Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/456

 Abraham dwelt.—If Ḥavîlah has been rightly located on p. 202 above, J fixes the eastern limit of the Ishmaelites in the neighbourhood of the Ǧōf es-Sirhān, while the western limit is the frontier of Egypt (on Shûr, see on 16$7$). This description is, of course, inapplicable to P's Ishmaelites; but it agrees sufficiently with the statement of E (21$21$) that their home was the wilderness of Paran; and it includes Lahai-roi, which was presumably an Ishmaelite sanctuary. Since a reference to Assyria is here out of place, the words must be either deleted as a gloss (We. Di. Mey. al.), or else read ; being the hypothetical N Arabian tribe supposed to be mentioned in 25$3$ (so Gu.; cf. Homm. AHT, 240 f.; Kön. Fünf Landsch. 11 ff.), a view for which there is very little justification.—$18b$ is an adaptation of 16$12b$, but throws no light on that difficult sentence. Perhaps the best commentary is Ju. 7$12$, where again the verb has the sense of 'settle' (=  in 16$12$). Hommel's restoration, 'in front of Kelaḥ' (a secondary gloss on ), is a brilliant example of misplaced ingenuity.