Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)
Laughter. (1) Israel, or the kingdom of the ten tribes (Amos 7:9, 16). ) 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). ) 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.
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1863)
(laughter), the son whom Sara bore to Abraham, in the hundredth year of his age, at Gerar. ) In his infancy he became the object of Ishmael’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 Ishmael.
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. ” Isaac is the type of humanity itself, devoted to death for sin.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
I'SAAC (laughter), the son which Sarah bore to Abraham when he was a hundred years old. He was the second of the Hebrew patriarchs, and lived the longest of the three -to the age of 180. Gen 35:28. The origin of his name, which signifies "laughter" or "mocking," is given in Gen 17:17; Josh 18:12; Jer 21:6. The only event recorded of his earlier years is the most significant of his life for the history of the Church: he appears in the sacrificial scene as the victim.
Directed of God, Abraham led his son to the mountain of sacrifice; Isaac was wholly unconscious of the disposition that was to be made of himself, and is represented in the narrative, Gen 22:1-13, as artlessly inquiring about the lamb to be offered, while he himself was to be the offering. The divine interposition intervened just as the gleaming knife was about to do its bloody work in the hands of the despondent father. Josephus says this event occurred when Isaac was 24 years old, but no indication of time is given in the narrative.
This occurrence is considered typical of the later sacrifice of the only Son of God on Calvary. The record of Isaac's wooing and marriage is graphic and beautiful. Abraham sent his trusty servant Eliezer with gifts to Padan-aram for this purpose. He there found Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, whom Isaac married at the age of 40. Gen 25:20. The account of their meeting and of the preliminaries of the marriage, Gen 24, gives a most charming picture of the manners of that early day. Isaac seems to have been a prosperous agriculturist, Gen 26:12, and a rich herder, v.
Gen 26:14, but was not without his domestic troubles with Jacob and Esau. The promise that was given to Abraham of an indefinite increase of his seed, and of the blessings to flow from it to the world, was repeated to him. Gen 26:4. T. refers to the intended sacrifice of Isaac, Heb 11:17; Jas 2:21, and contains an allegorical allusion to him and Ishmael. Gal 4:28, Gal 4:38. The life of Isaac was a comparatively uneventful one, but in it we have the record of an honest, humble, and pious nomad.
He excelled in the domestic traits of character; his disposition was peaceable, Gen 27:22; his married life is assumed to have been peculiarly tranquil and happy, and prominent in his biography stands out his tender regard for his mother. Gen 24:67. Isaac is a type of the Saviour in the peculiar meekness and humility of his disposition.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898) & Schaff's Bible Dictionary
e. the ten tribes, Am 7:9, Am 7:16.
Hitchcock's Bible Names (1869)
laughter