Does Ishmael Molest Isaac?
Molesting Isaac
The sexual connotation of the verb צ.ח.ק in piʿel was noted by the 2nd century C.E. sage, Rabbi Akiva, who makes use of it in interpretation Ishmael’s metzacheq-ing (Genesis Rabbah §53, Theodor-Albeck ed.):
אמר ר' שמעון ר' עקיבה היה אומר בו דבר לגניי,
R. Simon said: R. Akiva would read this term as something negative.
דרש ר' עקיבא... אין מצחק אלא גילוי עריות. היך דאת אמר לצחק בי
R. Akiva taught: “…Metzacheq means sexual transgression, as it says [in the Joseph story, when Potiphar’s wife addressed her husband]: ‘to tzacheq with me.’
מלמד שהיתה שרה רואה את ישמעאל מכבש גנות וצד נשי אנשים ומענה אותן,
This teaches that Sarah would see Ishmael forcing his way into gardens, grabbing hold of other men’s wives, and raping them.”[18]
While sexual violence is a good translation of the verb here, R. Akiva’s imagery of Ishmael crashing through people’s yards as a serial rapist goes beyond the text. If we take R. Akiva’s insight, however, and apply it to the LXX’s text which includes the words “with her son Isaac,” I believe the meaning becomes clear. The LXX text offers an exact grammatical parallel to the Isaac and Rebecca story:
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וַיַּרְא וְהִנֵּה יִצְחָק מְצַחֵק אֵת רִבְקָה אִשְׁתּוֹ |
*וַתֵּרֶא שָׂרָה אֶת־בֶּן־הָגָר הַמִּצְרִית... מְצַחֵק אֵת יִצְחָק בְּנָה[19] |
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And (Abimelech) looked, and he saw Isaac metzacheq-ing his wife Rebecca. |
And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian… metzacheq-ing her son Isaac. |
In other words, Sarah witnessed Ishmael molesting her son. We can better understand Sarah’s anger, and her need to send Ishmael away. His indecent and abhorrent behavior alone warrants disinheriting him, but more importantly, he should not be allowed to remain in the house to continue to abuse her son.
According to this reading, Sarah is not simply taking the main wife’s prerogative by banishing the son of the concubine as a possible future competitor with Isaac; she is protecting her son from the sexual predator in their midst.
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