Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“The child grew and was weaned. Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.”
(Genesis 21:8-9)

In Egypt, children were weaned at three years old. In the Roman Empire, they were weaned somewhere between two years old and five years old. In the Ancient Near East it was common around three years old. St Jerome placed Isaac’s weaning at five years old. In any case, he was not an infant, but a young child at the time the feast was given.

There are clear behavioural differences between Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael shows signs of being a little bit of a bully. This wording puts his behaviour at more than simple sibling teasing. This went the extra mile. This was mean-spirited teasing of a young child by a teenager (Ishmael being about fourteen years old).

Paul later uses this extreme difference between the children to symbolize the extreme difference between those born of the Spirit and those following after the flesh (Galatians 4:21-31).

The sage Rashi writes: ‘משתה גדול A GREAT FEAST — it is so designated because the great men of that generation were present at it (Genesis Rabbah 53:10) — Shem, Eber and Abimelech (Tanchuma Yashan, Vayishlach 23). מצחק MAKING SPORT — This means worshipping idols, as it is said in reference of the Golden Calf, (Exodus 32:6) “And they rose up to make merry (לצחק).” Another explanation is that it refers to immoral conduct, just as you say in reference to Potiphar’s wife, (Genesis 39:17) “To mock (לצחק) at me.” Another explanation is that it refers to murder, as (2 Samuel 2:14) “Let the young men, I pray thee, arise and make sport (וישחקו) before us” (where they fought with and killed one another) From Sarah’s reply — “for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son״ — you may infer that he (Ishmael) was quarrelling with Isaac about the inheritance, saying, “I am the first-born and will, therefore, take a double portion”. They went into the field and he (Ishmael) took his bow and shot arrows at him (Isaac), just as you say (Proverbs 26:18-19) “As a madman who casteth firebrands, [arrows and death] and says: I am only מצחק mocking” (Genesis Rabbah 53:11).’

The sage Malbim writes: ‘And the child grew: [So] that you do not say that he was born a weakling from the elderly people – as he grew. And do not say that he was weaned because she did not have milk in order to nurse, since he was not weaned until he grew. As the miracle of the milk continued until he grew like one [fit to be] weaned from his mother. And Avraham made a great banquet: He did not make a banquet at the time of the circumcision, since the circumcision was a commandment specific to him and the circumcised members of his household. So he only made a small banquet before them. But at the time of the weaning, he made a great banquet for the great ones of the generation, as the Sages, may their memory be blessed, said.

The sage Rav Hirsch writes: ‘V. 9. Ishmael is characterised here according to the two natures combined in him: He was the son of a Hamitic mother and was to have been born to an Abraham. Sarah, who was the contriver of that birth had hoped that by the influence of education the Hamitic nature would be entirely overcome by the Abrahamitic spirit. She had hoped that, as the mistress of Hagar, she would be able to succeed in completely paralysing the latter’s influence. We have already been told how mistaken she was in this idea. (Ch. XV). There we tried to show how this double nature proved itself in the descendants of Ishmael. Sarah saw this contrast already in Ishmael himself coming to the fore. He took in just as much of the great ideas of Abraham to make him ironically disdain them, and over that which the world in general greeted merely with צחוק, in which (V.6) derision was only lightly mixed, Ishmael was completely מְצַחֵק, and was therefore completely unfit to join with Isaac in the heritage of Abraham.’