Genesis 26:12

12 Forsooth Isaac sowed in that land, and he found an hundredfold increase in that year (and he received a hundredfold increase that year); and 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 And Abimelech said, Why hast thou deceived us? Some man of the people might do lechery with thy wife, and thou haddest brought in grievous sin on us. (And Abimelech said, Why hast thou deceived us? Some man of my people might have done lechery with thy wife, and then thou wouldest have brought in a grievous sin upon us.)
11 And the king commanded to all the people, and said, He that toucheth the wife of this man shall die by death.
12 Forsooth Isaac sowed in that land, and he found an hundredfold increase in that year (and he received a hundredfold increase that year); and the Lord blessed him.
13 And the man was made rich, and he went profiting and increasing, till he was made full great.
14 Also he had possessions of sheep and of great beasts, and full much of menials. For this thing Palestines had envy to him, (And he had possessions of sheep and of great beasts, and many servants and slaves. And because of this, the Philistines envied him,)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.