t. The birth of one of
them, Isaac, was ascribed to the Divine intervention at a period when
Sarah had given up all hope of becoming a mother. Abraham was sitting
at his tent door in the heat of the day, when three men presented
themselves before him, whom he invited to repose under the oak while he
prepared to offer them hospitality. After their meal, he who seemed to
be the chief of the three promised to return within a year, when Sarah
should be blessed with the possession of a son. The announcement came
from Jahveh, but Sarah was ignorant of the fact, and laughed to herself
within the tent on hearing this amazing prediction; for she said, "After
I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?" The child
was born, however, and was called Isaac, "the laugher," in remembrance
of Sarah's mocking laugh.* There is a remarkable resemblance between his
life and that of his father.** Like Abraham he dwelt near Hebron,***
and departing thence wandered with his household round the wells of
Beersheba. Like him he was threatened with the loss of his wife.

* _Gen_. xviii. 1-16, according to the Jehovistic narrative.
_Gen_. xvii. 15-22 gives another account, in which the
Elohistic writer predicts the birth of Isaac in a different
way. The name of Isaac, "the laugher," possibly abridged
from Isaak-el, "he on whom God smiles," is explained in
three different ways: first, by the laugh of Abraham (ch.
xvii. 17); secondly, by that of Sarah (xviii. 12) when her
son's birth was foretold to her; and lastly, by the laughter
of those who made sport of the delayed maternity of Sarah
(xxi. 6).

** Many critics see in the life of Isaac a colourless copy
of that of Abraham, while others, on the contrary, consider
that the primitive episodes belonged to the former, and that
the parallel portions of the two lives were borrowed from
the biography of the son to augment that of his father.

*** _Gen_. xxxv. 27, Elohistic narrative.

Like him, also, he renewed relations with Abimelech of Gerar.* He married
his relative Rebecca, the granddaughter of Nakhor and the sister of
Laban.** After twenty years of barrenness, his wife gave birth to twins,
Esau and Jacob, who contended with each other from their mother's womb,
and whose descendants kept up a perpetual feud. We know how Esau, under
the influence of his appetite, deprived himself of the privileges of