Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/216

.

The Book of Genesis

198 historicalh-

more correct

in

omitting

all

reference to the Philistines

and calling Abimelech simply king of Gerar. The exact location of Gerar is unknown. abl}'

located

near

the

It was, however, prohhorder of the Philistine plain, Jewish Encyclopedia V, 629f). It was

southeastern

touching upon the desert

(cf.

not a large kingdom, but only a small town, whose dominion extended over the immediately adjacent country. The boundary-lines of such a

little

city-state

Gerar ventured

to

were rather

within their territory,

elastic



therefore

the

shepherds

of

which Isaac had dug, as being even though they were probal^ly outside of the

claim

the

wells

normal boundary-lines. V. 7. As was stated in the lesson proper, XX, 12 says that Sarah was actually Abraham's half-sister, being the daughter of his father, but not of his mother. In very ancient Israel marriage between half-brother and half-sister on the father's side was not II Samuel XIII gives an instance of the possibility of unknown. such marriage as late as the time of David. However this form of marriage was ultimately forbidden in Israel (cf. Leviticus XVIII, 9). V. 12. A crop of a hundredfold was exceedingly large cf Thomson. The Land and the Book, I. 116ff. "In the same year"; the year began in the fall. The seed was planted shortly after new year's day. and the grain was harvested in the spring" of the same year.

The Great Well V.

19.

By

"living

at

P)eersheba

(Hebrew, niayini hayyini) the Bible which bubbles up out of the earth.

water"

means a spring or w^ell V. 20. The names of the wells are symbolic of with the people of Gerar. Esek means "contention," and rehoboth, "room, expansion'. V. 25.

Cf. note to XII.

7.

Isaac's relations sitnah, "enmity,"