Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

16:l-16 GENESIS
but their will, and acknowledging nlr right but their sword;
‘their hand against every man, and every man’s hand against
them.’--‘And he shall dwell in the Presence of dl his
brethren.’ To ascertain the meaning of this sentence, we
must recollect that one peculiarity in the prophecies concerning
the Jews-another branch of the Abrahamic tree
-was, Deut. 28:64, ‘And the Lord shall scatter thee among
all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the
other.’ Now this was foretold of the child of the promise,
the descendants of Isaac; but of Ishmael, the son of the
bondwoman, it is said, He shall dwell in the presence of
all his brethren, that is, while Israel shall be scattered, dispersed,
and outcast, Isa. 11:l2, fro he land promised to
Abram, Ishmael shall abide in the land promised to Hagar.
The event has verified the prediction, and proved that it
proceeded from him who ‘determined the bounds of their
habitation.’ Israel is scattered in judgment as chaff of
the thrashing-flour ; Ishmael abides immovable as Sinai.”
(Cf. Luke 21:24, Acts 17:26). (Explanatory: the name
Arabia Felix, as used above, has reference to Yemen and
surrounding area; Arabia Petraea was the name by which
the northern part of the Arabian world was known, that
which bordered on the Negeb and the adjacent Sinaitic
peninsula. The latter derived its name from the capital
city, Petra, of the Aramaic-speaking Nabataean Arabs.
Petra was some fifty miles south of the Dead Sea. The
Nabataeans derived from Nebaioth, son of Ishmael and
brother-in-law of Edom (Esau): cf. Gen. 25:13, 28:9,
etc. It should be noted here that the Apostle Paul (Gal.
4:25) identifies “Agar” as the Arabian name of Sinai.
“It is not clear where Paul thought Sinai lay; but Strabo
speaks of drawing a line from Petra to Babylon which would
bisect the regions of the Nabateans, Chauloteans (Havilah) ,
and Agreans. The last-named people, who appear as Hagrites
in 1 Chronicles 1~:19, may well have furnished the
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