Genesis 25:20

And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife,.... Which was three years after the death of his mother; Isaac was born when she was ninety, and therefore must be thirty seven when she died.

And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan-aram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.

Bethuel the Syrian of Padan-aram; either of the country of Syria, as it is called, ; or rather, Padan of Syria; or, as the Septuagint and Chaldee render it, Mesopotamia of Syria. For that Parian is the proper name of a place, may be gathered from , and it is so called from its situation between two rivers, for Padan signifies a pair or two. 1857

Genesis 25:20 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.Ver. 20. And Isaac was forty years old.] He was not overhasty to marry in the heat of his youth: but by hard labour, ardent prayers, and pious meditations, kept under his body, and brought it into subjection, as St Paul likewise did. "We are not debtors to the flesh"; we owe it nothing but stripes, nothing but the blue eye, that the apostle gave it.

THE TΤLDΤTH ISAAC (Genesis 25:19 to Genesis 35:29). THE BIRTH OF ISAAC’S SONS. Abraham begat Isaac—The Tτldτth in its original form gave probably a complete genealogy of Isaac, tracing up his descent to Shem, and showing thereby that the right of primogeniture belonged to him; but the inspired historian uses only so much of this as is necessary for tracing the development of the Divine plan of human redemption. The Syrian.—Really, the Aramean, or descendant of Aram. (See Genesis 10:22-23.) The name of the district also correctly is “Paddan-Ararn,” and so far from being identical with Aram-Naharaim, in Genesis 24:10, it is strictly the designation of the region immediately in the neighbourhood of Charran. The assertion of Gesenius that it meant “Mesopotamia, with the desert to the west of the Euphrates, in opposition to the mountainous district towards the Mediterranean,” is devoid of proof. (See Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier, 1, p. 304.) In Syriac, the language of Charran, padana means a plough (1 Samuel 13:20), or a yoke of oxen ( 1 Samuel 11:7); and this also suggests that it was the cultivated district close to the town. In Hosea 12:12 it is said that “Jacob fled to the field of Aram;” but this is a very general description of the country in which he found refuge, and affords no basis for the assertion that Padan-aram was the level region. Finally, the assertion that it is an ancient name used by the Jehovist is an assertion only. It is the name of a special district, and the knowledge of it was the result of Jacob’s long-continued stay there. Chwolsohn says that traces of the name still remain in Faddβn and Tel Faddβn, two places close to Charran, mentioned by Yacut, the Arabian geographer, who flourished in the thirteenth century. Isaac intreated the Lord.—This barrenness lasted twenty years (Genesis 25:26), and must have greatly troubled Isaac; but it would also compel him to dwell much in thought upon the purpose for which he had been given to Abraham, and afterwards rescued from death upon the mount Jehovah-Jireh. And when offspring came, in answer to his earnest pleading of the promise, the delay would serve to impress upon both parents the religious significance of their existence as a separate race and family, and the necessity of training their children worthily. The derivation of the verb to intreat, from a noun signifying incense, is uncertain, but rendered probable by the natural connection of the idea of the ascending fragrance, and that of the prayer mounting heavenward (Revelation 5:8; Revelation 8:4). The children struggled together.—Two dissimilar nations sprang from Abraham, but from mothers totally unlike; so, too, from the peaceful Isaac two distinct races of men were to take their origin, but from the same mother, and the contest began while they were yet unborn. And Rebekah, apparently unaware that she was pregnant with twins, but harassed with the pain of strange jostlings and thrusts, grew despondent, and exclaimed— If it be so, why am I thus?—Literally, If so, why am I this?

20. forty years old] P gives the age of Isaac at the time of his marriage with Rebekah, thirty-five years before Abraham’s death (Genesis 25:8). Bethuel] P makes no mention here of Bethuel’s being son of Nahor, the brother of Terah. The genealogy of J in Genesis 22:22 is ignored. the Syrian] Heb. Aramean, as in Genesis 28:5. Aram is mentioned in Genesis 10:22-23 (P), as the fifth of the sons of Shem. Paddan-aram] This is the name given in the P narrative for the country described as Aram-naharaim by J. See note on Genesis 24:10. Cf. Genesis 28:2; Genesis 28:5-7, Genesis 31:18, Genesis 35:9; Genesis 35:26, Genesis 46:15, Genesis 48:7 (Paddan), all from P. The word Paddan is Aramaic, and means probably “the field,” modern Arabic feddân (= “acre”). In Assyrian padanu = “way” or “field,” like Haran (Genesis 11:32). According to Hosea 12:12, “Jacob fled into the field of Aram,” where “field” is the Heb. sâdeh, and denotes Haran, the country E. of Euphrates. 21–34 (J, E). This passage contains two short narratives, (1) the birth of Jacob and Esau (Genesis 25:21-26), (2) the sale of Esau’s birthright (27–34).