14 And early in the morning Abraham got up, and gave Hagar some bread and a water-skin, and put the boy on her back, and sent her away: and she went, wandering in the waste land of Beer-sheba.
Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters, and all the people of his house, and his beasts and his cattle and all his goods which he had got together in the land of Canaan, and went into the land of Seir, away from his brother Jacob. For their wealth was so great that the land was not wide enough for the two of them and all their cattle.
Now the son by the servant-woman has his birth after the flesh; but the son by the free woman has his birth through the undertaking of God. Which things have a secret sense; because these women are the two agreements; one from the mountain of Sinai, giving birth to servants, which is Hagar. Now this Hagar is the mountain Sinai in Arabia, and is the image of the Jerusalem which now is: which is a servant with her children.
For the fields of Heshbon are waste, the vine of Sibmah is dead; the lords of nations were overcome by the produce of her vines; her vine-plants went as far as Jazer, and came even to the waste land; her branches were stretched out to the sea.
Whatever comes to your hand to do with all your power, do it because there is no work, or thought, or knowledge, or wisdom in the place of the dead to which you are going.
I was quick to do your orders, and let no time be wasted.
They were wandering in the waste places; they saw no way to a resting-place.
And Israel went on his journey with all he had, and came to Beer-sheba, where he made offerings to the God of his father Isaac.
And a man saw him wandering in the country, and said to him, What are you looking for?
And he gave it the name of Shibah: so the name of that town is Beer-sheba to this day.
And early in the morning they took an oath one to the other: then Isaac sent them away and they went on their way in peace.
Then he and the men who were with him had food and drink, and took their rest there that night; and in the morning he got up, and said, Let me now go back to my master.
Then Abraham went back to his young men and they went together to Beer-sheba, the place where Abraham was living.
And Abraham, after planting a holy tree in Beer-sheba, gave worship to the name of the Lord, the Eternal God.
So he gave that place the name Beer-sheba, because there the two of them had given their oaths.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Genesis 21
Commentary on Genesis 21 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 21
In this chapter we have,
Gen 21:1-8
Long-looked-for comes at last. The vision concerning the promised seed is for an appointed time, and now, at the end, it speaks, and does not lie; few under the Old Testament were brought into the world with such expectation as Isaac was, not for the sake of any great person eminence at which he was to arrive, but because he was to be, in this very thin, a type of Christ, that seed which the holy God had so long promised and holy men so long expected. In this account of the first days of Isaac we may observe,
Gen 21:9-13
The casting out of Ishmael is here considered of, and resolved on.
Gen 21:14-21
Here is,
Gen 21:22-32
We have here an account of the treaty between Abimelech and Abraham, in which appears the accomplishment of that promise (ch. 12:2) that God would make his name great. His friendship is valued, is courted, though a stranger, though a tenant at will to the Canaanites and Perizzites.
Gen 21:33-34
Observe,