[(Gen. 21:1:) THEN THE LORD VISITED SARAH.] This text is related (to Hab. 3:17): FOR THOUGH THE FIG TREE SHALL NOT BLOSSOM.¹¹⁸ 42:5. Who is this fig tree ? This is Abraham, since it is stated (in Hos. 9:10): I SAW YOUR FATHERS AS THE FIRST FRUIT OF A FIG TREE IN ITS FIRST SEASON. (Hab. 3:17, cont.:) AND THERE IS NO YIELD ON THE VINES. ON THE VINE [sic] refers to Sarah, since it is stated (in Ps. 128:3): YOUR WIFE IS LIKE A FRUITFUL VINE. (Hab. 3:17, cont.:) THOUGH THE WORK OF THE OLIVE HAS FAILED. Were the words which the ministering angels brought as good tidings to Sarah deceptive? They had said (in Gen. 18:10): I WILL SURELY RETURN UNTO YOU. (Hab. 3:17:) THE WORK OF THE OLIVE. As the olive gives light to the world (through its oil), so the angels enlightened Sarah with their words.¹¹⁹ (Hab. 3:17, cont.:) AND THE GRAINFIELDS (ShDMH) PRODUCE NO FOOD. Those breasts (ShDYM)¹²⁰ in an unvocalized text could easily be read as a plural of SDH, a common word meaning “field,” although not quite the word designating GRAINFIELDS in Hab. 3:17. suckle no one. (Hab. 3:17, cont.:) HE HAS DECREED¹²¹ A FLOCK FROM THE FOLD. Have you not raised up from her (i.e., from Sarah, the fold) the assembly of Israel, which is called a flock, where it is stated (in Ezek. 34:17): AND YOU, MY FLOCK?

footnotes: ¹¹⁸ Gen. R. 53:3; PR ¹¹⁹ Cf. Gen. R. 53:3, according to which THE WORK OF THE OLIVE alludes to the fact that the faces of the angels who gave Sarah the good tidings shone like an olive. ¹²⁰ ShDYM ¹²¹ The midrash requires this translation. See the following note.

Another interpretation (of Hab. 3:17, cont.): HE HAS DECREED A FLOCK FROM THE FOLD . This is the decree which you have decreed concerning me when you said (in Gen. 15:5): SO (i.e., like the stars) SHALL YOUR SEED BE. Would you destroy them so that (according to Hab. 3:17, cont.:) THERE SHALL BE NO HERD IN THE STALLS?¹²² Have you not raised up from her the tribe of Ephraim? About that tribe there is written (in Hos. 10:11): EPHRAIM IS A TRAINED HEIFER. NO HERD, says our mother Sarah; nevertheless (according to Hab. 3:17, cont.): YET I WILL REJOICE IN THE LORD. Some say: Sarah was not bearing, and others say: Abraham was not begetting; nevertheless, she trusts in the LORD. The Holy One said to her: Since you have put your trust in me, by your life, I am visiting you. Thus it is written (in Gen. 21:1): THEN THE LORD VISITED SARAH.]¹²³

footnotes: ¹²² The rhetorical question speaks against interpreting the phrase from Hab. 3:17: HE HAS CUT OFF A FLOCK FROM THE FOLD. ¹²³ This single bracket stands alone in the Buber text.