Isaac was the second of the three patriarchs of Israel. Isaac lived to the age of 180 and was buried by his two sons, now reconciled, in the cave of Machpelah, the family tomb in Hebron.
Background
At his birth his father Abraham was one hundred years old and his mother Sarah ninety. When divine messengers foretold that Sarah would give birth at that age, she laughed, and thus the name Isaac was derived from the Hebrew verb to laugh. Abraham, who had previously despaired of having a child with Sarah, had fathered a son, Ishmael, with his wife’s handmaid, Hagar. After the birth of Isaac, Sarah was jealous of any claims Ishmael may have had on the birthright and insisted on the expulsion of Ishmael and Hagar from the household. In later life, it is related that the two half-brothers came together to bury their father.
Career
The most traumatic event of Isaac’s youth occurred when God ordered Abraham to sacrifice him (Genesis 19). It is generally thought that this occurred when Isaac was a youngster, but the rabbis reckoned that he was already thirty-seven at the time. Abraham took Isaac, as commanded, to the top of Mount Moriah and bound him to an altar in preparation for the sacrifice. Only at the last moment, when the knife was raised for the killing, did an angel stay his hand and explain that God had not intended the death of Isaac but was testing Abraham’s faith. It Has been suggested that the story was intended to warn against the custom of child sacrifice, which was common at the time.
After the death of Sarah (brought on, according to the rabbis, by the near sacrifice of her son), Abraham sent his servant to his relations in Mesopotamia to bring back a wife for his son from among his family, so that he would not intermarry with the daughters of the Canaanites. The bride was Isaac’s cousin, Rebekah. After a prolonged period of childlessness, she gave birth to twins, Esau and Jacob.
In his old age, he lost his eyesight and this I enabled his younger son, Jacob, conspiring with Rebekah, to deceive him into giving to Jacob the birthright which should have gone to the elder twin, Esau. Jacob had to flee to Mesopotamia to escape Esau’s wrath.