Genesis 26:12

12 Isaac sowed crops in that land, and that year he harvested a hundred times as much as he had sown, because the Lord blessed him.

Genesis 26:12 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 26:12

Then, Isaac sowed in that land
In the land of Gerar; after matters were settled between him and Abimelech, and he had ordered his servants to do him no hurt, he sowed wheat or barley, or some such grain: and received in the same year an hundred fold;
in which he sowed it, and which many take to be a year of famine; and so it was the more extraordinary, that there should be such a plentiful crop produced on Isaac's ground, when there was such barrenness elsewhere: but it does not seem likely that it should be the same year of famine in which Isaac came to Gerar, since he is said to have been them a "long time", ( Genesis 26:8 ) ; before this sowing and plenty upon it were. This increase is far from being incredible; for Pliny F4, besides instances he gives of an hundred fold, says, that in a field at Byzacium in Africa one bushel produced one hundred and fifty bushels; and from the same place, the deputy of Augustus there sent him from one grain very few less than four hundred, and to Nero three hundred stalks from, one grain. Herodotus F5 speaks of a country, near to the place where the Euphrates runs into the Tigris, on which the city Ninus was, which nowhere failed of producing two hundred fold, and the better sort of it even three hundred; see ( Matthew 13:23 ) : and the Lord blessed him;
and prospered and succeeded all his endeavours; and this was the true reason of the fertility of the land he manured and sowed.


FOOTNOTES:

F4 Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 10.
F5 Clio sive, l. 1. c. 193.

Genesis 26:12 In-Context

10 "What have you done to us?" Abimelech said. "One of my men might easily have slept with your wife, and you would have been responsible for our guilt."
11 Abimelech warned all the people: "Anyone who mistreats this man or his wife will be put to death."
12 Isaac sowed crops in that land, and that year he harvested a hundred times as much as he had sown, because the Lord blessed him.
13 He continued to prosper and became a very rich man.
14 Because he had many herds of sheep and cattle and many servants, the Philistines were jealous of him.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.