Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/386

 in 1 Ki. 5$1. 4$ is late and unhistorical).—19-21. Such lists of pre-Israelite inhabitants are characteristic of Dt. and Dtnic. expansions of JE. They usually contain 5 or 6 or at most 7 names: here there are 10 (see Bu. 344 ff., and Dri.'s analysis, Deut. 97). The first three names appear in none of the other lists; and the same is true of the Rĕphāîm in 20. The Ḳenites (see p. 113) and Ḳenizzites (36$11$) are tribes of the Negeb, both partly incorporated in Judah: the Ḳadmonites (only here) are possibly identical with the (29$1$), the inhabitants of the eastern desert.—The Ḥivvites, who regularly appear, are supplied here by [E] (after Girgashites) and G (after Canaanites).—On the Ḥittites, see p. 215; and, further, on ch. 23 below.

The idea of a covenant (or oath) of Yahwe to the patriarchs does not appear in the literature till the time of Jer. (11$5$) and Deut. (4$31$ 7$12$ 8$18$, 2 Ki. 13$23$ etc.): see Kraetzschmar, 61 ff. Of 31 passages in JE where Kr. finds the conception (the list might be reduced), all but three (15$18$ 12$7$ 24$7$) are assigned to the Deuteronomic (Jehovistic) redaction (see Staerk, Studien, i. 37 ff.); and of these three 12$7$ is a mere promise without an oath, while in 24$7$ the words have all the appearance of a gloss. It is, of course, quite possible that 15$17f.$ may be very ancient, and have formed the nucleus of the theological development of the covenant-idea in the age of Deut. But it is certainly not unreasonable to suppose that it emanates from the period when Israel's tenure of Canaan began to be precarious, and the popular religion sought to reassure itself by the inviolability of Yahwe's oath to the fathers. And that is hardly earlier than the 7th cent. (Staerk, 47).

—The Flight of Hagar and Birth of Ishmael (J and P).

Sarai, having no hope of herself becoming a mother, persuades Abram to take her Egyptian maid Hagar as a concubine. Hagar, when she finds herself pregnant, becomes insolent towards her mistress, from whose harsh treatment she ultimately flees to the desert. There the Angel of Yahwe meets her, and comforts her with a disclosure of the destiny of the son she is to bear, at the same time commanding her to go back and submit to her mistress. In due course Ishmael is born.

In the carefully constructed biographical plan of the editors the episode finds an appropriate place between the promise of a bodily heir in 15 and the promise of a son through Sarai in 18 (J) or 17 (P). The narrative itself contains no hint of a trial of Abram's faith, or an attempt on his part to forestall the fulfilment of the promise. Its real interest lies in another direction: partly in the explanation of the sacredness of a certain famous well, and partly in the characterisation of the