16 And she went some distance away, about an arrow flight, and seating herself on the earth, she gave way to bitter weeping, saying, Let me not see the death of my child.
And Esau said to his father, Is that the only blessing you have, my father? give a blessing to me, even me! And Esau was overcome with weeping.
Now on hearing these words which the angel of the Lord said to all the children of Israel, the people gave themselves up to loud crying and weeping.
May the Lord give you rest in the houses of your husbands. Then she gave them a kiss; and they were weeping bitterly.
Then David and the people who were with him gave themselves up to weeping till they were able to go on weeping no longer.
Then the mother of the living child came forward, for her heart went out to her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the child; do not on any account put it to death. But the other woman said, It will not be mine or yours; let it be cut in two.
Will a woman give up the child at her breast, will she be without pity for the fruit of her body? yes, these may, but I will not let you go out of my memory.
And I will send down on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of prayer; and their eyes will be turned to the one who was wounded by their hands: and they will be weeping for him as for an only son, and their grief for him will be bitter, like the grief of one sorrowing for his oldest son.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Genesis 21
Commentary on Genesis 21 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 21
In this chapter we have,
Gen 21:1-8
Long-looked-for comes at last. The vision concerning the promised seed is for an appointed time, and now, at the end, it speaks, and does not lie; few under the Old Testament were brought into the world with such expectation as Isaac was, not for the sake of any great person eminence at which he was to arrive, but because he was to be, in this very thin, a type of Christ, that seed which the holy God had so long promised and holy men so long expected. In this account of the first days of Isaac we may observe,
Gen 21:9-13
The casting out of Ishmael is here considered of, and resolved on.
Gen 21:14-21
Here is,
Gen 21:22-32
We have here an account of the treaty between Abimelech and Abraham, in which appears the accomplishment of that promise (ch. 12:2) that God would make his name great. His friendship is valued, is courted, though a stranger, though a tenant at will to the Canaanites and Perizzites.
Gen 21:33-34
Observe,