isaac

2 definitions found

isaac - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  Isaac
      n 1: (Old Testament) the second patriarch; son of Abraham and
           Sarah who was offered by Abraham as a sacrifice to God;
           father of Jacob and Esau

isaac - Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary :

  Isaac
  laughter. (1) Israel, or the kingdom of the ten tribes (Amos
  7:9, 16).
  
    (2.) The only son of Abraham by Sarah. He was the longest
  lived of the three patriarchs (Gen. 21:1-3). He was circumcised
  when eight days old (4-7); and when he was probably two years
  old a great feast was held in connection with his being weaned.
  
    The next memorable event in his life is that connected with
  the command of God given to Abraham to offer him up as a
  sacrifice on a mountain in the land of Moriah (Gen. 22). (See
  ABRAHAM.) When he was forty years of age Rebekah was
  chosen for his wife (Gen. 24). After the death and burial of his
  father he took up his residence at Beer-lahai-roi (25:7-11),
  where his two sons, Esau and Jacob, were born (21-26), the
  former of whom seems to have been his favourite son (27,28).
  
    In consequence of a famine (Gen. 26:1) Isaac went to Gerar,
  where he practised deception as to his relation to Rebekah,
  imitating the conduct of his father in Egypt (12:12-20) and in
  Gerar (20:2). The Philistine king rebuked him for his
  prevarication.
  
    After sojourning for some time in the land of the Philistines,
  he returned to Beersheba, where God gave him fresh assurance of
  covenant blessing, and where Abimelech entered into a covenant
  of peace with him.
  
    The next chief event in his life was the blessing of his sons
  (Gen. 27:1). He died at Mamre, "being old and full of days"
  (35:27-29), one hundred and eighty years old, and was buried in
  the cave of Machpelah.
  
    In the New Testament reference is made to his having been
  "offered up" by his father (Heb. 11:17; James 2:21), and to his
  blessing his sons (Heb. 11:20). As the child of promise, he is
  contrasted with Ishmael (Rom. 9:7, 10; Gal. 4:28; Heb. 11:18).
  
    Isaac is "at once a counterpart of his father in simple
  devoutness and purity of life, and a contrast in his passive
  weakness of character, which in part, at least, may have sprung
  from his relations to his mother and wife. After the expulsion
  of Ishmael and Hagar, Isaac had no competitor, and grew up in
  the shade of Sarah's tent, moulded into feminine softness by
  habitual submission to her strong, loving will." His life was so
  quiet and uneventful that it was spent "within the circle of a
  few miles; so guileless that he let Jacob overreach him rather
  than disbelieve his assurance; so tender that his mother's death
  was the poignant sorrow of years; so patient and gentle that
  peace with his neighbours was dearer than even such a coveted
  possession as a well of living water dug by his own men; so
  grandly obedient that he put his life at his father's disposal;
  so firm in his reliance on God that his greatest concern through
  life was to honour the divine promise given to his race.",
  Geikie's Hours, etc.