Genesis 21:6 - Exposition

And Sarah said, —the spiritual elevation of her soul being indicated by the poetical form of her speech. Differing from Mary's magnificat in having been uttered after, and not before, the birth of the promised seed, the anthem of Sarah was obviously designed as a prelude to that loftier song of the Virgin (cf. Luke 1:46 ). It consists of two sentences, the first containing two, and the second three lines— God hath made me to laugh. Or, retaining the order of the Hebrew, To laugh hath made me Elohim ; the emphatic position of צְחֹק , containing an allusion to the name Isaac, probably indicating that Sarah's laughter was of a different character now from what it had previously been ( Genesis 18:12 ); and her ascription of it to Elohim intimating that him whom she formerly mistook for a traveler she now recognized to be Divine ('Speaker's Commentary'). So that all that hear me will laugh with me. Not, will laugh at me, deridebit me (Poole), a sense the words will bear (Rosenmüller, 'Speaker's Commentary'), though in the instances adduced ( Job 5:22 ; Job 39:7 , Job 39:18 , Job 39:22 ) צָחַק לְ rather conveys the idea of despising difficulties (Kalisch); but, will laugh with me, συγχαρεῖταί μου , congaudebit mihi ( LXX ; Vulgate, Targums, Calvin, Dathe, Keil).