Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 21

And the Lord (Jehovah) visited Sarah as he had said. —See Genesis 17:19, where it is Elohim who gives the promise. So here in Genesis 21:2 the name Elohim is interchanged with Jehovah.

Abraham called the name of his son. — Attention has been called to the fact that we have here two things contrary to later usage: first, the father names the child, and not the mother; and secondly, he names him at his birth, instead of waiting until his circumcision. It might be enough to answer that the child was really named by God (Genesis 17:19), and that Abraham only acknowledges that the son born was the promised Isaac. However, as we have seen before, there was still no settled rule regarding either of these points.

Isaac. — This name not only recorded the fact of the laughter of the father (Genesis 17:17) and of the mother (Genesis 18:12), but was a standing memorial that Isaac’s birth was contrary to nature, and that the promise of it provoked ridicule even from his parents.

God has made me to laugh. —Sarah’s laugh was one of mingled emotions. Joy was uppermost in her mind, but women do not laugh for joy at the birth of a child. Doubtless, she recalled the feelings with which she listened to the announcement that she would bear a son, an announcement made by those whom she then regarded as mere passing wayfarers (Genesis 18:12), but whom she had long since known to be the messengers of God.

And still the event seemed marvelous and astonishing to her, so that, as she said, all that hear will laugh with me—in Hebrew, for me, or over me—not “will ridicule me,” but will be merry at the thought of an old woman of ninety having a son. Deeper feelings would come afterwards, and the acknowledgment that what was contrary to nature was worked by Him whom nature must obey; but surprise is uppermost in the little poem in which Sarah expresses her first feelings:—

Who would have said to Abraham
Sarah nurses sons?
For I have borne a son to his old age.

The child grew, and was weaned. — According to tradition, Isaac was two years old when weaned. Three years is the age mentioned in 2 Chronicles 31:16, 2 Maccabees 7:27; and Samuel was old enough at his weaning to be left at the tabernacle with Eli (1 Samuel 1:24). In Persia and India it is still the custom to celebrate the weaning of a child by an entertainment.

Mocking. —The verb used here is the same as that rendered to laugh in Genesis 21:6, but in an intensive conjugation. What exactly Ishmael was doing is not said, but we may dismiss all those interpretations which charge him with abominable wickedness; for had he been guilty of any such criminal conduct, sending him away would not have been so very grievous in Abraham’s sight (Genesis 21:11). On the other hand, we may feel sure that Sarah was not without good reason for her conduct, for St. Paul bears witness that Ishmael persecuted Isaac (Galatians 4:29). The Septuagint and Vulgate translate playing, sporting, and Gesenius thinks that he was “dancing gracefully;” but if this were all, Sarah’s jealousy would have been most unjust.

When, however, we consider that Ishmael had been for fourteen years the heir, and that he now fell back into an inferior position, we cannot be surprised if at this banquet in his rival’s honour he gave way to spiteful feelings, and by word and gesture derided and ridiculed him. Hagar too had probably never regarded Sarah with much affection since her forced return, and now that her son was disinherited, her bitterness would grow more intense. These jealousies are the inevitable results of polygamy; and wherever it exists, the father’s life is made wretched by the intrigues of the women for their children.