And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, [so that] all that hear will laugh with me.
6. God hath made me to laugh ] R.V. marg. prepared laughter for me. Once more in connexion with the birth of Isaac the thought of laughter recurs: see Gen 17:17 (P), Gen 18:12-15 (J). This time we have the tradition preserved by E. It is not clear that the two clauses of this verse mean the same thing. According to R.V. text, the first clause refers the laughter to Sarah’s own happiness and exultation: the second clause refers it to the merry reception of the unexpected news by those who would laugh incredulously. According to R.V. marg., the latter meaning attaches also to the first clause; and both clauses, meaning the same thing, are explained by Gen 21:7. The R.V. text is perhaps to be preferred. It preserves two traditional explanations of the laughter associated with Isaac’s birth. Certainly the laughter of Sarah’s personal happiness seems to be the point of St Paul’s quotation from Isa 54:1, “rejoice thou barren that bearest not,” in a passage where the Apostle is allegorizing this chapter (Gal 4:22-31).
with me ] Better, at me. The preposition “with” is hardly correct, though it is supported by the LXX , Lat. corridebit mihi. The original represents Sarah as the object of the laughter; and amusement, not derision, as its cause.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Gen 21:6-7
Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh
The rejoicing of Isaacs birth
I.
IT WAS THE REWARD OF FAITH AND PATIENCE.
II. IT WAS HAILED WITH A SONG OF GRATITUDE.
1. There was an element of amazement and wonder.
2. There was an element touchingly human.
3. There was a confident expectation of universal sympathy. All that hear will laugh with me.
4. There was an acknowledgment of the Divine source of the joy. God hath made me to laugh. (T. H. Leale.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 6. God hath made me to laugh] Sarah alludes here to the circumstance mentioned Ge 18:12; and as she seems to use the word to laugh in this place, not in the sense of being incredulous but to express such pleasure or happiness as almost suspends the reasoning faculty for a time, it justifies the observation on the above-named verse. See a similar case in Lu 24:41, where the disciples were so overcome with the good news of our Lord’s resurrection, that it is said, They believed not for joy.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Before, my own distrustful heart made me to laugh, now God makes me laugh, not through diffidence and irreverence, as before, Gen 18:12, but through excess of holy joy.
All that hear will laugh with me; or, at me; some through sympathy rejoicing with me and for me, laughter being oft put for joy, as Isa 54:1; Gal 4:27, &c.; others through scorn and derision, as at a thing which well may seem incredible to them, because it did so to me. See Gen 17:17; 18:12,13,15.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh,…. This she said on occasion of the name of her son Isaac, which name her husband had given him by divine direction, and to which she assented. This doubtless brought to her mind her former laughing, when she first heard that she should have a son, which was in a way of diffidence and distrust; but now God having given her a son, laid a foundation for laughter of another kind, for real, solid, joy and thankfulness:
[so that] all that hear will laugh with me; not laugh at her, and deride her, as Piscator interprets it; but congratulate her, and rejoice with her on this occasion, as on a like one the neighbours of Elisabeth did with her, Lu 1:58.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Verses 6-8:
The name of Abraham’s son was given by Divine instruction (Ge 17:10): Isaac, meaning “laughter.” Both Abraham and Sarah laughed at God’s promise of this child in their old age (Ge 17:17; 18:12). Abraham’s laughter was for joy at the prospect of the promise. Sarah’s laughter was in unbelief, for she saw no possibility of fulfillment due to her advanced age. But now that the son was born as God had promised, Sarah’s laughter turned from unbelief to joy. Thus the name of her son was appropriate to the occasion.
Isaac grew as a normal child. When the time came for his weaning, Abraham made a banquet to mark the joyous occasion. Isaac’s age at this event is not known. Some suggest it was one year. Josephus implies it was three years. (Antiquities, II, 9). The custom is still common in the East, to have a festive occasion when a child is weaned.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Gen. 21:6-7
THE REJOICING AT ISAACS BIRTH
I. It was the reward of faith and patience. There were peculiar circumstances connected with the birth of this child which made it an extraordinary occasion. The promise had long been given, and the parents had waited patiently through many years of disappointment, and sorrows of hope deferred. The time when they could expect offspring in the ordinary course of nature had long, since passed away. They were thrown entirely upon the strength of their faith, and upon that hope whose substance and foundation is faith. At length the time arrived when their faith and patient waiting are rewarded. What joy must they have felt when they found that their confidence in Goda confidence tried by long and anxious waitingwas justified by the bestowal of such a blessing! That is the deepest and most plentiful joy which comes after a long trial of faith and patience. Such is the joy into which the pious enter after death. The glory of heaven is the reward of the faith and patience of the saints.
II. It was hailed with a song of gratitude. The words of Sarah have been called the first cradle hymn. This song is the first of its kind recorded in literature. The peculiarity of the occasion justify its strong expressions.
1. There was an element of amazement and wonder. Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have borne him a son in his old age (Gen. 21:7). No one could naturally have expected such an event, and all who beheld it must have been filled with amazement. The miraculous nature of the blessing made it the occasion of an extraordinary joy. So all the gifts of grace excite our wonder and amazement. We are constrained continually to say, This is the Lords doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.
2. There was an element touchingly human. The song is put into the mouth of the mother, for the birth of this child would affect her feelings more intensely. The fathers would be a sober and thoughtful joy, but the mothers would be an uncontrollable tide of emotion. Her feeling would be too great for many words, and could only have its humanly natural expression in laughter.
3. There was a confident expectation of universal sympathy. All that hear me will laugh with me. She could not imagine any one regarding her happiness with indifference. All who knew the fact, and were capable of judging of its importance, would have full sympathy with her. Though her words were expressions of human feeling proper to the time, yet we may justly regard them as prophetic. How many have rejoiced because of the chosen race whose seed was to be reckoned in Isaac! How many incalculable blessings have they given to mankind!above all, the Saviour of the world. The child-bearing of this mother of the chosen race is the human channel along which salvation has been borne to us. Salvation is of the Jews. The mother of our Lord had this grateful confidence in the sympathy of the good throughout all time. All generations shall call me blessed.
4. There was an acknowledgment of the Divine source of the joy. God hath made me to laugh (Gen. 21:6). In all her wild amazement of joy, she was not forgetful of God, from whom the blessing came. She triumphed because she had faith in a Living Person who was able to perform His gracious word. We do not read of any doctrines that she held, but she had faith in a personal God. Through all the degrees and stages of Divine revelation, this is the one distinguishing characteristic mark of the saints of God. They had faith, not in anything about Him, but in Him; not faith in His attributes, or in any intellectual conceptions of them, but directly lodged and reposed in Himself. Their individual existence was united to His personal being. This is the simplification of theologyGod hath made me to know, to feel, and to rejoice. In His favour is life, with all its gladness and blessed issues.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen. 21:6. The expression carries an allusion to Isaacs name, and to the circumstance mentioned (ch. Gen. 17:17-19), on which it was founded. It was a mode of speech which not only showed how sincerely she recognised the propriety of Abrahams laughing on the occasion referred to, and how cordially she assents to the name thus bestowed on the child, but intimates also that God had made her, as well as Abraham, to laugh; which was, in fact, a virtual condemnation of her former incredulity. We meet in the prophets with some striking allusions to this incident, where Sarah is considered a symbol of the Church. Thus Isa. 54:1., Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear, etc. (Comp. Isa. 51:2-3; Gal. 4:22-28). All that bear will laugh with me. Will sympathise with my joy, and tender to me their congratulations. To this also the prophet alludes, Isa. 66:10 : Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her; rejoice with joy with her; where the Jerusalem mentioned is expressly said by the apostle (Gal. 4:22; Gal. 4:27) to be mystically shadowed out by Sarah.(Bush.)
The children of faith, though they may have their time of weeping, and be exposed to the ridicule of the world, will also have their time to laugh. Gladness is sown for the upright in heart.
God gave this laughter to vindicate His promise, and to rebuke her unbelief.
Gen. 21:7. The natural incredibility of the event enhances her joy and wonder. And so her testimony is here recorded to the amazing power and grace of God in making good His covenant promises. God is wont to get such clear and express testimonies to His miraculous works, to show that they were not by any means natural. And it was most important that this event be witnessed to by the glad mother as being not according to nature, but beyond nature; natural indeed in its progress and issue, but not therefore in its origin. Who would have said. How naturally unsupposable. Who ever would have reported such a thing would have been counted mad. Sarah should, etc. Heb.Sarah is suckling children. Yet it is even so! For I have born him, etc. This is the mothers new-found joy which she herself can scarcely credit. This laughter is referred to in Isa. 49:13; Isa. 52:9, and by St. Paul in Gal. 4:7.(Jacobus.)
In her joy Sarah speaks of many children when she had borne only one son, who, however, was better to her than ten sons. She will say, not only has my dead body received strength from God to bring a child into the world, but I am conscious of such strength that I can supply its food, which sometimes fails much younger and more vigorous mothers. Sarah nursed her child although she was a princess (ch. Gen. 23:6) and of noble blood, for the law of nature itself requires this from all, since, with this very end in view, God has given breasts to all and filled them with milk. The Scriptures united these two functions, the bearing of children and nursing them, as belonging to the mother. (Luk. 11:27; Luk. 23:29; Psa. 22:10.) Thus these two things were reckoned among the blessings and kindness of the great God (Gen. 49:25), while an unfruitful body and dry breasts are a punishment from Him. (Hos. 9:11-14.)(Lange.)
Though she were a great lady, yet she was a nurse. Let it not be niceness but necessity that hinders any mother from so doing, lest she be found more monstrous than the sea-monsters, that draw out their breast, and give suck to their young. (Lam. 4:3.)(Trapp.)
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(6, 7) God hath made me to laugh.Sarahs laugh was one of mingled emotions. Joy was uppermost in her mind, but women do not laugh for joy at the birth of a child. Doubtless she called to mind the feelings with which she listened to the announcement of her bearing a son, made by those whom she then regarded as mere passing wayfarers (Gen. 18:12), but whom she had now long known to be the messengers of God. And still the event seemed to her marvellous and astonishing, so that all that hear, she said, will laugh with meHeb., for me, or over menot will ridicule me, but will be merry at the thought of an old woman of ninety having a son. Deeper feelings would come afterwards, and the acknowledgment that that which was contrary to nature was wrought by Him whom nature must obey; but surprise is uppermost in the little poem in which Sarah gives utterance to her first feelings:
Who would have said unto Abraham
Sarah suckleth sons?
For I have borne a son to his old age.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Sarah said This is the magnificat of Sarah, and may be compared with Luk 1:46-55. Never before had Sarah felt such thrills of joy, or uttered language of such prophetic fervour. The passage may be put in poetic form as follows:
And Sarah said,
God has made me to laugh;
All who hear will laugh with me And she said,
Who would have told to Abraham,
Sons shall be nursed by Sarah
For I have begotten a son to his old age .
Gen 21:6. God hath made me to laugh Sarah, alluding to the laughter of herself and her husband, whence their son had his name, observes, that God had now caused them to laugh indeed, or in such a manner as not only expressed their own joy, but would occasion all her friends, all who should hear it, to rejoice with her, and to congratulate her felicity.
And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age.
Reader! Pause here to remark, that while the gift of a Son became such a subject of astonishment to Sarah; what greater cause have you and I to be astonished, that God should have given his only begotten Son, to the end, that all which believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life! Nay, to advance one step farther in the wonderful mercy, who could have believed that such a gift should have been given to you, or to me? Well may we exclaim with the prophet: Wonder, O Heavens, and be astonished, O earth.
Gen 21:6 And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, [so that] all that hear will laugh with me.
Ver. 6. God hath made me to laugh. ] “A wise son maketh a glad father”. Pro 10:1 Monstri autem simil est, quando pro risu sunt fletus, sunt flagellum . And yet this is many a good man’s case. How many parents are put to wish Moses’ wish, Num 11:15 “Lord, if I have found favour in thy sight, kill me, that I behold not my misery!” Had he lived to see what ways his grandchild Jonathan took, what a grief would it have been unto him! Jdg 18:30 “Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh,” &c. In the best Hebrew copies, Nun is suspended in that name: whereupon the Hebrews descant, that this Gershom was the son of Moses; but because he and his posterity walked not in the ways of Moses, but rather of Manasses, 2Ki 21:1-9 and did his works: therefore the penman of this book would not so far disgrace Moses, as to make him his son, as indeed he was, Exo 2:1-2 ; Exo 2:10 1Ch 23:14-15 but rather of Manasses, whom he imitated and resembled. a How much better and happier had it been for them both if they had expressed their father’s manners, as Constantine’s sons did: of whom it is said, that they had put on whole Constantine, and in all good things did exactly resemble him. b
a Ac proinde studio inseruisse literam Nun, suspensam tamen; in signum, eam adesse vel abesse posse, ut sit et filius vel , istius prosapia, huius imitatione. – Buxtorf. Tiber.
b K, – Euseb.
God: Gen 17:17, Gen 18:12-15, 1Sa 1:26-28, 1Sa 2:1-10, Psa 113:9, Psa 126:2, Isa 49:15, Isa 49:21, Isa 54:1, Luk 1:46-55, Joh 16:21, Joh 16:22, Gal 4:27, Gal 4:28, Heb 11:11
to laugh: Sarah most likely remembered the circumstance mentioned in Gen 18:12, and also the name Isaac, which implies laughter.
will laugh: Luk 1:14, Luk 1:58, Rom 12:15
Reciprocal: Gen 17:19 – Sarah Gen 21:3 – General Job 8:21 – he fill Pro 13:12 – when Ecc 3:4 – a time to laugh Jer 20:15 – A man Luk 6:21 – ye shall laugh
Gen 21:6. Sarah said, God has made me to laugh Not through diffidence and irreverence, as my own distrustful heart before made me to laugh; but through excess of holy joy. He hath given me both cause and a heart to rejoice. And it adds to the comfort of any mercy to have our friends rejoice with us in it, Luk 1:58. They that hear will laugh with me Will rejoice in this instance of Gods power and goodness; and be encouraged to trust in him.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments