Genesis 21:6

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 משׁה vel מבשׁה, istius prosapia, huius imitatione. - Buxtorf. Tiber.

{b} δλον ενεδυσαντο τον Kονσταντινον, εμπρεποντες τοις του πατρος καλλωπισμασιν - Euseb.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 God’s power and goodness; and be encouraged to trust in him.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Gen_21:6-7

THE REJOICING AT ISAAC’S 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 God—a confidence tried by long and anxious waiting—was 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 Lord’s 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 father’s would be a sober and thoughtful joy, but the mother’s 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 theology—God 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 Isaac’s 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 Abraham’s 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 mother’s 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.)

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

21:6-7 Sarah was filled with joy and praise for this amazing event—only God could enable her to have a child.

21:6 Sarah’s wordplay on the name Isaac (Hebrew yitskhaq, “he laughs”) shows that the laughter of unbelief when the promise was given (18:12) had changed to the laughter of joy at its fulfillment. Isaac’s name could refer to the pleasure of God and of his parents at his birth. Sarah knew that everyone who heard about this would laugh with her and rejoice at the news.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(6, 7) God hath made me to laugh.—Sarah’s 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 me”—Heb., for me, or over me—not “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.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 συγχαρεῖται, Lat. corridebit mihi. The original represents Sarah as the object of the laughter; and amusement, not derision, as its cause.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And she said, who would have said unto Abraham,.... No one a year ago could ever have thought of such a thing, much less have come and told Abraham that he should have a child or children by Sarah; the thing was incredible, and next to impossible; none but God himself, or an angel from him, could have declared this, as none but he could bring it about, the thing is so marvellous and astonishing:

that Sarah should have given children suck? that she who was ninety years of age should bear a child, and suckle it, as she did; and in doing which she set an example to her daughters to do the like, since neither age nor grandeur, nor the business of her family, were any objection to this duty of nature; and her being able to do this was a clear proof that this was truly a child of her own. The plural number may be put for the singular, as it often is, see Gen 46:23; or Sarah might think, as she had strength given her to bear and suckle one child, she might bear and suckle more; though the phrase seems only to be expressive and descriptive of her as a nursing mother:

for I have borne him a son in his old age; See Gill on Gen 21:2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.; other’s 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.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Sarah said, the spiritual elevation of her soul being indicated by the poetical form of her speech. Differing from Mary s magnificat in having been uttered after, and not before, the birth of the promised seed, the anthem of Sarah was obviously designed as a prelude to that loftier song of the Virgin (cf. Luk_1:46) It consists of two sentences, the first containing two, and the second three linesGod hath made me to laugh. Or, retaining the order of the Hebrew, To laugh hath made me Elohim; the emphatic position of qjox, containing an allusion to the name Isaac, probably indicating that Sarah"s laughter was of a different character now from what it had previously been; (Gen_18:12) and her ascription of it to Elohim intimating that him whom she formerly mistook for a traveler she now recognized to be Divine ("Speaker"s Commentary"). So that all that hear me will laugh with me. Not, will laugh at me, deridebit me (Peele), a sense the words will bear (Rosenm "Speaker"s Commentary"), though in the instances adduced (Job_5:22 Job_39:7, Job_39:18, Job_39:22) l qjx; rather conveys the idea of despising difficulties (Kalisch); but, will laugh with me, sugcareitai mou, congaudebit mihi (LXX, Vulgate, Targums, Calvin, Dathe, Keil).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Sarah said, God has made me to laugh - He hath given me both cause to rejoice, and a heart to rejoice. And it adds to the comfort of any mercy to have our friends rejoice with us in it, See Luke i, 58. They that hear will laugh with me - Others will rejoice in this instance of God's power and goodness, and be encouraged to trust in him.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

יצחק לי means will rejoice on my account. The Midrashic statement is (Genesis Rabbah 53:8): Many barren women were remembered together with her, many sick were healed in that day, many prayers were answered with hers and there was great rejoicing in the world.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

ותאמר שרה צחק, she said that she really called the boy יצחק in order to give expression to the joy G’d had granted her. She was convinced that everyone hearing about her good fortune of having given birth in her old age would share her joy at this. Any person being surprised by some unexpected happy event laughs for joy.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.