“ Like his father, Isaac lived a nomadic pastoral life, but within much narrower local limits, south of Beersheba (Gen. xxvi., on the incidents here recorded, see Abimelech) . After the death of his mother, when he was forty years old, he married Rebekah the Aramaean, by whom after twenty years of married life he became the father of Esau and Jacob. He died at the age of one hundred and eighty. [1] “Isaac” is used as a synonym for “Israel” by Amos (vii. 9, 16) , who also bears witness to the importance of Beersheba as a sanctuary. ”

“ The narrative (which must be judged with due regard to the conditions of the age) shows that the sacrifice of the first-born, though not inconsistent with Yahweh’s claims (Ex. xxii. 29) , was neither required nor tolerated (cp. Micah vi. 6-8) . ”