Isaac, Ishmael and Jacob join in Festival with Abraham for the Last Time. Abraham's Prayer (xxii. 1-9)

Isaac, Ishmael and Jacob join in Festival with Abraham for the Last Time. Abraham's Prayer (xxii. 1-9).

XXII. And it came to pass in the †first† ² week in the †forty-fourth† ³ jubilee, in the †second† year, that is, the year in which Abraham died, that Isaac and Ishmael came from the Well of the Oath to celebrate the feast of weeks--that is, the feast of the first-fruits of the harvest--to Abraham, their father, and Abraham rejoiced because his two sons had come. 2. For Isaac had many possessions in Beersheba, and Isaac was wont to go and see his possessions and to return to his father. 3. And in those days Ishmael came to see his father, and they both came together, and Isaac offered a sacrifice for a burnt-offering, and presented it on the altar of his father which he had made in Hebron. 4. And he offered a thank-offering and made a feast of joy before Ishmael, his brother: and Rebecca made new cakes from the new grain, and gave them to Jacob, her son, to take them to Abraham, his father, from the first-fruits of the land, that he might eat and bless the Creator of all things before he died. 5. And Isaac, too, sent by the hand of Jacob to Abraham a best thank-offering, that he might eat and drink. 6. And he ate and drank, and blessed the Most High God,

p. 123

Who hath created heaven and earth,
Who hath made all the fat things of the earth,
And given them to the children of men
That they might eat and drink and bless their Creator.

[paragraph continues] 7. "And now I give thanks unto Thee, my God, because Thou hast caused me to see this day: behold, I am one hundred three score and fifteen years, an old man and full of days, ¹ and all my days have been unto me peace. 8. The sword of the adversary ² hath not overcome me in all that Thou hast given me and my children all the days of my life until this day. 9. My God, may Thy mercy and Thy peace be upon Thy servant, and upon the seed of his sons, that they may be to Thee a chosen nation and an inheritance ³ from amongst all the nations of the earth from henceforth unto all the days of the generations of the earth, unto all the ages."

Footnotes

122:2 Read "sixth" (Charles).

122:3 Read "forty-second" (Charles).

123:1 Cf. xxi. 1.

123:2 Cf. Jer. vi. 25.

123:3 Israel is God's inheritance; cf. Deut. iv. 20.