Genesis 26:14 - Exposition

For he had (literally, there was to him ) possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: —γεώργια πολλά ( LXX .), i . e . much husbandry, the abstract being put for the concrete, "implying all manner of work and service belonging to a family, and so servants and tillage of all sorts" (Ainsworth); but the reference rather seems to be to the number of his household, or domestic slaves, plurimum familiae (Vulgate)— and the Philistines envied him . The patriarch's possessions ( mikneh , from kanah , to acquire) excited jealous feeling (from root kana , to burn) in the breasts of his neighbors (cf. Ecclesiastes 4:4 ).