King James Bible Dictionary

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 (Genesis 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 (Genesis 22). (See ABRAHAM.) When he was forty years of age Rebekah was chosen for his wife (Genesis 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 (Genesis 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 (Genesis 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 (Hebrews 11:17; James 2:21), and to his blessing his sons (Hebrews 11:20). As the child of promise, he is contrasted with Ishmael (Romans 9:7, 10; Galatians 4:28; Hebrews 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.

laughter

1. Son of Abraham:

Miraculous birth
Genesis 17:15-19; Genesis 18:1-15; Genesis 21:1-8; Joshua 24:3; 1 Chronicles 1:28; Galatians 4:28; Hebrews 11:11

Ancestor of Jesus
Matthew 1:2

Offered in sacrifice by his father
Genesis 22:1-19; Hebrews 11:17; James 2:21

Is provided a wife from among his kindred
James 1:24; Genesis 25:20

Abrahamic covenant confirmed in
Genesis 26:2-5; 1 Chronicles 16:15-19

Dwells in the south country at the well Lahai-Roi
Genesis 24:62; Genesis 25:11

With Ishmael, buries his father in the cave of Machpelah
Genesis 25:9

Esau and Jacob born to
Genesis 25:19-26; 1 Chronicles 1:34; Joshua 24:4

Dwells in Gerar
Genesis 26:7-11

Prospers
Genesis 26:12-14

Possesses large flocks and herds
Genesis 26:14

Digs wells, and is defrauded of them by the herdsmen of Abimelech
Genesis 26:15; Genesis 26:21

Removes to the valley of Gerar, afterward called Beer-Sheba
Genesis 26:22-33

His old age, last blessing upon his sons
Genesis 27:18-40

Death and burial of
Genesis 35:27-29; Genesis 49:31

His filial obedience
Genesis 22:9

His peaceableness
Genesis 26:14-22

Was a prophet
Genesis 27:28-29; Genesis 27:38; Genesis 27:40; Hebrews 11:20

His devoutness
Genesis 24:63; Genesis 25:21; Genesis 26:25; Matthew 8:11; Luke 13:28

Prophecies concerning
Genesis 17:16-21; Genesis 18:10-14; Genesis 21:12; Genesis 26:2-5; Genesis 26:24; Exodus 32:13; 1 Chronicles 16:16; Romans 9:7

2. A designation of the ten tribes
Amos 7:9

(laughter), the son whom Sara bore to Abraham, in the hundredth year of his age, at Gerar. (B.C. 1897.) In his infancy he became the object of Ishm'l's jealousy; and in his youth the victim, in intention, of Abraham's great sacrificial act of faith. When forty years old he married Rebekah his cousin, by whom, when he was sixty, he had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Driven by famine to Gerar, he acquired great wealth by his flocks but was repeatedly dispossessed by the Philistines of the wells which he sunk at convenient stations. After the deceit by which Jacob acquired his father's blessing Isaac sent his son to seek a wife in Padan-aram; and all that we know of him during the last forty-three years of his life in that he saw that GOD, with a large and prosperous family, return to him at Hebron. (Genesis 36:27) before he died there, at the age of 180 years. He was buried by his two sons in the cave of Machpelah. In the New Testament reference is made to the offering of Isaac (Hebrews 11:17; James 2:21) and to his blessing his sons. (Hebrews 11:20) In (Galatians 4:28-31) he is contrasted with Ishm'l. In reference to the offering up of Isaac by Abraham, the primary doctrine taught are those of sacrifice and substitution, as the means appointed by God for taking away sin; and, as co-ordinate with these, the need of the obedience of faith, on the part of man, to receive the benefit. (Hebrews 11:17) The animal which God provided and Abraham offered was in the whole history of sacrifice the recognized type of "the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world." Isaac is the type of humanity itself, devoted to death for sin.