Isaac

3 definitions found

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  Isaac
       n : (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

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:



  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.
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Isaac, laughter