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| Chapter VII.
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Chapter VII.
Almost at the same time,
when Abraham was now a hundred years old, his son Isaac was born. Then
Sara expelled the maid-servant by whom Abraham had had a son; and she
is said to have dwelt in the desert along with her son, and defended by
the help of God. Not long after this, God tried the faith of Abraham,
and required that his son Isaac should be sacrificed to him by his
father. Abraham did not hesitate to offer him, and had already laid the
lad upon the altar, and was drawing the sword to slay him, when a voice
came from heaven commanding him to spare the young man; and a ram was
found at hand to be for a victim. When the sacrifice was offered, God
spoke to Abraham, and promised him those things which he had already
said he would bestow. But Sara died in her one hundred and
twenty-seventh year, and her body was, through the care of her husband,
buried in Hebron, a town of the Canaanites, for Abraham was staying in
that place. Then Abraham, seeing that his son Isaac was now of
youthful258
| 258 “juvenilis
ætatis”: the meaning is that he ceased to be a mere
adolescens, and had reached the flower of his age. | age, for he was,
in fact, in his fortieth year, enjoined his servant to seek a wife for
him, but only from that tribe and territory from which he himself was
known to be descended. He was instructed, however, on finding the girl,
to bring her into the land of the Canaanites, and not to suppose that
Isaac would return into the country of his father for the purpose of
obtaining a wife. In order that the servant might carry out those
instructions zealously, Abraham administered an oath to him, while his
hand rested on the thigh of his master. The servant accordingly set out
for Mesopotamia, and came to the town of Nachor, the brother of
Abraham. He entered into the house of Bathuel, the Syrian, son of
Nachor; and having seen Rebecca, a beautiful virgin, the daughter of
Nachor, he asked for her, and brought her to his master. After this,
Abraham took a wife named Kethurah, who is called in the Chronicles his
concubine, and begat children by her. But he left his possessions to
Isaac, the son of Sara, while, at the same time, he distributed gifts
to those whom he had begotten by his concubines; and thus they were
separated from Isaac. Abraham
died after a life of a hundred and seventy-five
years; and his body was laid in the tomb of Sara his wife.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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