Genesis 21:8

And the child grew, and was weaned,.... He throve under the nursing of its mother, and through the blessing of God upon him; and being healthy and robust, and capable of digesting stronger food, and

And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.

It doth not appear how old Isaac was, because the time for the weaning of children is very various, according to the differing tempers and necessities of children, or inclination of parents; and in those times, when men’ s lives were longer than now they are, proportionably the time was longer ere children were weaned.

Genesis 21:8 And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the [same] day that Isaac was weaned.Ver. 8. And Abraham made a great feast.] A laudable custom, saith Cajetan, that the beginning of the eating of the firstborn should be celebrated with a feast. St Augustine observeth here, that this solemnity at the weaning of Isaac, was a type of our spiritual regeneration: at, and after which, the faithful keep a continual feast, "Let us keep the festivity, or holy day," saith Paul, that "feast of fat things full of marrow; of wines on the lees well refined," proceeding from milk to stronger meat, and being to the world, as a weaned child. His mouth doth not water after homely provisions, that hath lately tasted of delicate sustenance. Aνηραγαθοςπασανημερανεορτηνηγειται - Diog. ap. Plutarch.

(8) The child grew, and was weaned.—According to tradition, Isaac was two years old when weaned. Three years is the age mentioned in 2 Chronicles 31:16, 2Ma 7:27; and Samuel was old enough at his weaning to be left at the tabernacle with Eli (1 Samuel 1:24). In Persia and India it is still the custom to celebrate the weaning of a child by an entertainment.

Verse 8. The child grew and was weaned] [-----Anglo-Saxon-----]. Anglo-Saxon VERSION. Now the child waxed and became weaned. We have the verb to wean from the Anglo-Saxon [A.S.] awendan, to convert, transfer, turn from one thing to another, which is the exact import of the Hebrew word גמל gamal in the text. Hence [A.S.] wenan, to wean, to turn the child from the breast to receive another kind of ailment. And hence, probably, the word WEAN, a young child, which is still in use in the northern parts of Great Britain and Ireland, and which from its etymology seems to signify a child taken from the breast; surely not from the Scotch wee-ane, a little one, much less from the German wenig, little, as Dr. Johnson and others would derive it. At what time children were weaned among the ancients, is a disputed point. St. Jerome says there were two opinions on this subject. Some hold that children were always weaned at five years of age; others, that they were not weaned till they were twelve. From the speech of the mother to her son, 2Mac 7:27, it seems likely that among the Jews they were weaned when three years old: O my son, have pity upon me that bare thee nine months in my womb, and gave thee SUCK THREE YEARS, and nourished thee and brought thee up. And this is farther strengthened by 2 Chronicles 31:16, where Hezekiah, in making provision for the Levites and priests, includes the children from three years old and upwards; which is a presumptive proof that previously to this age they were wholly dependent on the mother for their nourishment. Samuel appears to have been brought to the sanctuary when he was just weaned, and then he was capable of ministering before the Lord, 1 Samuel 1:22-28; and this certainly could not be before he was three years of age. The term among the Mohammedans is fixed by the Koran, chap. xxxi. 14, at two years of age.

8–21 (E). The Expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael A narrative from E which forms a parallel to that in chap. 16. (J).

8. The child… was weaned — At what age we are not told; perhaps not until he was three years old. Comp. 2Ma 7:27; Josephus, Ant., 2; 9, 6; 1 Samuel 1:22, note.