Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/162

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The Book of Genesis

144

Lesson

X

HAGAR AND ISHMAEL (Genesis

And God heard

My

and XXI, 9-21) (Genesis

the voiee of the lad.

son, keep the

And

XVI

commandment

XXI,

17.)

of thy father,

forsake not the teaching of thy mother

Bind them continually upon thy heart, Tie them about thy neck.

For the commandment

And

is

a lamp, and the teaching

reproofs of instruction are the

way

of

is

light,

(Proverbs VI,

life.

20-24.)

Read Psalm CXIV,

The

story of

14-19.

Hagar and Ishmael was probably

first

con-

ceived to account for the well-recognized kinship of Israel

The tribes came out of the Arabian Desert and settled in Palestine, were of the same, or kindred, stock as the Ishmaelite tribes, which remained behind and continued to live as wandering nomads with their sheep and camels. with the nomad, Ishmaelite tribes of the desert. of Israel, which later

The

consciousness

comparatively

late

common

of

this

in

Israel's

stock

history.

continued

The

present

until

story

accounts for this relationship by tracing the descent of both

Ishmael and Israel

from one common ancestor, Abraham. Israel and IMoab and

The traditional relationshij) between Amnion has already been accounted

for by a similar tradifrom a common ancestor (XIX, 30-38). We shall learn later another similar tradition which accounted for the relationship between Israel and Edom. But even more, the story of Hagar and Ishmael illustion

of

descent