Genesis 26:12

12 seruit autem Isaac in terra illa et invenit in ipso anno centuplum benedixitque ei Dominus

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 dixitque Abimelech quare inposuisti nobis potuit coire quispiam de populo cum uxore tua et induxeras super nos grande peccatum praecepitque omni populo dicens
11 qui tetigerit hominis huius uxorem morte morietur
12 seruit autem Isaac in terra illa et invenit in ipso anno centuplum benedixitque ei Dominus
13 et locupletatus est homo et ibat proficiens atque succrescens donec magnus vehementer effectus est
14 habuit quoque possessionem ovium et armentorum et familiae plurimum ob haec invidentes ei Palestini
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.