Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/467



from particular phrases recurrent in each: e.g., , , , [], etc. (cf. Kuen. Ond. i. 228). Although many good scholars (We. Kue. Ho. al.) are of a different opinion, the present passage appears to be the most colourless and least original form of the tradition. In 12$10ff.$ (J$b$) the leading features—the beauty of the heroine, the patriarch's fear for his life, his stratagem, the plagues on the heathen monarch, his rebuke of the patriarch, and the rewards heaped on the latter—are combined in a strong and convincing situation, in which each element stands out in its full natural significance. In ch. 20 (E), the connexion of ideas is in the main preserved; though a tendency to soften the harsher aspects of the incident appears in God's communication to Abimelech, in the statement that no actual harm had come to Sarah, and in the recognition of the half-truth in Abraham's account of his relation to Sarah. In 26$7ff.$ (J$h$) this tendency is carried so far as to obscure completely the dramatic significance of those features which are retained. Though Isaac is the guest of Abimelech (v.$1$), it is only the 'men of the place' who display a languid interest in his beautiful wife: no one wants to marry Rebekah, least of all the king, who is introduced merely as the accidental discoverer of the true state of affairs, and is concerned only for the morality of his subjects. No critical situation arises; and the exemplary self-restraint manifested by the men of Gerar affords no adequate basis for the stern injunction of $1$1, which would have been appropriate enough in ch. 12 or ch. 20. It is, of course, impossible to assign absolute priority in every respect to any one of the three recensions; but it may reasonably be affirmed that in general their relative antiquity is represented by the order in which they happen to stand—J$b$, E, J$h$. The transference of the scene from Gerar to Egypt is perhaps the only point in which the first version is less faithful to tradition than the other two.—See the elaborate comparison in Gu. 197 ff.

12-16.—Isaac's successful husbandry.—12. Cultivation on a small scale is still occasionally practised by the Bedouin (see Palmer, Des. of Ex. ii. 296). The only other allusions in the patriarchal history are 30$14$ 37$7$.—13-16. Isaac's phenomenal prosperity excites the jealousy of the Philistines, which leads to his enforced departure.—15. See on $18$ below.

13-16. Gu. thinks the vv. are a pendant to the Rebekah incident, corresponding to the gifts of the heathen king (12$16$ 20$14$) and the expulsion of Abraham (12$20$). It is more natural to consider $12ff.$ the continuation of $6$; indeed, it might fairly be questioned whether $7-11$ is not a later insertion, interrupting the continuity of the main narrative.—12. ] GS wrongly, 'barley.' The word is , meaning 'measure' or 'value' (cf. = 'reckon,' in Pr. 23$7$, with allied words in J. Aram. and NH; esp. NH  = 'measure').—13. ] G-K. § 113 u.