Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Genesis 25:19 - 25:23

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Genesis 25:19 - 25:23


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:



Isaac's Prayer for Rebekah

v. 19. And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham begat Isaac;


v. 20. and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian, of Padanaram, the sister to Laban, the Syrian.
The threads of the story concerning Isaac are here gathered together in order to devote a paragraph to the founding of his family. The section of Mesopotamia from which Rebekah hailed is called the plains of Aram, which extended west of the Euphrates.

v. 21. And Isaac intreated the Lord for his wife because she was barren; and the Lord was intreated of him, and Rebekah, his wife, conceived.
It is the Lord who grants issue to married people, but the blessing of children, like all other blessings, must be prayed for. Just as Isaac had prayed for a pious wife, so he also prayed for children, and undoubtedly for pious children, just as Luther teaches in his explanation of the Fourth Petition.

v. 22. And the children struggled together within her; and she said, if it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the Lord.
This was after pregnancy had advanced to the point that movement was distinctly felt. Fearing that her condition would result in misfortune to herself and probably to the child of promise, Rebekah, rash in her speech and actions, and easily discouraged, cried out: If this be so, what is the object of my still being here? Why should I still be living, with this sore and strange struggle within me? Nevertheless she went to ask the Lord, probably through the ministry of Abraham.

v. 23. And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.
The answer was thus given in rhythmic parallels, the form of Hebrew poetry, stating that the older of the twins, the first-born, would be the servant of the younger. Cf Rom_9:11-12. The younger, therefore, would be the bearer and heir of the Messianic promise, the spiritual fatherhood of Abraham should be continued in him.