Son of Abraham; father of Jacob and Esau.

Isaac

Named in 123 verses across 21 books, first in Genesis 17:19.

יִצְחָקIsaac

יִשְׂחָקIsaac

ἸσαάκIsaac

The name means “laughter.” Hitchcock's Bible Names, 1869

Father: Abraham
Mother: Sarah
Brothers and sisters: Ishmael, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, Shuah
Married to: Rebekah
Children: Esau, Israel
People: Early Patriarch

About Isaac Written by AI

Isaac was the long-promised son born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age, as recorded in Genesis. He was the child of the covenant, through whom God had promised to fulfill his purposes for Abraham's descendants (Genesis 17:19). Isaac was circumcised on the eighth day (Genesis 21:4) and grew up as Abraham's heir. When he was a youth, God tested Abraham by commanding him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice (Gen.22). Abraham obeyed, but at the last moment God provided a ram as a substitute. This event foreshadowed God's provision of his own Son as the ultimate sacrifice. Isaac married Rebekah, and they had twin sons, Esau and Israel (or 'Jacob') (Genesis 25:21 to 26). Isaac favored Esau, while Rebekah favored Jacob, leading to family conflict. Jacob deceived Isaac into giving him the firstborn blessing (Gen.27). Isaac settled in Gerar, where God confirmed to him the covenant promises (Genesis 26:1 to 5). Like his father, he passed off his wife as his sister out of fear (Genesis 26:7 to 11). He reopened Abraham's wells and dug new ones, showing his claim to the land. Isaac died at the age of 180 and was buried by his sons (Genesis 35:29). God is identified as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, linking Isaac to the patriarchal promises (Exodus 3:6). The New Testament upholds Isaac as an example of faith (Hebrews 11:20) and miraculous birth (Galatians 4:28 to 29).

Drafted by an AI model for STEPBible's TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Check it against the verses below.

Easton's Bible Dictionary, 1897

Laughter. (1) Israel, or the kingdom of the ten tribes (Amos 7:9, 16).

(2.) 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.

Read the rest of the entry

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). (See ABRAHAM.) 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. After the expulsion of Ishmael and Hagar, Isaac had no competitor, and grew up in the shade of Sarah’s tent, moulded into feminine softness by habitual submission to her strong, loving will.” His life was so quiet and uneventful that it was spent “within the circle of a few miles; so guileless that he let Jacob overreach him rather than disbelieve his assurance; so tender that his mother’s death was the poignant sorrow of years; so patient and gentle that peace with his neighbours was dearer than even such a coveted possession as a well of living water dug by his own men; so grandly obedient that he put his life at his father’s disposal; so firm in his reliance on God that his greatest concern through life was to honour the divine promise given to his race.”, Geikie’s Hours, etc.

M. G. Easton, Illustrated Bible Dictionary, third edition (1897), public domain, from CrossWire. Shown as written; its Scripture quotes are from older translations.

Where the Bible names him

Genesis 17:19
But God replied, “Your wife Sarah will indeed bear you a son, and you are to name him Isaac. I will establish My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.
Genesis 17:21
But I will establish My covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time next year.”
Genesis 21:3
And Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore to him.
Genesis 21:4
When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him.
Genesis 21:5
Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
Genesis 21:8
So the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned.
Genesis 21:10
and she said to Abraham, “Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac!”
Genesis 21:12
But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to everything that Sarah tells you, for through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.
Genesis 22:2
“Take your son,” God said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
Genesis 22:3
So Abraham got up early the next morning, saddled his donkey, and took along two of his servants and his son Isaac. He split the wood for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had designated.
Genesis 22:6
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac. He himself carried the fire and the sacrificial knife, and the two of them walked on together.
Genesis 22:7
Then Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” “Here I am, my son,” he replied. “The fire and the wood are here,” said Isaac, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
Genesis 22:9
When they arrived at the place God had designated, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar, atop the wood.
Genesis 24:4
but will go to my country and my kindred to take a wife for my son Isaac.”
Genesis 24:14
Now may it happen that the girl to whom I say, ‘Please let down your jar that I may drink,’ and who responds, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels as well’—let her be the one You have appointed for Your servant Isaac. By this I will know that You have shown kindness to my master.”
Genesis 24:62
Now Isaac had just returned from Beer-lahai-roi, for he was living in the Negev.
Genesis 24:63
Early in the evening, Isaac went out to the field to meditate, and looking up, he saw the camels approaching.
Genesis 24:64
And when Rebekah looked up and saw Isaac, she got down from her camel
Genesis 24:66
Then the servant told Isaac all that he had done.
Genesis 24:67
And Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah and took Rebekah as his wife. And Isaac loved her and was comforted after his mother’s death.
Genesis 25:5
Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac.
Genesis 25:6
But while he was still alive, Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.
Genesis 25:9
His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite.
Genesis 25:11
After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who lived near Beer-lahai-roi.
Genesis 25:19
This is the account of Abraham’s son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac,
Genesis 25:20
and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean.
Genesis 25:21
Later, Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And the LORD heard his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.
Genesis 25:26
After this, his brother came out grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. And Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.
Genesis 25:28
Because Isaac had a taste for wild game, he loved Esau; but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Genesis 26:1
Now there was another famine in the land, subsequent to the one that had occurred in Abraham’s time. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar.
Genesis 26:6
So Isaac settled in Gerar.
Genesis 26:8
When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from the window and was surprised to see Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.
Genesis 26:9
Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, “So she is really your wife! How could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac replied, “Because I thought I might die on account of her.”
Genesis 26:12
Now Isaac sowed seed in the land, and that very year he reaped a hundredfold. And the LORD blessed him,
Genesis 26:16
Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Depart from us, for you are much too powerful for us.”
Genesis 26:17
So Isaac left that place and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there.
Genesis 26:18
Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. And he gave these wells the same names his father had given them.
Genesis 26:19
Then Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found a well of fresh water there.
Genesis 26:20
But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they contended with him.
Genesis 26:25
So Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, and he pitched his tent there. His servants also dug a well there.