Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 26:12

"And Isaac sowed in that land, and found in the same year a hundredfold. And Jehovah blessed him." — Genesis 26:12 (ASV)

Isaac sowed in that land. —When Abraham planted a tamarisk-tree at Beer-sheba (Genesis 21:33), it showed that he regarded the place as a permanent residence, which it was worth his while to adorn and to provide for its increasing pleasantness. Isaac and Jacob took a still further step in advance towards a settled life when they began to cultivate plots of ground. At first, however, Isaac did no more than the Bedouin do at present, for they often sow a piece of land, wait until the crop is ripe, and then resume their roving habits.

Permanently to till the soil is with them a mark of inferiority (Genesis 25:16). But the tendency, both with Abraham and Isaac, had long been to remain in the region about Beer-sheba. Isaac had been driven from there by the famine, by which he had probably lost much of his cattle and many even of his people. Apparently, he was even so weakened as a result that he was no match for the Philistines of Gerar. His large harvest recouped him for his losses and made him once more a prosperous man; and in due time, Beer-sheba was again his home, and with settled habits, agriculture was sure to begin.

An hundredfold. —The Heb. is, a hundred measures, but the word is unknown elsewhere, and the Septuagint and Syriac read, a hundred of barley, measures being understood, as in Ruth 3:15. Herodotus (Book i. 193) mentions two—and even three—hundredfold as possible in Babylonia; but our Lord seems to give one hundredfold as the extreme measure of productiveness in Palestine (Matthew 13:8). Such a return, like Isaac’s, would be rare and extraordinary.