Genesis 21:21

21 Und er wohnte in der Wüste Pharan, und seine Mutter nahm ihm ein Weib aus Ägyptenland.

Genesis 21:21 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 21:21

And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran
So called from Paran, a city in Arabia Petraea; it reached from the wilderness of Shur to Mount Sinai: the account Adrichomius F17 gives of it is this; Paran or

``Pharan is a wilderness, very large, desolate, impassable, and without water, containing, from Mount Sinai to Kadeshbarnea, a journey of eleven days; its land can neither be ploughed nor sown, is wholly dry, barren, and uncultivated; uninhabitable to men, destitute of villages, houses, and cottages; where neither men are seen, nor beasts nor birds; yea, neither trees nor any grass, only rocks and high rough stony mountains; it is taken sometimes for the first part of the desert of Arabia, near Mount Sinai, and sometimes for the last part, towards the land of promise; sometimes it is called the desert of Sin, and sometimes the desert of Sinai, from the mount; but this name Pharan seems to be the most general of the names of this very long desert:''

this is the wilderness the Israelites wandered in thirty eight years; what this writer says of it must be understood only of some parts of it, otherwise Ishmael could not have lived in it:

and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt:
her own country, for she was an Egyptian, ( Genesis 16:1 ) ; and where they dwelt was not far from it: according to the Jewish writers, he had two wives; the first he divorced, and then married the Egyptian; his first wife, they say F18, he sent for, and took out of the plains of Moab, whose name was Aishah, and the other Phatimah; so the Targum of Jonathan here,

``and he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, and took to wife Adisha (or Aisha), whom he divorced, and then his mother took him Phatimah to wife, out of the land of Egypt:''

the names of Ishmael's wives seem to be taken from the Arabic writers; for Aishah, or Ayesha, was the name of a daughter of Abubeker, and one of the wives of Mahomet, and Phatimah the name of one of his daughters.


FOOTNOTES:

F17 Theatrum Terrae, S. p. 116.
F18 Pirke Eliezer, ut supra. (c. 30.)

Genesis 21:21 In-Context

19 Und Gott tat ihr die Augen auf, daß sie einen Wasserbrunnen sah. Da ging sie hin und füllte den Schlauch mit Wasser und tränkte den Knaben.
20 Und Gott war mit dem Knaben; der wuchs und wohnte in der Wüste und ward ein guter Schütze.
21 Und er wohnte in der Wüste Pharan, und seine Mutter nahm ihm ein Weib aus Ägyptenland.
22 Zu der Zeit redete Abimelech und Phichol, sein Feldhauptmann, mit Abraham und sprach: Gott ist mit dir in allem, das du tust. {~}
23 So schwöre mir nun bei Gott, daß du mir und meinen Kindern und meinen Enkeln keine Untreue erzeigen wollest, sondern die Barmherzigkeit, die ich an dir getan habe, an mir auch tust und an dem Lande, darin du ein Fremdling bist.
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