The Birth of Isaac Explained

The Birth of Isaac

1 The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised.

Bava Kamma 92a:16

Rava said to him: You said the proof from there, from a verse in the Writings, and I say the proof from here, from a verse in the law. As it is written: “Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children” (Gen 20:17), and it is written immediately following that: “The Lord visited Sarah as he had said” (Gen 21:1), with the pronoun interpreted homiletically: As Abraham said with regard to Abimelech. Because Abraham prayed for Abimelech that the women of his household should give birth, Abraham himself was answered concerning that matter.

Commentary on the Bible, by Adam Clarke

The Lord visited Sarah—That is, God fulfilled his promise to Sarah by giving her, at the advanced age of ninety, power to conceive and bring forth a son.

Rashi

The Lord visited Sarah, etc.—This section was placed after the preceding one to teach you that whoever prays for mercy on behalf of another when he is in need of that very thing, will himself first receive a favorable response, for it is said (verse 17), “Then Abraham prayed, etc.” and immediately following it, “The Lord visited Sarah”—i.e., he had already remembered her before he healed Abimelech (Bava Kamma 92a).

Visited Sarah as he had said—Concerning the promise of pregnancy.

And the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised—To Abraham.

As he had promised—Concerning the promise of birth. Where are the expressions “saying” and “speaking”? “Saying” is mentioned in the verse (17:19) “God said (וַיֹאמֶר), ‘No, but Sarah your wife’ ” etc. “Speaking” is mentioned in (15:1) “The word of (דְבַר) the Lord came to Abram,” in the covenant between the pieces where it was stated (ibid. 4): “This man (Eliezer) shall not be your heir, etc.” and he brought forth this heir from Sarah.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. MAT 24:35

John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible

Heaven and earth will pass away—This is either an assertion, which will be true at the end of time; not as to the substance of the heavens and earth, which will always remain, but as to the qualities of them, which will be altered: they will be renewed and refined, but not destroyed; the bad qualities, or evil circumstances, which attend them through the sin of man, will be removed and pass away, but they themselves will continue in being: or is a comparative expression, and the sense is, that the heavens and the earth, and the ordinances thereof, than which nothing can be more firm and strong, being fixed and supported by God himself, will sooner pass away, than anything asserted and predicted by Christ will.

But my words will not pass away—Be vain and empty, and unaccomplished; which is true of anything, and everything spoken by Christ; and especially here regards all that he had said concerning the calamities that should befall the Jews, before, at, or upon the destruction of their nation, city, and temple; and the design of the expression, is to show the certainty, unalterableness, and sure accomplishment of these things; see Jer 31:36.

2 And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him.

Rashi

In his old age—That his Isaac’s facial features were similar to his.

At the time of which God had spoken—Render it as Onkelos translates: i.e., the time that he had spoken and appointed. When he had said to him (18:14) “At the appointed time I will return to you.” He scratched a mark in the wall and said to him, “When the sunrays touch this mark next year she will bear a son” (Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 59:1).

At the time of which he had spoken—Rabbi Yudan and Rabbi Chama dispute. Rabbi Yudan says: This teaches us that he was born after nine months, so that it should not be said that he was conceived in Abimelech’s household, and Rabbi Chama says: After seven months.

24 After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying,

John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible

After these days—The days of his ministration in the temple, quickly after his return home; the Ethiopic version reads, “after two days.”

His wife Elizabeth conceived—According to the angels prediction, and notwithstanding her barrenness, and the unbelief of her husband.

And for five months she kept herself hidden—The Arabic and Persic versions render it, “kept her size hidden”; but there could be no occasion to take any methods to hide this, since, if she said nothing of it herself, and there could be no suspicion of it in one of her years, it could not be much discerned in her by such a time; but she kept herself hidden, or lived retired, that she might be fully satisfied that she was with child, before she said any thing about it; and that she might not discover any pride or vanity on account of it; and to avoid all discourse with others about it, which might be rumoured abroad; and chiefly to shun all ceremonial uncleanness, which one, that bred a Nazirite, was obliged to; see Jdg 13:14 and most of all, that she might be retired, and spend her time in meditation upon the goodness of God, and in returning thanks to him for the favour she had received; saying; as in the following verse.

25 “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”

Commentary on the Bible, by Adam Clarke

To take away my reproach—As fruitfulness was a part of the promise of God to his people Gen 17:6, and children, on this account, being considered as a particular blessing from heaven (Exo 23:20; Lev 26:9; Psa 127:3); so barrenness was considered among the Jews as a reproach, and a token of the disapprobation of the Lord (1Sa 1:6). But see Luk 1:36.

36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. LUK 1:24-25, 36

John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible

And behold, your relative Elizabeth—For though Elizabeth was of the daughters of Aaron, or of the tribe of Levi by her father’s side, yet might be of the tribe of Judah by her mother’s side, and so akin to Mary. The Persic version calls her “aunt by the mother’s side”; intermarriages between the two tribes of Levi and Judah were frequent; nor were they at all contrary to the intention of that law, that forbid the tribes to intermarry, which was to preserve the inheritance in each tribe, since the tribe of Levi had none at all. Though she might be called her relative in a more general sense; it being usual with the Jews to call all of their own nation their kinsmen and kinswomen, according to the flesh: but the former sense seems more agreeable; and so Mary is directed to her own family, and to her own relations, and known friends, for a sign, by which her faith might be confirmed, in what the angel had said to her; for if she found the one to be true, she might conclude the other was also; which is as follows

In her old age has also conceived a son—Though Mary asked no sign, yet one is given her, whereby she might know the truth of what was spoken: for if it should appear that Elizabeth had received strength to conceive, as was declared by the angel; and that a son, too, which he could not have known without a divine revelation; and that in her old age, which, was extraordinary and supernatural, she might assure herself, that the message brought to her was from God; and that she likewise, though a virgin, might conceive, and bear a son: the angel adds, as a further testimony of the truth of things.

And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren—Elizabeth, was generally known to be barren, and was, by way of reproach, usually called so, but was now six months gone with child; so that it was a plain case, and out of question; the signs of her pregnancy were very apparent.

3 Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.

John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible

Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac—Which is the name he was directed to give him (Gen 17:19); and he remembers the order, and is obedient to it; the reason of which name, which signifies laughter, was on account of his laughing for joy at the promise made him, as well as there might be afterwards a further reason for it, from Sarah’s laughing through distrust; and it might presignify the joy and laughter that would be expressed by others at his birth; and perhaps also that he would be the object of the laughter and derision of his brother; such a number of events agreeing with his name.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers . . . MAT 1:2

4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.

John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible

And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him—(Gen 17:12), and was the first that we read of that was circumcised on that day, according to the divine precept, which Abraham strictly observed; for though this was the son of the promise, and of his old age, for whom he had the most affectionate regard, yet he administered this bloody ordinance on him; nor did he defer it beyond the time, and was himself the operator, as it seems; all which shows his strict regard, and ready and cheerful obedience to the command of God.

6 And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.

Commentary on the Bible, by Adam Clarke

They were both righteous—Upright and holy in all their outward conduct in civil life.

Before God—Possessing the spirit of the religion they professed; exercising themselves constantly in the presence of their Maker, whose eye, they knew, was upon all their conduct, and who examined all their motives.

Walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord—None being able to lay any evil to their charge. They were as exemplary and conscientious in the discharge of their religious duties as they were in the discharge of the offices of civil life. What a sacred pair! they made their duty to God, to their neighbor, and to themselves, walk constantly hand in hand. See the note on Mat 3:15. Perhaps εντολαι, commandments, may here mean the decalogue; and δικαιωματα, statutes, the ceremonial and judicial laws which were delivered after the decalogue: as all the precepts delivered from Exo 21:1-24:1 are termed δικαιωματα, judgments or statutes.

59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father . . . LUK 1:6, 59

Commentary on the Bible, by Adam Clarke

On the eighth day they came to circumcise—See an account of this institution in the note on Gen 17:10-14 (note). Had circumcision been essential to an infant’s salvation, God would not have ordered it to be delayed to the eighth day, because, in all countries, multitudes die before they arrive at that age. Baptism, which is generally allowed to have been substituted for circumcision, is no more necessary to the salvation of an infant than circumcision was. Both are signs of the covenant—circumcision, of the putting away the impurity of the flesh; and baptism, of the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit, producing the answer of a good conscience towards God. Confer 1Pe 3:21, with Tit 3:5. This should never be neglected: it is a sign and token of the spiritual grace.

They would have called him Zechariah—Among the Jews, the child was named when it was circumcised, and ordinarily the name of the father was given to the firstborn son.