injustice itself; and he is said to lie who breaks faith, and who is unjust and injurious to his neighbor; for he acts against practical truth, namely against the duty and obligation which he ought to render to another.
'But according to the mercy which I have shown you.' — It is a Hebraism, that is to say: Just as I have deserved well of you, by giving you sheep, oxen, servants, handmaids, and a thousand pieces of silver, chapter 20, verse 14: so also you will strive to deserve well of me and mine.
Verse 31: Beersheba
'Beersheba.' — The place was so called from beer, that is, well, and shebua, that is, of an oath, because there Abraham swore a covenant and fidelity to Abimelech. Secondly, it was called Beersheba from beer, that is, well, and sheba, that is, seven, meaning the Well of Seven, namely of the ewe lambs, which Abraham paid to the king for the well and the surrounding land. Therefore Abraham possessed this well, although dug by himself and his men, not freely, nor by hereditary right, but by title of purchase and exchange. See St. Augustine, Question 56.
From this well, the city near it was called Beersheba, which is the last city of Judea to the south, just as Dan is the last to the north; whence Scripture is accustomed to express the length of Judea by these two boundaries, saying: 'From Dan to Beersheba.' In Beersheba Abraham, Isaac and Jacob dwelt for a long time; whence in Beersheba, as also in Dan, Jeroboam set up his golden calves to be worshipped by the people. This well is different from the Well of the Living and Seeing, as is clear from chapter 16, verse 14.
The Hebrews teach that the Hebrew nisba, that is, I swear, is derived from sheba, that is, seven, because an oath should not be taken except for seven, that is, many and grave reasons, as well as arguments and witnesses; for an oath is a sacred thing, in which divine authority and truthfulness are interposed, which therefore should not be applied rashly or lightly, but with a mind confirmed and certain in many ways.
Verse 33: He Planted a Grove
'He planted a grove.' — The Septuagint translates, he planted a field; Onkelos, he planted a plantation; Jonathan, who is the author of the Jerusalem Targum, he planted a garden dense with trees and full of the best fruits. And Jonathan adds that Abraham was accustomed in this garden to receive and refresh strangers with hospitality, and to bargain for the price that they should fear and worship the Creator of heaven and earth, who had given them these things; whence from what follows, 'And he called there upon the name of the Lord, the eternal God,' it is clear that Abraham also erected an altar there for prayer and sacrifice. Therefore this was as it were a hermitage.
Hence this grove is called in Hebrew escel, that is, a plantation or a wood planted with trees, silent and pleasant, from the root scala, that is, "he was quiet and tranquil": therefore this grove is called escel, from quiet, silence, and tranquility; just as the same grove or place is called in Hebrew ascera, from happiness and blessedness: for in a quiet and pleasant grove, a man seems to himself to be as if in paradise, happy and blessed.
This grove was the oratory and retreat of Abraham, to which he would from time to time withdraw from cares and business, when he was about to commune with God. So say Cajetan and Pererius.
The Hebrew escel is a species of tamarisk. The ancient interpreters put the genus for the species, and translated it as "tree" or "grove."
Verse 34: And He Was a Sojourner
'And he was a sojourner,' that is, a resident and stranger, not a native and settled inhabitant. For in Hebrew it is vaiager, "and Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines."