Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Isaac is here newly established as heir of the promises of faith, namely of Canaan, and also of the trials and pilgrimage of Abraham. First, therefore, God appears and blesses Isaac and enriches him; hence secondly, at verse 14, the Gerarites envy him and stop up his wells. Thirdly, at verse 24, again in Beersheba God repeats to Isaac the promises made to his father, and there Isaac makes a covenant with the Gerarites. Fourthly, at verse 34, Esau takes Hittite wives.
Vulgate Text: Genesis 26:1-35
1. Now a famine having arisen in the land, after the barrenness that had occurred in the days of Abraham, Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Palestinians, in Gerar. 2. And the Lord appeared to him and said: Do not go down into Egypt, but remain in the land that I shall tell you. 3. And sojourn in it, and I will be with you and bless you: for to you and your offspring I will give all these regions, fulfilling the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. 4. And I will multiply your offspring like the stars of heaven, and I will give to your descendants all these regions, and in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, 5. because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My precepts and commandments, and observed My ceremonies and laws. 6. So Isaac remained in Gerar. 7. And when he was asked by the men of that place about his wife, he answered: She is my sister; for he had been afraid to confess that she was joined to him in marriage, thinking that perhaps they might kill him on account of her beauty. 8. And when many days had passed and he was still dwelling there, Abimelech king of the Palestinians, looking through a window, saw him jesting with Rebecca his wife. 9. And summoning him, he said: It is clear that she is your wife. Why did you lie that she was your sister? He answered: I was afraid lest I die on her account. 10. And Abimelech said: Why have you deceived us? Someone of the people might have lain with your wife, and you would have brought upon us a great sin. And he commanded all the people, saying: 11. Whoever touches this man's wife shall be put to death. 12. And Isaac sowed in that land, and in the same year he found a hundredfold, and the Lord blessed him. 13. And the man became wealthy, and went on prospering and increasing until he became exceedingly great. 14. He also had possessions of flocks and herds, and a very large household. On this account the Palestinians envied him, 15. and stopped up all the wells that the servants of his father Abraham had dug, filling them with earth. 16. To such an extent that Abimelech himself said to Isaac: Depart from us, for you have become much more powerful than us. 17. And he departed, to come to the torrent of Gerar and dwell there. 18. He dug again other wells that the servants of his father Abraham had dug, and which the Philistines had long ago stopped up after his death, and he called them by the same names by which his father had formerly called them. 19. And they dug in the torrent and found living water. 20. But there too the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's shepherds, saying: The water is ours. For this reason, on account of what had happened, he called the name of the well Calumny. 21. They dug also another well, and they quarreled over that one too, and he called it Enmities. 22. Moving on from there, he dug another well, over which they did not contend; and so he called its name Breadth, saying: Now the Lord has enlarged us and made us increase upon the earth. 23. And he went up from that place to Beersheba. 24. There the Lord appeared to him in the night itself, saying: I am the God of Abraham your father; do not fear, for I am with you: I will bless you and multiply your offspring for the sake of My servant Abraham. 25. And so he built an altar there, and having called upon the name of the Lord, he pitched his tent; and he commanded his servants to dig a well. 26. When Abimelech, and Ochozath his friend, and Phicol the commander of his army had come to that place from Gerar, 27. Isaac said to them: Why have you come to me, a man whom you hate and have expelled from among you? 28. They answered: We saw that the Lord is with you, and therefore we said: Let there be an oath between us, and let us make a covenant, 29. that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched anything of yours, nor done anything to injure you, but have sent you away in peace, enriched by the Lord's blessing. 30. So he made them a feast, and after food and drink, 31. rising in the morning, they swore to each other, and Isaac dismissed them peacefully to their own place. 32. And behold, on that very day Isaac's servants came announcing to him about the well they had dug, and saying: We have found water. 33. Hence he called it Abundance; and the name of the city was called Beersheba to the present day. 34. Now Esau at the age of forty took wives: Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, daughter of Elon of the same place. 35. And both of them had offended the hearts of Isaac and Rebecca.
Verse 1: Abimelech
ABIMELECH -- not the one in the time of Abraham, of whom chapter 21 speaks, as St. Augustine, Josephus, and St. Chrysostom hold; but another, perhaps his son. For the former lived a hundred years before this one: for he reigned before Isaac was born, and Isaac was now nearly a hundred years old, as is gathered from verse 34. So Abulensis, Pererius, and others. It seems therefore that Abimelech was a common name for the kings of the Palestinians, just as Pharaoh, and later Ptolemy, was the common name for the kings of Egypt, and Caesar for the Roman Emperors. So Procopius, Diodorus, and Jerome, Book IX on Ezekiel. And as Procopius and Diodorus attest, Abimelech in Hebrew means 'father king,' as if you said, 'Father of the fatherland.' For a king ought to be a father to his subjects, whence also the Romans called their emperors 'fathers of the fatherland.'
Verse 5: My Voice
MY VOICE -- My command about sacrificing his son. God stimulates Isaac by mentioning his father's obedience, so that seeing it so rewarded in himself, he might strive to imitate it, indeed to surpass it, and thus obtain a greater reward from God. So St. Chrysostom.
Verse 5: Ceremonies
CEREMONIES -- both the particular one of circumcision, and others common to all, which God instituted in the law of nature and by which He wished to be worshipped. For the law of nature had, just like the law of Moses and of Christ, its own rites, its own sacred things and sacraments.
Verse 7: She Is My Sister
SHE IS MY SISTER (kinswoman). -- See what was said on chapter 20:12.
Verse 8: He Saw Him Jesting with Rebecca
HE SAW HIM JESTING WITH REBECCA. -- Impure Jewish interpreters understand this jest as conjugal union. But away with these cynics! Who would believe that Isaac was so shameless, wanton, and brazen in public with the king watching? I say therefore that for 'jesting' the Hebrew has metsachek, that is, 'laughing' or 'playing' with Rebecca, in the way that a chaste and serious husband sometimes honestly jests, laughs, and plays with his wife -- something he would not dare do with another woman, because it would not be proper.
Verse 10: You Would Have Brought upon Us a Great Sin
YOU WOULD HAVE BROUGHT UPON US A GREAT SIN -- you would have given occasion for a great sin. For 'sin' the Hebrew has ascham, which means, first, a sin committed out of ignorance -- hence the Septuagint translates it agnoian, 'ignorance'; second, the punishment and desolation inflicted on account of such a sin. It can be taken in either sense here.
Verse 11: He Shall Surely Die
HE SHALL SURELY DIE. -- Note here the ancient and first law and penalty of death against adulterers; which does not seem to be enacted here for the first time, but rather to have been previously established in general, and here merely applied and threatened against those who might violate Rebecca. With the same penalty of death God later, through the law of Moses, punished adulterers.
For adultery is a grave crime, which God avenges by punishing not only princes but also subjects. Thus on account of Paris's adultery with Helen, Troy and the Trojan kingdom perished. Thus on account of Tarquin's adultery with Lucretia, kings were forever expelled from Rome by the Romans. Thus David sinning with Bathsheba was most severely punished, as is clear in 2 Kings 12:10; on which matter see more in chapter 38:24.
Verse 12: He Sowed
HE SOWED -- in a field not his own, but rented from the Gerarites: for neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob possessed fields or houses in Canaan, but continually sojourned in it as pilgrims. We see here that Isaac and the saints did not idle, even though they knew they would be so greatly blessed and that God had promised it; but they work all the harder, lest they tempt God. Thus Isaac sows, and God blesses the sowing.
Verse 12: He Found a Hundredfold
HE FOUND (not others, but he himself) IN THE SAME YEAR (of barrenness) A HUNDREDFOLD. -- Whence it is clear that so great a harvest came to Isaac not through sowing, nor through the fertility of the fields, but through a miracle, by God's favor; so that from one bushel sown by him, he reaped a hundred bushels. Thus Pliny, Book XVIII, chapter 11, calls the most fertile wheat centigranum ('hundredfold grain'). In Hebrew, literally: 'and he found a hundred measures.' So Pagninus, Vatablus, and others. For scheorim with the letter shin means 'measures'; the Septuagint and the Arabic, reading seorim through sin, translate it as: he found a hundredfold of barley.
Thirdly, others translate it as: he found a hundred estimations, that is, a hundred times as much as he had estimated; for the root scaar means to think, to estimate. Hence the Chaldean translates: he found a hundredfold of what he had estimated.
Verse 12: Tropological Sense
Tropologically, the most fertile land is poverty, in which if you sow, you will receive a hundredfold; for this is what Christ says, Matthew 19:29: "Everyone who has left house or brothers, etc., or fields for the sake of My name, will receive a hundredfold and will possess eternal life." Alluding to this, St. Jerome, epistle 26 to Pammachius, says thus: "Christ's promises are returned with hundredfold interest: in such a field Isaac once sowed." Rightly therefore Blessed Nazianzen sings in his Poem:
Happy is he who purchases Christ with all his fortunes.
And St. Augustine, last sermon On Various Topics: "What is more glorious for a man than to sell his own possessions and buy Christ?"
Verse 12: And He Blessed Him
AND HE BLESSED HIM -- that is, for God had blessed him, namely by making him wealthy. So Vatablus. For the vav conjunction of the Hebrews is often causal; and the Hebrews often take the perfect past tense for the pluperfect, as if to say: Neither heaven, nor earth, nor fields gave these goods to Isaac, but the blessing of the Lord, which alone makes men rich.
Verse 12: God Blesses the Labor of Farmers
Add however that God blessed Isaac because he worked diligently and cultivated the field: for God inserts Himself into and blesses the labor of farmers. When among the Romans the ancient dictators and senators cultivated a field of five jugera, the produce was abundantly sufficient to feed the whole family; after they used servants and cultivated the fields through them, the largest estates were not sufficient: the former worked willingly and diligently, the latter coldly and almost under compulsion; hence the earth, as if indignant, did not return its favor to those who labored in this way. Illustrious is what they write of C. Furius Cresinus, who, since he received much more abundant fruits from a small plot than his neighbors did from the largest fields, was the object of great envy, as if he were attracting others' crops by sorcery. Therefore, when summoned to trial by the curule aedile Sp. Albinus, fearing condemnation, since it was necessary to go to the vote of the tribes, he brought all his farming equipment into the forum, and brought forth his strong daughter, heavy mattocks, weighty plowshares, and well-fed oxen; then he said: "These are my sorceries, citizens, nor can I show you or bring into the forum my late-night labors, vigils, and sweat." Therefore he was acquitted by the votes of all. And so it truly is: the fruit of the field depends not on expense, but on cultivation, and therefore they said that the most fertile thing in the field is the eye and foot of the master; for the eye of the master fattens the horse, the foot of the master fattens the field.
Verse 12: Moral Lesson
Morally note that Isaac, because he remained in Gerar at God's command, was therefore enriched there by God: so wherever anyone remains by God's will and command, there he will be blessed and prospered by God. Let religious observe this, and not wish to change the stations assigned to them.
Verse 15: They Stopped Up the Wells
THEY STOPPED UP THE WELLS. -- Thus allegorically heretics, envying Catholics, obstruct the wells of Catholic doctrine, namely Sacred Scripture and traditions, and the Sacraments and sacred things themselves with their heresies and filth, says Origen.
Verse 16: Depart from Us
DEPART FROM US. -- See here how one should not place confidence in the favor of kings or the people, and how envy is fearful and suspicious: for through it Isaac is expelled here. God, however, willed him to journey abroad for other reasons: first, that his faith and virtue might be tested; second, that in other places also God might be glorified by his piety and holy manner of life; third, to teach that the saints should be attached to no place, indeed to no earthly things, but should always be ready to leave all things for God's sake, if circumstance demands it.
St. Chrysostom, homily 52: "He says, the king says to the stranger: Go away from us, because you have become more powerful than we. And truly he was more powerful, having heavenly protection in all things and fortified by the right hand of God. Where then do you drive away the just man? Do you not know that wherever you compel him to go, he will always be in the affairs of his Lord? Has not the experience of events taught you that it is the hand of God that makes the just man illustrious and preserves him? Why then, by driving away the just man, do you declare your ingratitude toward the Lord? And not even the great meekness of the man could tame your envy, but conquered by envy you fulfill it in deed, and again you compel him to migrate, who harmed you in nothing. Do you not know that even if you drive him into the most desolate wilderness, he will still have a powerful Lord who knows how to help him and make him far more illustrious? For nothing is stronger than to enjoy heavenly protection, just as nothing is weaker than to be deprived of it."
Verse 18: He Dug Other Wells
HE DUG OTHER WELLS. -- "He dug," that is, he cleared out and cleaned them. For they had already been dug before by Abraham, but had been filled up with earth thrown in by the envious Gerarites. Isaac preferred to clear out the old wells of his father rather than dig new ones: first, because he was certain there was a vein of water there; second, to diminish the envy of the Gerarites, since he was only reclaiming and restoring wells that they had long since granted to his father; third, so that he might thus recall and honor the grateful memory, labors, and works of his father; hence Isaac also restored and renewed the former names that his father had given to the wells. So Delrio.
Verse 18: Tropological Sense
Tropologically, how the devil stops up the well of the soul through tempting thoughts, and how it must be emptied out and cleared, see in St. Gregory, book 31 of the Moralia, chapter 22.
Verse 19: In the Torrent
IN THE TORRENT. -- The torrent by metonymy refers to the dry channel itself, which in winter is filled with rainwater and overflows, becoming a torrent, but in summer it dries up from drought: in this channel therefore Isaac dug a well, and found living water, that is, flowing, spring-fed, and perennial; for in channels and valleys and low-lying places, living spring water is found more easily and quickly than in mountains and elevated places; for we see that in valleys, by digging three or four feet, water springs forth and wells are formed, which in mountains must be dug to a hundred or even two hundred feet (for they are that deep).
Verse 20: It Is Ours
IT IS OURS -- because you dug it in our field and on our land. But they object this unjustly, because Isaac had dug this well with their will, knowledge, connivance, and consent: therefore he called this well "Calumny," because in the digging of this well, the Gerarites inflicted this false accusation upon him. For "calumny" in Hebrew is escec, which through shin signifies calumny, also oppression, fraud, and injustice, as the Septuagint translates. Through sin however it signifies contention, quarrel, as Vatablus and the Chaldean translate. See here the meekness of Isaac, enduring the calumny, dissembling, departing, and responding kindly and calmly to his rivals. See also how God mingles sweet with bitter for Isaac and his friends, and pours in the bittersweet. "Nothing," says St. Chrysostom, homily 52, "does the just man here contend about, nor does he struggle against them, but he even yields to the shepherds. For this is true meekness -- not when one offended by the more powerful bears it gently, but when one offended even by those who are considered inferior yields."
Verse 22: Breadth
BREADTH. -- In Hebrew rechobot, that is, breadths, as if to say: This well will give us and our flocks a broad, free watering, immune from and abundant despite the envy of the Gerarites, and therefore let it be called "Breadth." St. Chrysostom reads "broad estate." "For this reason," he says, "I call it a broad estate, because the Lord has enlarged and increased us upon the earth. You have seen a pious mind, how, without making mention of such terrible difficulties that stood in the way, he remembers only the good things, and for them offers thanks to God. For nothing is so pleasing to God as a grateful soul that gives thanks. For although He daily bestows innumerable benefits upon us all, He requires nothing else from us than thanksgiving, so that He may be provoked to give still greater things," as here He was provoked to show Himself to Isaac and to bless him. Whence he adds: "Do not fear, for I am with you; therefore you will be unconquered, and more powerful than those who harass you, and stronger than those who attack you, and I will take such care of you that you will be an object of envy to them." Hence He also prefaced: "I am the God of Abraham your father, showing how He claimed and made the patriarch His own, so that He deigned to call Himself the God of Abraham. And the Lord of the world and Creator, calling Himself the God of one man, does not limit and abbreviate His dominion, but shows His great benevolence toward him."
Verse 24: I Am the God of Abraham Your Father
I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM YOUR FATHER -- as if to say: All creatures indeed are Mine, but yet one Abraham is worth more to Me than all others: see therefore, O Isaac, that you imitate your father.
"Thus," he says, "I have made him so much My own, that he is valued by Me as much as all others combined. Therefore for the sake of your father I will multiply your seed." So St. Chrysostom.
Verse 24: Moral Lessons
Learn here how good it is to be a friend of God; second, that the saints are in perpetual remembrance before God; third, that God blesses children on account of holy parents; fourth, what honor we owe to the saints, whom God so honors.
Verse 25: He Pitched His Tent
HE PITCHED HIS TENT -- so as to establish his dwelling and home there.
Verse 25: That They Might Dig
THAT THEY MIGHT DIG -- that they might re-dig and clear out the well formerly dug there by father Abraham, namely the well of Beersheba, as follows. Note here the constancy and magnanimity of Isaac, who bravely bears the insults of the envious and yields to them, but in such a way that he does not become more sluggish, but rather vigorously advances himself and his affairs elsewhere.
Verse 26: Ochozath His Friend
OCHOZATH HIS FRIEND. -- The Chaldean and Vatablus take the Hebrew Ochozath as an appellative; hence they translate: and his company of friends. But the Septuagint and our translator more correctly take Ochozath as a proper name.
Verse 26: The King's Paranymph
FRIENDS. -- The Septuagint says: the paranymph of king Abimelech: for the greatest friends of anyone are those who are the groomsmen at his wedding; for these are closest to the bridegroom himself, and lead him to the nuptial chamber. Hence St. John the Baptist, John 3:29, is called the friend of the bridegroom, because he was Christ's paranymph.
This paranymph and most intimate friend of the king, among the Persians was second to the king and was called the Surenas, whose role was to crown the king. He presided over the royal cohort, which consisted of the most select, most faithful, and most beloved by the king -- namely the nobles and dynasts who had been raised and educated with the king. Hence he was like the leader and first among the nobles of the court and the king's friends. Such was Ochozath here with king Abimelech.
Verse 26: Phicol the Commander
AND PHICOL THE COMMANDER OF HIS ARMY. -- This Phicol is a different person from the one who was in the time of Abraham, chapter 21, verse 22; for this one was a hundred years later than that one. Just as therefore this Abimelech, who dealt with Isaac, was different from the one who made a covenant with Abraham: so also this was a different Phicol. It seems therefore that, just as Abimelech was a common name for the kings of Gerar, so Phicol was a common name for the military commanders -- not of the royal cohort (for Ochozath was the leader of that), but of the public army, just as their common title today is to be called Masters or Generals of the army. "Phicol" in Hebrew means every face, or rather every mouth, as if the faces, spirits, mouths, and eyes of all the soldiers were turned toward this military commander; and that just as the face leads the whole body, so he was to lead and direct the whole army.
Verse 29: Nor Have We Done Anything That Would Harm You
NOR HAVE WE DONE ANYTHING THAT WOULD HARM YOU. -- They speak falsely: for with their connivance, shepherds had taken away the wells from Isaac. Thus the violent and tyrants proclaim their own justice: but the just, like Isaac, dissemble the injury received and overwhelm wrongs with kindness; they know not how to be angry, because they are peaceable and devoted to peace. Therefore rightly St. Gregory, homily 15 on Ezekiel, sets up Isaac as a mirror of peace and simplicity, when he says: "Does simplicity of character please you? Let Isaac come to mind, whom the tranquility of his life adorned in the eyes of Almighty God. Thus David avoided Saul who was pursuing him by flight; and when he could have harmed him, he would not: and so by David's kindness the envy of Saul was overcome. Thus Solomon was peaceable, and therefore deserved to build a temple for the Lord."
Verse 29: Examples of the Peaceable
St. Ivo, patron of lawyers, distinguished by many miracles and also by works of piety, strove to reconcile litigants. And when he could not restore to grace and peace a certain man who was estranged from his mother by grave hatred, he offered the Sacrifice of the Mass to God for him: from then on, with no one now soliciting, by divine inspiration alone their hearts so came to their senses that the son acknowledged himself as her child, and she acknowledged herself as his mother.
It was revealed to Abbot and hermit Paphnutius that a certain man in Heraclea was his equal in the merits of his life, and seeking him out, he found that the man indeed had a wife and children, but that after the second child was born, he kept chastity with her, devoted himself to justice and piety, and especially strove to reconcile any whom he found to be divided from each other by hatred; thus the peaceable are equated with religious: Palladius is the witness, chapter 64.
Hence Abbot Agathon used to boast that he never fell asleep without first calming both his own indignation against others and others' indignation against him, frequently saying: "Seek peace and pursue it;" and: "The wrathful are hateful to God and men." In the Lives of the Fathers.
Abbot John, visiting the anchorite Pesius, asked him what progress he had made in 40 years in the desert. He replied: "That the sun which illumines all things has never seen me eating, nor angry."
The superior of the monastery of Scetis, when asked what that passage of the Gospel meant: "Whoever is angry with his brother without cause," defined the only just cause of anger as separation from God; whoever is angry at any other injuries, however great, is angry without cause.
When Edgar was king of England, St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, heard from God that there would be peace in England as long as he lived. Therefore for the sixteen years that he reigned, all things were in the greatest peace. For by a perpetual treaty he had bound to himself the neighboring kings, he had removed pirates from the sea, brigands from the land; and even wild beasts: for from Guidual, king of the Welsh, he exacted a tribute of thirty wolves each year, which was maintained until that species of beast was exhausted by continuous hunting. So great a love of a peaceful state raised him to eternal peace, and elevated him to heavenly glory among the saints. So the Life of St. Dunstan records.
Symbolically, Eucherius, book 2, chapter 51, by these three friends of Abimelech understands the three kinds of philosophers, namely logicians, ethicists, and physicists: likewise the three Magi, who led by a star came to Isaac, that is, to Christ.
Verse 29: Increased by the Blessing of the Lord
INCREASED BY THE BLESSING OF THE LORD -- because we have seen you blessed by the Lord. Hence Vatablus translates: for you are the blessed of the Lord. For they give the reason why they let Isaac go in peace: because namely they saw that he was protected and blessed by God, and therefore they did not dare to touch him.
Verse 32: Which They Had Dug
WHICH THEY HAD DUG. -- Hence also from verse 25 it is clear that Isaac, as soon as he came to Beersheba, ordered the well called Beersheba to be re-dug and cleared out, which Abraham had formerly dug, chapter 21, verse 30; but the Gerarites out of envy had filled it up with earth. So Cajetan and Abulensis.
WE HAVE FOUND WATER. -- So also the Hebrew. The Septuagint is therefore corrupt here, as also elsewhere, when it has the contrary: we have not found water.
Verse 33: Abundance and the Triple Etymology of Beersheba
WHENCE HE CALLED IT ABUNDANCE. -- For "abundance" in Hebrew is sheba, which depending on the variety of vowel points can be read and explained in three ways. First, it can be read sheba, through shin, and then it means seven, as if to say: This is the seventh well that I have dug. So Vatablus. Again, this is the well of the seven lambs, with which Abraham bought it, chapter 21, verses 30 and 31. Finally, this well will give seven, that is, many and copious waters. And our translator seems to have read and understood it this way, when he translates: abundance.
Second, it can be read scebua, that is, oath, because at this well Abraham and Isaac swore and entered into a covenant with Abimelech. So the Septuagint.
Third, it can be read seba through sin: so our translator reads; and then it means satiety, as if to say: From this well we will be satisfied; this well will give us and our flocks a peaceful, copious, and abundant watering. This sense clearly corresponds to the mind of Isaac, as is evident from verse 22 and others.
Verse 33: Mystical Sense of the Three Wells
Mystically, Hugo Cardinal says: "These three wells are the three states of the Church: beginners, those making progress, and the perfect. The first well is dug by he who clears away the hardness of his heart with the plowshare of contrition. This happens in the departure from Egypt, and therefore such a one still retains in himself many relics of Egypt, on account of which the devil raises many accusations; hence this well is called Calumny: for the works of neophytes are not entirely pure. The second well is dug by he who by the hand of good works drives out from himself the torpor of all idleness. Ecclesiastes 9: Whatever your hand can do, do it diligently; for there will be neither work, nor reason, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the underworld, to which you are hastening; and St. Bernard: There is no virtue unless the spirit grows in difficulty itself. The third well is dug by he who from himself casts away temporal things through contempt for the sake of Christ. Philippians chapter 3: I have counted all things loss, and I consider them as dung, that I may gain Christ. In the first well there is the water of contrition; in the second there is the water of compunction; in the third there is the water of devotion, in which there is no contention, no difficulty, but the serenity of conscience; hence it is called Breadth.
In the first digging the devil is expelled and conquered; in the second, the flesh is subjected and cast down; in the third, the world, and thus every war is put to rest, and now there is peace in the flesh, peace in the mind, peace in the world." In all your works therefore be perfect; pray, study, endure, strive, labor for eternity; despise this brief time and its temporal and brief pleasures, riches, and honors; look up to eternal things.
Verse 33: The Name Beersheba
AND THE NAME WAS GIVEN TO THE CITY (first to the well, then to the neighboring city) BEERSHEBA -- beer means well; scabee, or sceba, or scebua, through shin, means oath or seven, as I already said; therefore Beersheba is the same as well of the oath, or well of the seven lambs, which Abraham gave for it: for from that event this well was called Beersheba by Abraham a hundred years earlier. But Isaac, gently bending shin into sin, said in Hebrew Bersabee instead of Berschabee, and so he named this well, and consequently repeated and renewed the name given by his father; but with a slight change of one letter, in a different sense than his father. For Bersabee through sin signifies well of satiety, because the family of Isaac was satisfied from it, as I already said.
Lipomanus explains this differently: for he thinks that Isaac called this well Beersheba with exactly the same sound and meaning as it had been called Beersheba by father Abraham, namely that Beersheba means the same as well of the oath: for Lipomanus judges that Moses here refers to verse 31, as if to say: On the same day that Isaac swore an oath and entered into a covenant with Abimelech, a messenger came to him about this well of his father being re-dug; hence just like his father, he called it Beersheba, that is, well of the oath: because just like his father, he swore a covenant with Abimelech at the same well.
But the former sense is the genuine one, and according to the mind of Isaac, and our translation requires it, which interprets sabee not as oath, but as satiety and abundance.
Verse 33: Allegorical and Anagogical Senses of Beersheba
Allegorically, Beersheba is the Church Militant, in which there is an abundance of graces.
Anagogically, Beersheba is the Church Triumphant in heaven, in which there is the fullness of glory and of every good; of which the Psalmist sings: "I shall be satisfied when Your glory appears;" and: "They shall be inebriated by the abundance of Your house, and You shall give them to drink from the torrent of Your pleasure, for with You is the fountain of life." This fountain and well must be dug out with great labor, and at the same time one must resist the Philistines, who hinder the digging of this well, namely heretics and other impious persons; for they contend about the wells, that is, the Sacraments and Sacred Scripture, which they envy and wish to take away from Catholics and pious men: so Rupert.
Verse 34: Esau at the Age of Forty Took Wives
AND ESAU AT THE AGE OF FORTY TOOK WIVES. -- This happened in the hundredth year of Isaac, for Esau was born in the sixtieth year of Isaac. Josephus adds that these wives were daughters of dynasts of the Hittites.
Verse 35: Both Had Offended the Spirit of Isaac
BOTH HAD OFFENDED THE SPIRIT OF ISAAC -- by their bad manners and stubbornness, and because they remained idolaters. So the Targum of Jerusalem. See Isaac, first troubled by foreigners, namely the Gerarites, here saddened by his own family, patiently enduring and dissembling all things.
Note: Esau, against the wishes of his parents, took foreign wives, and therefore was deprived of the paternal blessing and was subjected to his brother, as will be seen in the following chapter. Let young people learn here to take spouses on the advice of their parents, faithful and well-mannered, as Isaac, Jacob, Tobias, and others did.