Genesis 26:12

And after these things the text says, "Isaac sowed barley and found a hundredfold. And the Lord blessed him, and the man was magnified, and by his progress he became greater until he became very great."Why is it that Isaac "sowed barley" and not wheat, and [why] is [he] blessed because he sows "barley," and [why] is [he] magnified "until he becomes great"? It appears, therefore, that he was not yet great until after "he sowed barley" and gathered "a hundredfold." Then he became "very great." Barley is the food especially of beasts or of peasants. For it is a harsher species and would seem to prick one who touches it as if with some kind of barbs. Isaac is likened to the Word of God. This Word sows barley in the law but wheat in the Gospels. He provides the one food for the perfect and spiritual, the other for the inexperienced and natural, because it is written, "Men and beasts you will preserve, O Lord." Isaac, therefore, the Word of the law, sows barley, and yet in that very barley he finds "fruit a hundredfold." For even in the law you find martyrs, whose "fruit" is "a hundredfold." But also our Lord, the Isaac of the Gospels, said certain things that were more perfect to the apostles, but to the crowds he said things which were plain and common. But do you wish to see that even he presents barley to beginners? It is written in the Gospels that he fed the crowds a second time. But those whom he feeds the first time, that is, the beginners, he feeds "with barley loaves." But later, when they had progressed by this time in the word and teaching, he presents them loaves of wheat.

He reaped a hundred fold; and there seems to be an emphasis laid upon the time: it was that same year when there was a famine in the land; while others scarcely reaped at all, he reaped thus plentifully.

Then, Isaac sowed in that land,....

He reaped a hundred fold; and there seems to be an emphasis laid upon the time: it was that same year when there was a famine in the land; while others scarcely reaped at all, he reaped thus plentifully.

Isaac sowed in that land - Being now perfectly free from the fear of evil, he betakes himself to agricultural and pastoral pursuits, in which he has the especial blessing of God, so that his property becomes greatly increased. A hundred-fold - מאה שערים, meah shearim, literally, “A hundred-fold of barley;” and so the Septuagint, ἑκατοστευουσαν κριθην. Perhaps such a crop of this grain was a rare occurrence in Gerar. The words, however, may be taken in a general way, as signifying a very great increase; so they are used by our Lord in the parable of the sower.