Genesis 26:12

12 En Izak zaaide in datzelve land, en hij vond in datzelve jaar honderd maten; want de HEERE zegende hem.

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 En Abimelech zeide: Wat is dit, dat gij ons gedaan hebt? Lichtelijk had een van dit volk bij uw huisvrouw gelegen, zodat gij een schuld over ons zoudt gebracht hebben.
11 En Abimelech gebood het ganse volk, zeggende: Zo wie deze man of zijn huisvrouw aanroert, zal voorzeker gedood worden!
12 En Izak zaaide in datzelve land, en hij vond in datzelve jaar honderd maten; want de HEERE zegende hem.
13 En die man werd groot, ja, hij werd doorgaans groter, totdat hij zeer groot geworden was.
14 En hij had bezitting van schapen, en bezitting van runderen, en groot gezin; zodat hem de Filistijnen benijdden.
The Dutch Staten Vertaling translation is in the public domain.