Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/422

 17. God healed Ab.] The first explicit intimation (see $4. 6$) that Abimelech had been smitten with a bodily malady, whose nature is indicated by the last word .—18. A superfluous and inadequate explanation of $17$, universally recognised as a gloss; note also .—] see on 16$2$.

XXI. 1-21.—Birth of Isaac and Expulsion of Ishmael (J, E, and P).

The birth, circumcision, and naming of Isaac are briefly recorded in a section pieced together from the three sources ($1-7$). Then follows a notice of the weaning festival ($8$), to which, by a finely descriptive touch ($9$), is linked the Elohistic version of the origin of the Ishmaelites ($10-21$). A comparison with the Yahwistic parallel (ch. 16) will be found below (p. 324).

Analysis.—$2b-5$ are from P (who by the way ignores altogether the expulsion of Ishmael [see on 25$9$]): obs. the naming by the father and the exact correspondence with 16$16$ in $3$, circumcision ($4$), the chronology ($5$); and the words, $2b. 4$; , $2$b (cf. 17$21$); , $5$. $2a$ is to be assigned to J (, v.i.); and also, for the same reason, $7$. There remain the doublets $1a$ $1b$ and $6a$  $6b$. Since the continuity of P is seldom sacrificed, $1b$ is usually assigned to that source (, a scribal error), leaving $1a$ to J. $6b$ goes with $7$ (therefore J: v.i.); and there remains for E the solitary half-verse $6a$, which cannot belong to P because of the different etymology implied for. So Ho. Gu.; Di. Str. differ only in assigning the whole of $6$ to E.—The J fragments $1a. 2a. 7. 6b$ form a completely consecutive account of the birth of Isaac; which, however, is not the sequel to ch. 18 (see on $6a$), and therefore

impossible with the present text; hence Gu.'s emendation (pf. [root]  w. acc.: Jb. 3$25$) is not unattractive.—] Untranslatable. G ; V quocunque perrexeris: mementoque te deprehensam; S ('about all wherewith thou hast reproached me'); T$O$. The change to (2 s. pf.) is of no avail, the difficulty being mostly in, which cannot be continuation of (Tu. al.), or of, but must with MT accents be taken with. The rendering 'and before all men thou shalt be righted' (Di. De. Dri.) is the best that can be made of the text. The easiest emendation is that of Gu.: = 'and thou in all this (affair) art justified,' though the sense given to has no clear example in OT. The more drastic remedies of Ba. do not commend themselves.—18. ] [E].