Genesis 28

Genesis 28 – The Wives of Jacob and Esau

 

v.1 we find out, kind of, why Rebekah is afraid of Jacob taking a wife of the women. They are Canaanites, the cursed people. Isaac calls Jacob and it says he blessed him and charged him to not take one of them.

Instead of the Canaanite he tells his son to go to the house of Bethuel and choose one of his COUSINS instead.

v.3 It seems like Isaac has already forgotten that Jacob deceived him because he blesses him to ‘be fruitful and multiply.’

Esau sees Jacob getting another blessing and a charge to go to Laban to take a wife and knowing that his father and mother didn’t want a Canaanite daughter-in-law, what does he do?

He goes to Ishmael to take a wife. Another wife. v.9, the took unto the wives which he had Mahalath, three wives now for Esau (the other two are in Gen. 26).

Its kind of hard for a Christian to be mad at the LDS for polygamy when their bible has so much itself.

 

Jacob starts his journey in v.10.

He rests one night and has a dream in which god makes the same promises he made to Abraham. Again we must question why must he make the same promises over and over again? And also, the Jewish people have never and to this day don’t possess the land in question. What happened to this promise?

When he awoke he made a makeshift altar out of his stones he had used as pillows and named the land Bethel. But if this is the naming of Bethel then the mentions of Bethel in Gen. 12 and 13 must have been anachronisms. You can’t go to Bethel before it is named Bethel. v.19 actually tells us before this time the place was called Luz.

 

v.22 must be the first mentioning of the tenth or tithe. There have been mentions of percents before this but the tenth is the one that is used today in the churches.

Genesis 27

Genesis 27 – Jacob and Rebekah fool Isaac

 

‘And it came to pass’ Oh my, if you’ve read the Book of Mormon you’ve heard this phrase a time or two.

 

So, when Isaac was old (you know older than when he was 90 tricking Abimelech) he calls Esau to him and asks him to go hunt some venison so they can eat possibly one last time.

Rebekah heard Isaac and Esau and told Jacob to go get two goats that she would cook for Isaac and hopefully Isaac would bless Jacob before he died.

Jacob saw a flaw in her plan in that he is a ‘smooth man’ and Esau is hairy. He says what if father feels me and finds out it is a deception; he would curse me instead.

Rebekah says she would take the curse because it would be her plan.

She took some of Esau’s clothing and the pelts of the goats to cover his smooth skin. She then gave him the meat and bread and sent him in to Isaac.

v.18-19, Jacob announces himself as Esau to his father.

v.1 only says he is near blind but he must also be near deaf to not hear a difference between his favored manly hunting son Esau and his smooth skinned Jacob.

 

Isaac was at least suspicious because he had apparently returned so quickly from the hunt. And then in v.22 he says the voice is Jacob’s but he is fooled by the goat skin on Jacobs hands.

v.27, Isaac is again fooled, this time by the smell of the clothing.

So, in v.28-29, Isaac blesses his son with many things including slaves, blessings, corn, wine, etc.

 

Soon after Jacob left Esau returned with his venison. He announces himself and his food to his father and Isaac says who are you. Who was that who brought food and got a blessing just before you came.

Strangely, in v.33, it says ‘yea, and he shall be blessed.’ Does god not know who the blessing was meant for? Is god also deceived by dirty laundry and goat skin? Even Esau asks to be blessed also in v.34, why can’t they both be blessed?

v.37, The blessing Jacob got apparently is nontransferable. Isaac blesses Esau to be the servant of his brother, that he will live by the sword, and he’ll live off the land.

Rightly, Esau is pissed in v.41, Esau hated Jacob. He says after he mourns his father he would slay his brother.

Someone heard of Esau’s plan and told Rebekah who told Jacob that if Esau comes to mourn with him and console his brother, it is actually a plan to get close enough to kill him. In v.45 she tells Jacob to stay aware of and likely away from his brother until his anger subsides.

The chapter ends with Rebekah telling Isaac that she is scared of the women in the country, the ‘daughters of Heth.’ She is thinking about Jacob taking one of them for his wife, but makes no mention of Esau’s future wife or why she is afraid of these women.

My Five Year Old

Sariah is five today. I really can’t believe it but its here. The time has gone by so fast and thankfully I have very few regrets. I am going to use this post to blog my thoughts and memories from the past week which has been eventful. Starting off with a field trip with Sariah’s Pre-K class, a dinner with family for her birthday, going to the doctor, and her birthday.

On this birthday, as many do, my thoughts turn to the future. This blog is as much for me now as for the future. I want to urge everyone, but most especially my family and friends, to start a blog or journal for yourself. The release of getting so much out of your head but knowing that it isn’t gone forever is awesome. You don’t have to post it on Facebook, you don’t have to make it public at all, and it doesn’t have to have a reason more than to have a release for the thoughts in your head; it can just be your very own pensieve.

It is called a Pensieve. I sometimes find, and I am sure you know the feeling,

that I simply have too many thoughts and memories crammed into my mind.“

— Albus Dumbledore

I have just one more suggestion for my friends and family. I am writing Sariah letters that I will give to her when she gets older with advice and memories from her childhood and our growing as a family. I had the idea to write her letters but I think I will also send her birthday cards. I will mail them to her and then keep them in a lock box so they are kept safe and secure until it is time for her to open them. I am going to write DO NOT OPEN UNTIL ______ (either an age, date, or grade) on the back of the envelopes and I am confident that it will be a great experience in the future for her and for us when we open these time capsules of knowledge. If you would like to mail anything to her please do but warn me so I can hide it away if you want me too. Thanks to Grammy and Grampy I have a fire/water proof safe that will be perfect for this. I do wish I had started this from when she was born but I think any effort we put into this will be appreciated someday.

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Field Trip

I got the chance to go on a field trip with Sariah and her Shining Stars class from Little Country School House to the Customs House Museum here in Clarksville, TN. We had a great time! Myself and another parent rode the LCHS bus with the two teachers and the students and a few other parents met the group at the museum.

The Customs House is not a regular museum, it has stuff for everyone. The main floor is dedicated to a couple art galleries and a gallery for the memorabilia and recognition of several sports stars from our area. Connected to the museum is the old post office that is currently being renovated to bring it back to its glory days. Downstairs is the big part for the kids, though. On the lower level of the museum they have a a train exhibit, Bubble Cave, McGregor’s Market, some physics demonstrations, and toys for all ages.

We began our trip in the train exhibit. The kids loved it. The scale trains are set up with multiple interactive parts for visitors to play with and going around and around the exhibit pushing the buttons all day would have suited several of the kids just fine. Sariah and Liya had a great time showing each other the buttons and what they did in the exhibit. After leaving the train room we went upstairs to the art exhibits to read a book and look through the art.

Miss Chelsea read the book Duck In The Truck and then we were to look through the galleries for pictures with parts of the story. This was less successful than I think they wanted it to be; the kids liked the story but weren’t into the ‘scavenger hunt.’ The art galleries were okay, though my tastes don’t like interpretive or ‘fuzzy’ artwork they did have several realistic paintings and great photographs. Of course the children were not very impressed by the art and weren’t entertained until we got into the sports room. Included in the sports room are Pat Summit, Jeff Purvis, and of course Wilma Rudolph. The most exciting part of the trip was when we made it to the kids area.

The Bubble Cave was lots of fun. It had several rings in differing sizes and shapes to see the bubbles that could be made from each. They even had one large enough and made for someone to stand inside and bring the bubble up and around you. Sariah had a great time in here even after most of the kids were done with it. Next, we visited McGregor’s Market. This store is made for this age group of kids. It has real food containers (minus the real food) with shopping carts, shelves, and a play kitchen. The physics toys were ramps and buckets made for the kids to roll golf balls down differing ramps and see the angles, speeds, and flight distances they achieve. My personal favorite part because the kids are playing and not actually aware they are learning, but I could tell they were. They would not get a ball to go into a hole or make it over a hill and the other kids would say ‘you have to go higher’ or ‘you need to go back more.’ It was awesome. After playing we had lunch time and I was amazed at just how quiet it got in the lunch room after all the noise from playing. My favorite moment from the entire trip has got to be from the picture below. Ella (middle) fell asleep on the ride back to school and leaned over onto Sariah, Sariah leaned over onto me to let her friends be comfortable, and precious little Liya just leaned over to rest onto Ella. I’m glad I got the picture.

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Birthday Dinner

Wednesday Sariah had a surprise when we arrived at Cracker Barrel in Rivergate. Grammy and Grampy, Austin and Kyra (AKA Snow, AKA Hope), Granna, Diana, and Nanny all showed up for a dinner for Sariah. We had a blast, I know that most of the people reading this were actually there, but she had a great time and loved getting to see everyone. I was excited to have everyone in one place again. The meal was great and the service was even better. A big thank you to Michael and Ben for servicing our table of 10 with more speed and good attitude than I was expecting. Not saying anything against Cracker Barrel, any large group can be daunting and easily turn a mood sour like the guy who refused to sit in the same section as us because of ‘the noisy kids’. Two things to this guy; One, we were leaving when you saw us, and two, there was only ONE kid and she wasn’t noisy!

We made it home with more gifts than she needed but isn’t that always the story with a five year old’s birthday party. A Sophia the First castle, a Princess Scooter, a Doc McRiah jacket and hat, a marble physics toy, a gift card for Build-A-Bear, puzzles, and probably other things I can’t think of.

The Sophia castle was fun to play with and to put together; there are so many little parts! Sariah was so excited that she was able to put the puzzles together mostly by herself, and that the Sophia ones are heart-shaped. The doctor’s coat and hat will be fun when she realizes what they are; she hasn’t really thought about it being for Doc McStuffins and dress up. I think for now her favorite is going to be the scooter. She zooms around on it thinking she’s going ‘real fast’ even if she’s inside on the carpet with the cat walking faster than she is riding. Diana warned me that I might need to take a wrench to it and tighten it up but I don’t think so, its running great. I was excited to put the marble thing together because I remember having one like it when I was a kid. I remember having so much fun trying to get the different ramps to work together to basically make the most noise while the marble is working its way down. Sariah and I had fun attempting to put it together according to the directions but they were flawed so we went our own way even though she made sure to let me know it didn’t look like the one on the box. So with all of the new toys coming in I hope that in the next week or two I can get in her room and get some toys together that I can donate to goodwill.

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The Big Day

Today is the day. I’m at work and Sariah’s at home sick with mama. Had to make a run to Premier on Friday instead of going to school and turns out she had burst an eardrum. She hadn’t mentioned her ear hurting only some stuffy nose and a little cough. Even the last few days she hasn’t seemed to feel too bad, riding her scooter around, but nights are bad with being unable to lay down with out coughing. But this isn’t a post about being sick.

Crystal and I got Sariah a Nabi. Its a great little thing for someone her age in the era we are living in. It is a technology based world and this is perfect for the kids who already know how to use phones and computers before we knew how to count. It is basically a kid’s iPad. It has the ability to download games, books, and most of the apps available to the ipad, it was a great find.

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That’s about it. Its been a great week and I am so filled with awe every time I think about how far Sariah has come since being born at Maury Regional, sent to Vanderbilt NICU, and everything to this point. I love her more than anything I have ever thought possible and I expect a bright and wonderful future for her and our family because of her. I hope you will all join me in the time capsule letters. Thank you all for your help and advice in raising such a wonder little girl and please stick around because I’m sure we’ll need more of both in the future.

Genesis 26

Genesis 26 – Isaac and Abimelech

Another famine strikes the land. The text makes note that this is different than the one ‘in the days of Abraham.’ Duh, that was nearly 100 years ago wasn’t it. While thinking about a timeline, it says Isaac went unto King Abimelech of the Philistines, just as Abraham did.

Abraham to Abimelech ~2067 BCE

Death of Abraham ~1991 BCE

Isaac to Abimelech ~1977 BCE

Dates from HERE

But the Philistine people only came about around the 12th century BCE

Info from HERE

There is about 800 years that are unaccounted for. This is most definitely an anachronism; these anachronisms play a big part in deciding if this text is to be taken as divine or mortal. If this part has been altered, what other unknown parts have been? Why should you believe every other part if you can’t believe this part?

So, god appears to Isaac and tells him to stay in the land with the famine and he and his descendants will be blessed and would own the land and even says he will ‘perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father.’ Isaac stays, v.6.

Immediate question here, why does he have to swear it again. He already swore to Abraham to give the land to his descendants why do it again? He even makes the same promise that the descendants will outnumber the stars and own theses countries.

The only reason I would see that these oaths/swearing needed to be done again was if Abraham had broken his side of the agreement, but in v.5 god says Abraham was loyal.

Remember that ‘she’s my sister’ thing Abraham pulled in Gen. 12 and then again in Gen. 20? In Gen. 20 the king Abraham pulled the con on was, guess who, Abimelech! According to this timeline Gen. 12 was about 2091 BCE, Gen. 20 was about 2067 BCE, and this story is about 1977 BCE. 90 years later, Abimelech is still king and has the same con pulled on him again by the son of the first.

v.7, Isaac feared to tell the people she was his wife so they told everyone they were sibilings. In v.8, Isaac and Rebekah had been in Gerar for so long that they needed to do their marital duties and guess who saw them ‘sporting?’ King Abimelech!

v.9 Abimelech reprimands Isaac for lying because someone in his kingdom might have gotten with her and brought guiltiness upon them. The king tells his people to not harm them.

Isaac is supposed to be a chosen person of god, why must he lie? Why is it allowed?

Isaac stays in the land and during the next season overcomes the famine ‘an hundredfold.’ He had flocks and herds and ‘great store of servants.’ Slavery again.

The Philistines grew envious and, in v.16, Abimelech told them to leave.

Isaac and his herdsmen dig wells but are continually rebuffed by the herdsmen of Abimelech most likely to get them farther and farther away. Eventually with the well he name Rehoboth they didn’t advance anymore. After being pushed out of the land many times Isaac finally says ‘the lord hath made room for us.’ This is crazy to me. After they leave the city and the herdsmen are pushing them farther out they eventually stop going after them and that’s where Isaac says god made room for them.

v.26, Abimelech and two of his men come to Isaac to make a covenant because they saw that god was with him. Abimelech says since they sent him away without hurting him, he should do no harm to them. Through Isaac they thought they could be blessed too.

They had a feast, ate and drank, and left the next morning in peace.

v.35, At 40 Esau takes Judith and Bashemath as his wives. A funny ending to this chapter, in v.35, apparently the in-law thing happened way back then too, it says they (the wives of Esau) grieved the minds of Isaac and Rebekah.

Genesis 25

Genesis 25 – The Death of Abraham

Abraham takes another wife, Keturah, after Sarah’s death.

The beginning of this chapter is another bit of genealogy; although these seem boring, some times they are actually useful so because I know there are more in the future we may come back to reference them for information about proposed controversies.

One big thing I think needs to be brought up is that continually Isaac is referred to as Abraham’s only son, except strangely in this chapter. This is the only spot since Isaac was born that Ishmael was considered his son.

What about the sons of the concubines? They are his sons even if he doesn’t claim them.

v.6 is pretty clear; all of the sons were given gifts and sent away from ‘his son’ Isaac. I wonder at what age they were sent packing and what kind of gift they got. No child support back then, probably some gold, an ass, and a horse.

What about these concubines? Polygamy or just relationships out of wedlock?

Also, Abraham and Sarah went so long unable to have children without help from god, these kids of the concubines didn’t need help?

These are questions that I had no idea existed when growing up. They are glossed over and the big story is looked at, but the details are in the book and need to be looked at as well. This is the reason I embarked on this journey; to see the details that have been overlooked.

v.8, Abraham ‘gave up the ghost’ at 175 years old or so. Isaac and Ishmael bury him in the cave with Sarah, v.10.

I wonder if Keturah or any of the other concubines will be buried with them in the cave. Probably not, likely a similar story to the ‘sons’ that he had them but doesn’t claim them.

 

The death of Ishmael at 137 and some genealogy in v.12-18.

 

Isaac’s story restarts in v.19.

It says he is 40 when he ‘took’ Rebekah for his wife.

LDS question here: Is Laban, Rebekah’s uncle in this story, the same Laban character as in the Book of Mormon?

 

Isaac asks god to help them conceive and god gave them twins.

The babies ‘struggled together’ as many twins do in the womb because there just isn’t much room but this story is routinely taken as the babies were fighting. I am of course taken to the more scientific stance on this but Rebekah went to god to ask why.

v.23, god says she has two nations in her womb; One will be stronger, one weaker; the elder shall serve the younger. It doesn’t state which the stronger (elder or younger) would be, and it also doesn’t say what kind of strength it will be, physical or mental.

Esau the hairy red child and Jacob literally on his heel were born. It states Isaac is 60 ‘when she bare them’ but no mention is made of Rebekah’s age. But why would there be any mention of her age, all of the genealogies only mention the male descendants, all of the stories are male centered. Its hard to explain away the fact that a divine text is so misogynistic.

 

Back to Esau and Jacob.

Esau became a hunter and a man of the field while Jacob is described as a ‘plain man.’

Isaac prefers his manly son Esau because he like the venison he hunted. Rebekah is said to prefer her Jacob, because he seems to be described as more feminine and a home body.

v.29, Jacob was eating, probably cooking, when Esau came in from the field tired and hungry.

Esau pleads for some of the soup but Jacob requires him to forfeit his birthright for it.

Esau sees no need for the birthright, likely because he was so accomplished in the field and in the hunt.

 

v.33 Esau swore to Jacob and sold his birthright for LENTIL SOUP!

Did Jesus Actually Exist

Did Jesus actually exist?

I just finished reading this and….wow! I have never heard many of the points in this post. I will be looking into many of them to make sure they are accurate because there is so much information to take in. When I was growing up I was never told that the gospels weren’t actually written at the time of the story they were telling nor by the people in the stories. I have heard of the Shroud of Turin before but never thought hard on it or investigated it. This post claims there were many studies done on it and all claim it as a forgery, seemed to good to be true for me anyways. In high school I found out that the bible was put together and some books were not allowed to be added or were edited to be in the bible. The fact that a group of men decided what stories from that time were good enough to be believed and the ones that told other stories (or different accounts of the same stories) were not allowed amazed and confused me. The dead sea scrolls I thought, would be added to the accounts of the bible, not into the actual bible but believed to be canon at least, but they weren’t.

I am personally still on the fence about whether the person Jesus existed. I do not believe he was the literal son of god or had divine power, but I am unsure, yet, if a person whose story was blown out of proportion actually was there at the turn of the century. Of course after reading something like thisand seeing this video I am leaning on the side that he didn’t exist and the stories were verbal stories that were passed around and exaggerated or changed (either by accident or on purpose) and then written down, much like a game of telephone we all played in elementary school. Actually talking about telephone, I had an interesting discussion with my wife that I found amusing but she was unaware. She talked about her class (second grade) watching videos and discussing tall tales, like Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed. I liked how she told her students that these people obviously didn’t exist exactly the way the story said because it was a verbal story that had been passed down, changed, and exaggerated before being written down and that no one actually thought they were true because of the exaggerated facts. This amused me as this is exactly how I imagined the story of Jesus back in the 1st century up until the gospels were actually written down. It was kind of ironic that she can teach her kids to think critically about these stories but refuses to do so herself for biblical tales.

Genesis 24

Genesis 24 – A Wife for Isaac

 

Abraham must be feeling his age by now especially with his wife having passed.

He calls on his senior servant and asks him to swear to not let Isaac marry a Canaanite. The way he tells the servant to swear is strange; He tells him to place is hand under Abraham’s thigh to swear.

Before the servant swears to obey his master, he asks ‘Peradventure (What If) the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land?’

Abraham answers him saying basically that god has already set it all up, so the servant agrees and places his hand under Abraham’s thigh to swear.

 

V.10, The servant takes some camels and treks to the land of Abraham’s father to find the woman.

When he reaches a well outside of a city he prays to god to bring the woman that was promised.

Rebekah comes up before he was done speaking with god, in v.15.

Of course, she fulfills what he asked god to make the maiden do in v.14.

 

The servant man takes out an earring and bracelets for payment I assume in v.22 and then asks if he can stay the night in the house of her father, she agrees.

Laban, Rebekah’s brother, comes to get the servant in v.29.

He took his camels to the barn and came into the house but refused to eat their food until he spoke of why he was there.

The servant spends v34-48 recounting v1-33 almost word for word.

 

He asks them to choose to basically believe is story or not either way tell him yes or no now. When the family decides to believe this story and give Rebekah to him for Isaac he brings out jewels, gold, silver, and raiment to give to Rebekah and to her family.

The family put on a feast and the next morning he asked to leave, the family asked to let Rebekah stay 10 days but the servant says he must go now. They actually decide to ask Rebekah if she wanted to go with him and she agrees in v58.

This is a big step for the bible, allowing a female to make a decision and not blame her for it.

When she said she wanted to go, her family gave their blessing to her and to her descendants.

 

As the group near the field where Isaac was waiting for them, Rebekah veils herself.

I am afraid when I read v66 that the servant is going to again repeat everything like he did earlier but thankfully he keeps it to one line.

 

In v.67, Isaac ‘took’ Rebekah, she became his wife, and that meaning for this is found out in the statement ‘and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.’

Is that the reason Abraham did all of this? Or was it a combo of that and him feeling old?

 

Genesis 23

Genesis 23 – Sarah Passes

 

Sarah, at 127, passes away.

She is the longest living female in the bible, though that could be because the bible doesn’t actually mention that many women.

 

Sarah dies in Kirjatharba, where is Abraham at this time? v2 says he ‘came to mourn his dead.’

 

I think I’ll take this chapter a little different because it is basically talking back and forth, not a story with points. So, the people of the city will be S, Abraham will be A, and Ephron will be E.

 

A-Sons of Heth, I am a visitor among you, give me a place to lay my wife who died here.

S-Ask for anything and it is yours, we know of you, you may have your pick.

A-Thank you, If you don’t mind where then get Ephron, he’s got a nice cave and I’ll pay whatever he wants.

E-You sir, can have it for free! The cave and the field surrounding it. Go and bury your wife.

A-I will pay whatever it is worth, just tell me a price.

E-Its only worth 400 shekels of silver; whats 400 shekels between friends? Go and bury your wife.

A-Ok, 400 it is. Here you go.

 

Abraham bought the land from Ephron and then buried Sarah in the field of Machpelah.

Genesis 22

Genesis 22 – Father of the Year

 

God and his games….He tells Abraham to take Isaac, ‘thine only son’ to Moriah and offer him as a burnt offering.

Just a quick question, what happened to Ishmael, he is still Abraham’s son?

 

Also, what happened to the Abraham from Gen. 18:25? ‘Shalt not the Judge of all the earth do right?’

 

Three days journey with fire wood, two servants, and his son the sacrifice. Did Abraham tell Isaac what was going to happen or did he lie again?

He lied. v5 he tells his servants to wait with the donkeys and he and his son would go ‘worship.’ Isaac asks in v7 where the sacrificial lamb was (this is three days later, did no one ask this before now?) and Abraham says that god will provide a lamb.

v9, Abraham binds Isaac and lays him upon the altar of wood and in v10 goes to slay his son and an angel tells him not to do it. I notice that god isn’t the one telling him not to do it, almost as if the angel is covering for god in an absence or lapse.

Because Abraham almost went through with the sacrifice a ram is provided for the sacrifice and the angel promises to make his seed out number the stars in the heavens and the sand of the shore….but he’s already promised this at least twice.

 

The chapter ends with a little genealogy and another reference to polygamy/concubines.

Genesis 21

Genesis 21 – Isaac v Ishmael

 

God returns to get Abraham and Sarah to conceive a child.

In v2 it says ‘at the set time of which god had spoken to him.’ This is one of the details that are particularly vague, and when god told them he would return he actually didn’t set a finite time for his return, see Gen 18:10.

 

Isaac is born when Abraham is 100 (or at least over 150, see Gen 11:26, 32 and Acts 7:2-4)

 

v1, ‘the lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken,’ Does god have sex?

I think I am correct in saying that most LDS believe god to have a corporeal body and had sex with Mary and the infamous Heavenly Mother, likely this is another instance they would believe the literal ‘do’ or ‘know.’

 

v10, Sarah tells Abraham to get rid of Ishmael and his slave mother, Hagar, so they can’t claim to be the heir. She used Hagar as a back up but now that she has a son of her own Hagar is no longer needed.

Thankfully, Abraham is grieved by the decision to get rid of them because it is still his son. In v12 god tells Abraham to not be grieved and to listen to Sarah and get rid of them.

 

So what does he do? He gives her some bread and some water and sends them on their way into the wilderness. Just what a righteous man of god would be expected to do right? Hopefully you answered NO.

 

Eventually the water and bread run out and, sensing the end of her and her child, Hagar calls to god to save them. The selfsame god that sent her into the wilderness.

v14 says he gave the water, the bread, and the child to Hagar and sent them away. Seems like a child, or baby. In v15 she casts the child under a shrub to not be near it when it died, again sounds like a baby. In v18 the angel says for her to lift up her child and ‘hold him in thine hand’ but in Gen 17:25 Ishmael was already 13 years old back then when he was circumcised and time had passed since then. Contradiction I’m sure.

The angel and or god make a well appear, they drink, and they prosper in the wilderness. He takes to wife an Egyptian and their story ends.

 

Abimelech is back and remembering his last encounter with Abraham asks him to swear to not ‘deal falsely’ with him or his descendants again.

Abraham swears to be truthful and gives the king part of his herd to make the covenant. He saves seven ewes to be his witnesses to him digging a well for some reason. How can animals be witnesses?

 

Abraham planted a grove in a land that he called Beersheba. In v31 it says he names the place Beersheba but in just v14 Hagar and Ishmael were sent out into the wilderness of Beersheba. How could they have been sent to a place that hadn’t been named yet? This is called an anachronism.