Genesis 26:12

12 And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in that [same] year a hundredfold, and Yahweh 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 And Abimelech said, "What [is] this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have slept with your wife! Then you would have brought guilt upon us!"
11 Then Abimelech instructed all the people, saying, "The [one who] touches this man or his wife shall certainly die."
12 And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in that [same] year a hundredfold, and Yahweh blessed him.
13 And the man {became wealthier and wealthier} until he was exceedingly wealthy.
14 And he possessed sheep and cattle and many servants, so that the Philistines envied him.
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