And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.
Ver. 9. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar mocking.] At that mystical name Isaac, as a gaud, or laughingstock. At the feast also, made upon such a frivolous occasion. As who should say, What care I, though this ado be made now about Isaac's weaning? I am the firstborn, and beloved of my father, who will not deny me the inheritance. This Sarah had soon spied, or overheard. Liberorum curiosi sunt parentes. The mother especially observeth the wrong done to the child. And besides, dislike soon spies a fault. A fault it was no doubt, and a great one too. Otherwise, the apostle would not have called it "persecution": Gal 4:29 nor God have punished it with ejection. Machiavel, that scoffing atheist, rotted in the prison at Florence. Jeering Julian had his payment from Heaven. Sir Thomas Moor (qui sceptice et scabiose de Luthero et Religione Reformata loquebatur) lost his head. Another lost his wits for mocking at James Abbs, martyr, as a madman; for that, having no money, he gave his apparel to the poor; some to one, some to another, as he went to the stake a "What is truth?" Joh 18:38 said Pilate to our Saviour, in a scornful profane manner. Not long after which, he became his own deathsman. Apion scoffed at circumcision, and had an ulcer at the same time, and in the same place. b Surely, God is the avenger of all such: he calls it blasphemy in the second table, and shows his wrath from heaven against it, as that which proceeds from the very superfluity of malice (as herein Ishmael) and tends to murder. The Hebrew word here used signifies that he not only mocked Isaac, but also made others to mock him.
a Act. and Mon., fol. 1904.
b Josephus.