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169. Isaac (Abraham, Terah, Nahor, Serug, Reu, Peleg, Eber, Salah, Arphaxad, Shem,
Noah, ...) was born in 1853 BC in Gerar, Philistia, and died in 1673 BC in Mamre.
He married Rebekah in 1813 BC in Beer-
Notes for Isaac:
His name in Hebrew is: יצחק Yitschâq (yits-
Abraham, Isaac’s father was 100 when Isaac was born. Therefore, Isaac lived to the age of 60 when his sons Esau and Jacob were born. After their birth, Isaac lived to the age of 180.
Isaac was born in the land of the Philistines in Gerar. (1)
Sarah was 90 when Isaac was born and Ishmael was 14. (2)
At the age of 5, Isaac would have been killed by his step-
Years later when Isaac was 37, Ishmael boasted to Isaac that when he was 13, he did not complain to his father about the circumcision. However, Isaac saw that this boasting was over such a little thing, so he told Ishmael, “if Yahvah should say unto my father, ‘take Isaac and use him as a burnt offering,’ I would not complain but do it with a willing and joyful heart.”
Yahvah overheard this and he wanted to try Abraham on this matter. (4)
Not long after Isaac told Ishmael this thing, Yahvah told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. (5)
The night after Yahvah told Abraham this, Isaac stayed with his mother all night while she gave him instructions until morning, since she thought that Abraham was going to take him to see Shem and Eber.
On the next morning, Sarah still found that it was difficult to separate herself from her only son, and she gave Isaac instructions again until the next morning.
In the morning, Isaac, Abraham, Ishmael and Eliezer set off down the road. This was a grievous thing for Sarah, and Sarah found it difficult to leave her only son. (6)
After many dealings with Satan, and three days traveling, the four arrived at the foot of Mt. Moriah. On the summit of the mountain appeared a pillar of fire and a cloud that only Abraham and Isaac could see. Abraham knew that he and Isaac were the only ones accepted upon the mountain. Therefore, Eliezer and Ishmael remained behind with the ass. (7)
Upon the mountain, Isaac was that his father only had wood, fire and a knife for the offering, but no lamb for an offering. Therefore, he inquired of it of his father, and Abraham told Isaac that he had to be the offering instead of a lamb. However, this wasn’t any surprise to Isaac, but Isaac accepted this part in joy and gladness. Isaac considered it an honor to be a burnt offering to Yahvah.
Isaac requested that his father bind him tightly so that he wouldn’t spoil the offering. Abraham did so.
Abraham and Isaac wept aloud, but their hearts rejoiced of the thing that was about to happen.
As Isaac wept, he said to his father to continue the task that Yahvah told him to do. Therefore, Isaac stretched forth his neck on the alter and Abraham took the knife in his hand to slay his son.
Before the blade touched Isaac, Yahvah called out to Abraham from heaven and stopped Abraham from killing Isaac. (8)
Yahvah sent a ram to advance to Abraham to be used instead of Isaac, but Satan caught hold of the ram and entangled its horns in a thicket so that Abraham would kill Isaac. However, Abraham already spotted the ram, and used the ram on the alter instead of Isaac. (9)
Upon returning home, Isaac and Abraham searched for Sarah, and found that she died in Hebron. Abraham later bought the cave of Machpelah to bury Sarah. This cave soon became an inheritance to Isaac. (10)
After morning for Sarah for several days, Isaac went with his father to the house of Shem and Eber to learn the ways of Yahvah. Abraham and Isaac remained there for three years. After the three years Abraham returned home to Beersheba, leaving Isaac at Shem and Eber’s house. (11)
While Isaac was at Shem and Eber’s house, Abraham set Eliezar to Haran to search for a wife for Isaac. After Eliezer had left, Abraham sent for his son to return home. (12)
It is not known how long Eliezer was gone, but when he returned, he brought a first cousin once removed of Isaac. Rebekah, the daughter of Isaac’s cousin Bethuel. Rebekah was only ten, and Isaac was thirty years older. (13)
Throughout the whole nineteen years of being married to Rebekah, Isaac’s wife confronted
Isaac about her being barren. Therefore, Isaac and Rebekah traveled to Moriah. (Possibly
the same place where Isaac laid on the alter twenty-
At the age of sixty, Isaac became the father of twin sons. However, the sons hated each other even while in the womb. (15)
In the fifteenth year of Jacob and Esau, Abraham gave Isaac his inheritance, and then died in the 75th year of the life of Isaac. (16)
Sometime after the death of Abraham, Yahvah brought a famine to the land of Canaan, so Isaac decided to go to Egypt because of it. However, Yahvah told Isaac to go to Gerar in Philistia, so Isaac stayed there for one whole year. (17)
When Isaac went to Gerar, Isaac pulled the same stunt his father pulled about seventy-
Soon, King Abimelech heard about the beautiful sister of Isaac, but he did not send for her, but reserved the thought within himself.
At this time it is not known to where Jacob and Esau might have been, but it could only be imagined that they may have been around.
Abimelech had Isaac and Rebekah live in a house just across from the king’s own house. Abimelech saw Isaac sporting with Rebekah and he knew that Isaac and Rebekah were not siblings, but were espoused to each other.
When Abimelech finished reprimanding Isaac, he made sure that all his great men and princes take them through the streets of the city, and proclaim in all the land, that whoever touched Isaac or Rebekah shall die since they are espoused to each other.
Isaac found favor in the sight of Abimelech and Abimelech remembered the covenant he made with Isaac’s father. Abimelech gave Isaac the best of Gerar, he gave Isaac fields, and vineyards to sow and harvest and eat until the famine passed in Canaan. (18)
When the famine passed in Canaan, Yahvah told Isaac to return, at which Isaac did. (19)
At the age of 78, Isaac sent his youngest son, Jacob to the house of Shem and Eber. Esau stayed home since he didn’t want to go. Jacob was gone until Isaac was 110. (20)
Isaac greatly loved his older son Esau since he brought him savory meat from the field to eat. For this, Isaac wanted to bless Esau, so he sent Esau to the field to hunt some venison and then return back and he would bless Esau. (21)
Isaac was stricken with blindness during his old age so that he could not see. (22)
Isaac only had to wait a short time for Esau to return, but Isaac was suspicious of the quickness that his son took. Therefore, he asked who it was that just entered his tent. The person that entered replied that he was Esau. However, the voice sounded like Jacob’s. To be sure that it was Esau, he asked him to come close for a kiss, whereupon, Isaac felt the hairy arms and neck and the smell of the field in the garments. Isaac blessed who he thought was Esau, that he would be blessed with the dew of heaven, the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine. People would serve him, nations would bow down to him, he would be lord over his brother, and his brother would bow down to him. Anyone that cursed him would also be cursed, but anyone that blessed him would also be blessed. Thus, the blessing that Isaac gave to his son.
Isaac soon found out who he blessed was not the one that he meant to bless since the true Esau came to his father with a joyful heart just as his brother left. Isaac had to tell his beloved son that Jacob took the blessing, and Esau cried being only left with ability to server his younger brother. (23)
The wives of Esau were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah, and they thought that their lives wouldn’t be worth anything if Jacob should marry a Canaanite. Therefore, Jacob was sent to Haran to Rebekah’s brother, Laban. (24)
At the age of 163, Isaac’s wife Rebekah died at the age of 133. Isaac died 17 years later at the age of 180. (25)
More About Isaac:
Burial: 1673 BC in the Cave of Machpelah near Mamre
Notes for Rebekah:
Her name in Hebrew is: רבקה Ribqâh (rib-
Known as “Rebekah” in Genesis, but is known as “Rebecca” in Jasher.
Rebekah is first mentioned when Abraham’s servant Eliezer arrived in Haran searching for a suitable wife for his master Isaac.
Eliezer’s prayer to Yahvah was to find a damsel that would give him drink when he asked for it, but she would gladly offer to water his ten camels. (26) Before Eliezer finished speaking, Rebekah came out with a water pitcher on her shoulder. Eliezer asked her if she would give him a drink, and when he finished, she replied that she would water his ten camels until they finished drinking! What an answer to Eliezer’s prayer! (27)
A thirsty camel can drink 25 gallons of water in ten minutes, but in order for her to water ten camels, she would have had to haul 250 gallons at least before all the camels stopped drinking. (28) Rebekah was ten years old when she performed this marvelous and hospitable act. (29)
As a gift of gratitude to Rebekah, Eliezar decorated her with jewelry, and then Laban her brother welcomed him into their father’s house. (30)
Rebekah later met with Isaac and then married him although he was thirty years older than her. (31)
After her marriage with Isaac she remained barren for 19 years, and then had Esau and Jacob. The two twin boys hated each other even in the womb and when they were born, Jacob had hold of Esau’s heel. However, Esau was red and hairy like a garment. (32) When the boys grew Esau became a wonderful hunter, and Isaac loved him the most because of the meat he brought, but Rebekah loved Jacob. (33)
Fifteen years after the boys’ birth, Yahvah brought a famine into the Land of Canaan, and Rebekah went with her husband to Philistia to escape from it. (34) It is not known if Jacob and Esau went with them, though.
In Philistia, Isaac told King Abimelech that Rebekah was his sister because he didn’t want to die on account of her beauty if he was to say that he was espoused to her. However, Abimelech had this played on him before by Abraham so he was suspicious. (35)
At the age of 88, Rebekah overheard Isaac telling his favorite son to go and hunt for some venison for him to eat so that he may bless him. Therefore, Rebekah told Jacob of what Isaac planned to do. Therefore, Rebekah had Jacob go a get a kid and she’d fixed it up and dressed it in the way that Isaac desired his “venison” cooked. She greatly wanted the blessing to be passed to Jacob instead of Esau. (36)
Although Isaac was now blind with age, he could still tell the difference between Esau and Jacob because Esau was extremely hairy and his clothes smelled like the field (maybe like a gutted deer as well). With this in mind Jacob was leery about performing this trick in fear that he will receive a curse and not a blessing, but Rebekah encouraged him by saying that if any curse should be said, the curse would come upon her. (37)
Rebekah dressed Jacob with goat skins on his hands and neck, and one of Esau’s coats and then Jacob brought the “venison” and bread into Isaac for him to eat. (38)
For sure Rebekah stood nearby watching or listening to the conversation Jacob had with his father, and possibly leaped for joy when Isaac gave Jacob the blessing that she wanted him to have. (39) (She probably had to contain her shouts of joy as she didn’t want to expose Jacob to Isaac of her plot.)
As soon as Jacob left the tent, Esau arrived and soon found out about Jacob’s deceitfulness and wished to kill his brother. (40)
Since Esau now sought the life of Jacob, Rebekah sent Jacob away to Eber’s house until Esau’s anger had cooled, but Jacob was gone for fourteen years before he decided to return home.
Esau being vexed with his parents left home and dwelt in the land of Seir for six months, and when he returned he brought both his Canaanite wives with him. These wives of Esau were a grief of mind to Rebekah and Isaac and they became weary of them. (41)
When Rebekah was 102, Jacob returned home, but he was only home for a day since Esau still had not forgiven him on account of the blessing, so Rebekah and Isaac sent Jacob to Haran so he would marry within his own race and not choose from the daughters of Canaan. (42)
When Jacob is returning home from Haran twenty years later, she learns of Esau’s plot to kill Jacob so she sends to Jacob 72 men to help him, but sent a message to Jacob to treat Esau with kindness so that Esau’s anger may be turned so Jacob’s life would be spared. (43)
After this event, Rebekah lives an additional eleven years, and dies at the age of 133. However, she ends up dying 17 years before her husband Isaac does.
More About Rebekah:
Burial: 1690 BC in the Cave of Machpelah near Mamre
The two children of Isaac and Rebekah are:
Timeline