Commentaria in Genesim
18. HEVILA. It is a region, not of India, but situated near the desert of Sur, between Egypt, Assyria and Palestine; of which in chapter 2, verse 11. The descendants of Ishmael therefore possessed all that tract which stretches from the Persian Gulf to Assyria, and which is today thought to be called Cabana.
IN THE PRESENCE OF ALL HIS BRETHREN, because Ishmael among “These (all the sons of Ishmael) inhabit all the land reaching from the Euphrates to the Red Sea, calling the region Nabatene.” So Josephus, Antiquities, book 1, chapter 12, section 4. Arrian in the Periplus relates that the royal city of the Nabatæans is Petra, which lies between the Asphaltite lake and the Arabian gulf.
his brethren, dwelt in the midst; for he had Isaac on the west, and the sons of Cetura on the east.
HE DIED IN THE PRESENCE OF ALL HIS BRETHREN. For “he died” the Hebrew has naphal, that is, he fell, as if to say: while his brethren stood, lived and looked on, Ishmael fell and died; and this somewhat prematurely, in the 137th year of his age, whereas his other parents and brethren lived longer; for Isaac lived 180 years. Ishmael died in the 48th year after the death of Abraham: for he was born in the 86th year of Abraham, and Abraham lived in all 175 years. Others explain it thus: he fell, namely his lot fell, as if to say, Ishmael dwelt among his brethren, as the Septuagint, the Chaldee and the Arabic render it. But no mention is here made of a lot. Hence Pagninus renders it, and he died.
Bathuel was a Syrian, a native of that part of Syria which is called Mesopotamia. On which note first: a Syrian is called in Hebrew Arammi, as if Armenian; and Syria is called Aram, as if Armenia. It seems therefore from this Hebrew word that Syria, which extended very widely, as I shall presently say, was once called Armenia, from Aram the son of Sem, grandson of Noe, Genesis 10.
Secondly, Syria among the ancients extended far and wide, and embraced many regions, distinguished by various surnames, as is plain from 2 Kings For first, the region in which Damascus lies is called Aram Dammesec, Syria of Damascus.
Secondly, the Syria in which Zoba lies is called Aram Zoba, or Syria Zoba. It is the one that lies between Libanus and Antilibanus, and, by corruption of the Hebrew word Zoba, was called Hollow Syria, and by the Greeks Cœle, from the plain lying low at the slope of the mountains (which is what Zoba means in Hebrew).
Thirdly, Aram naharaim, that is, Syria of the two rivers, is Mesopotamia, which is also called Interamnis, because it lies between the Euphrates and the Tigris. The same is called Aram Padan, as if you should say, Syria of the plain. For Padan in the Ishmaelitic tongue signifies a field, or a level region. Hence also the most noble river of Italy is called the Padus, because it flows long through level regions. So Bathuel is here called a Syrian, because a Mesopotamian, that is, a native of Haran, a city of Mesopotamia.
Fourthly, there is the Syria of Maacha; it was so called from Maacha, the son of Nachor by his wife Roma, Genesis 22, last verse.
denotes not only the generation, but also the history and narration of what befell Isaac.
Note: God willed that the holy women Sara and Rebecca (as also Rachel and Anna) should be barren for a time, to teach us that the blessed seed, namely Christ, was born from Sara and Rebecca (as also the most holy men, Joseph from Rachel and Samuel from Anna) not by the powers of nature, but by the mere gift of God, by a miracle, and was given to the world. So St. Chrysostom. God had decreed therefore that Jacob and Christ should be born of Rebecca, but only by the mediation of second causes and by the prayers of Isaac obtaining it.
22. THE CHILDREN STRUGGLED IN HER WOMB. The Septuagint renders it “they leaped,” which St. Ambrose renders “they were shaken”; St. Jerome renders it, they kicked; Aquila, they were broken; Symmachus, they wrestled, as in a palestra. These boys, then, shook one another, thrust and crowded each other, while each strove and struggled to be the firstborn. Note: this contest and wrestling of the little ones Jacob and Esau came about not by force of nature but by God’s will, as a presage that Jacob and Esau, once born, would wrestle and contend with each other for the birthright and primacy, as is plain from verse 23. Hence Jacob held the heel of Esau, as if wishing to supplant him, that he might not come first from the womb. So Rupert: “The posture of each,” he says, “shows who was the leader in the struggle within, namely Esau, crushed by Jacob, seems to flee, and Jacob, holding his foot in his hand, presents the figure of one pursuing and striking the back of a vanquished foe.” And he adds allegorically that by this wrestling of Jacob and Esau is signified the struggle of Christians with the Jews.
Peter Comestor’s Scholastic History, and St. Ambrose, book 4 On Faith, chapter 4, and St. Augustine, cited by Denis the Carthusian (yet I have found nothing of the kind so far in St. Augustine), think that this struggle of Jacob in the womb was like the leaping of John the Baptist in his mother’s womb, and consequently that both Jacob and John the Baptist were sanctified in the womb. They confirm this from the fact that the Apostle, Romans 9, asserts that God loved Jacob before he had done anything good, and while he was still in his mother’s womb. But in the same way it would have to be said that Esau was sanctified in the womb. The leaping of St. John was therefore one thing, the struggling and wrestling of Jacob and Esau another, and the mind of the Apostle is likewise another, as I have said on Romans 9. This opinion of theirs therefore lacks foundation, and seems to be rashly asserted.
So the lives and deeds of illustrious men have often been foretold by portents and omens. Socrates saw in a dream a cygnet growing feathers in his lap, which, its wings at once grown, flew up on high and uttered most sweet songs: this was Plato, the disciple of Socrates, who shone among the philosophers for wisdom and eloquence. Hence on the next day, when Plato was commended to Socrates by his father, he said: This is the swan I saw. Laertius is witness, in his Life of Plato.
The mother of St. Dominic, being with child, seemed to herself in her sleep to carry in her womb a whelp holding a torch in its mouth, with which, once brought to the light, it would set the world on fire. By this dream was signified that St. Dominic would inflame men throughout the world with the splendour of his holiness and doctrine.
St. Thomas Aquinas, while still an infant, handling a paper, and even eating it, signified how studious he would be when grown.
From the mouth of the boy St. Ephrem his parents saw a vine come forth, which filled all the region round about; it signified how far his doctrine and virtue would spread.
AND SHE WENT TO CONSULT THE LORD, on mount Moria, through Melchisedech. So Eusebius, Gennadius, Theodoret and Diodorus. So also Chrysostom, homily 50, says that Rebecca consulted God through the priest, and through the same received an answer from God. Hence he adds: “See how great was the dignity of priests even then.”
Secondly, the Jerusalem Paraphrast and the Hebrews render it: She went to seek mercy in the house where Sem taught. For Sem the son of Noe was still living; he died when Jacob was in his fiftieth year. The Hebrews moreover think that Melchisedech was Sem; and so this explanation of theirs would coincide with the first of Eusebius.
Thirdly, most easily and plainly, Theodoret, Diodorus and Procopius judge that Rebecca, her mind disturbed, went to a neighbouring altar in her household, and there prayed to God, who answered by an angel what follows: “Two nations are in thy womb, and the elder shall serve the younger.” From this Rebecca understood that Jacob would be preferred to Esau, and would take from him the birthright and the paternal blessing; which, however, she concealed from her husband Isaac, that room might be given to the prophetic mystery, of which in chapter 28, verse 23.
23. TWO NATIONS: two sons, who will be the fathers and heads of two nations, namely of the Jews and the Idumeans, opposed to each other. See THE ELDER SHALL SERVE THE YOUNGER. The firstborn Esau shall serve the younger Jacob, not in his own person (for we nowhere read that this was done; rather Jacob submitted himself to Esau), but in his posterity: for the descendants of Jacob alone, as heirs of Abraham, possessed the promised land of Chanaan, and were enriched with God’s benefits, and the Idumeans, the descendants of Esau, served them in the time of David and Solomon, as is plain (1 Kings, chapter 8); and although afterwards they shook off the yoke, yet being again subdued by Hyrcanus, they received circumcision and grew together with the Jews into one nation, as Josephus testifies, Antiquities, book 14, chapter 17. Hence Pliny and others often confuse the Idumeans with the Jews.