The Life of Isaac

1896-1716 BC

As we continue in the Sojourn in Egypt series, we have reached the time of the Patriarch Isaac. Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 years old, in 1896 BC, during the Early Bronze Age, which was also the early Ice Age in our model.

Abraham sent his servant to fetch a wife for Isaac from his relatives near Haran. The servant returned with Rebecca. Isaac and Rebecca got married Isaac when Isaac was forty years old. His twin sons, Esau and Jacob were born when Isaac was sixty.

Isaac does not appear to have moved around much in his lifetime. Before Isaac’s birth, Abraham herded his flocks in the Negev near the villages of Beersheba and Gerar. About eighty years later, when the famine came, God told Isaac to stay with Abimelech in Gerar, and not to go to Egypt. By the time of his death, Isaac had moved to Kiriath Arba, which was Hebron.

Fool Me Twice Shame on Me

Isaac’s famine occurred shortly after Esau married at age 40, which would make Isaac over 80 years old. A severe famine was recorded in the reign of Inteff III in Egypt, about 1816 BC. According to a nomarch named Ankhtifi who ruled in Elephantine, the famine in Egypt was so severe that some parents ate their children. Thus, God protected Isaac by intervening to keep him from going to Egypt.

Fearing that King Abimelech might kill him for his wife, Isaac played the same canard that Abraham had. He claimed that Rebecca was his sister. Isaac’s famine was 81 years after Abimelech had tried to take Sarah into his harem. Some scholars believe that Isaac was dealing with a second Abimelech. Given the longer lifespans in that period, however, it is quite possible that this was the same Abimelech encountered by Abraham.

The aged Abimelech, seeing Isaac and Rebecca claiming to be brother and sister, remembered his encounter with Abraham and Abraham’s God. Not falling for the trick a second time, he spied on Isaac and saw him caressing his wife. Then he confronted them and told Isaac not to pretend she was his sister. This shows that Abimelech had learned his lesson, and his repentance was still sound 80 years later.

Jacob Steals the Blessing

Scripture does not tell us the ages of Isaac or Jacob when the blessing incident happened. All we know is that it was after the famine. We can estimate the age at which Joseph was born in Jacob’s life, and from that determine how old Isaac was when the blessing was stolen.

Joseph was 30 when he was promoted by Pharaoh, and that was the same year that Isaac died at 180 years of age. Jacob spent 14 years working to pay off the bride price of his two wives, and six more working to earn his flock from his father-in-law. Genesis 30 tells us indirectly that Joseph was born at the end of the 14 years. This means that the incident with the stolen blessing occurred 14 + 30 = 44 years before Joseph was promoted and Isaac died. Therefore Isaac was about 136 years old when he blessed Jacob. It is interesting that Isaac seems to have believed he was dying, but he lived for four more decades after the blessing incident.

Jacob Deceives Isaac to get the Blessing

Jacob went to Haran and served his father-in-law, Laban for twenty years before he returned. At that point the story shifts to Jacob, and we don’t hear about Isaac again until his death at the age of 180 years.

According to the Midrash, Isaac died the same year that Joseph was promoted to the King’s right hand in Egypt, which was the year 1716/1715 BC in the Ussher-Jones chronology.

During Isaac’s lifetime, the three Giza Pyramids were built, but he never went to Egypt to see them. Toward the end of his life, Egypt experienced the Great War and fragmented into several independent city-states. Joseph was sold into Egypt in the reign of Amenemhat I of the 12th Dynasty in the year that he built a new capital named Itj-tawy in the North of Egypt. Amenemhat I claimed to have reunited Egypt. Joseph was the slave of his captain of the guard, Potiphar. Thus when Isaac died the world was poised for a major change. Egypt was about to reach the apex of its civilization.