Genesis 26

CHAPTER 26

1Forsooth for hunger rose on the land, after that barrenness that befelled in the days of Abraham, Isaac went forth to Abimelech, king of Palestines, in Gerar.

2And the Lord appeared to him, and said, Go not down into Egypt, but rest thou in the land which I shall say to thee,

3and be thou a pilgrim therein; and I shall be with thee, and I shall bless thee; for I shall give all these countries to thee, and to thy seed, and I shall [ful] fill the oath which I promised to Abraham, thy father.

4And I shall multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and I shall give all these countries to thine heirs, and all folks of the earth shall be blessed in thy seed,

5for Abraham obeyed to my voice, and kept my behests, and my commandments, and my ceremonies, and my laws.

6And so Isaac dwelled in Gerar.

7And when he was asked of [the] men of that place of his wife, he answered, She is my sister; for he dreaded to acknowledge that she was fellowshipped to him in matrimony, and he guessed lest peradventure they would slay him for the fairness of her.

8And when full many days were passed, and he dwelled there, Abimelech, king of Palestines, beheld by a window, and saw him playing with Rebecca, his wife.

9And when Isaac was called, the king said, It is open, that she is thy wife; why saidest thou, that she was thy sister? Isaac answered, For I dreaded, lest I should die for her.

10And Abimelech said, Why hast thou deceived us? Some man of the people might do lechery with thy wife, and thou haddest brought in grievous sin on us.

11And the king commanded to all the people, and said, He that toucheth the wife of this man shall die by death.

12Forsooth Isaac sowed in that land, and he found an hundredfold increase in that year; and the Lord blessed him.

13And the man was made rich, and he went profiting and increasing, till he was made full great.

14Also he had possessions of sheep and of great beasts, and full much of menials. For this thing Palestines had envy to him,

15and they stopped in that time and filled with earth all the pits or wells which the servants of Abraham his father had digged,

16in so much that Abimelech himself said to Isaac, Go thou away from us, for thou art made greatly mightier than we.

17And he went away, that he should come to the strand of Gerar, and dwelled there.

18And he digged again other wells, which the servants of Abraham his father had digged, and which the Philistines had stopped sometime, when Abraham was dead; and he called those pits by the same names, by which his father had called before.

19They digged in the strand, and they found quick, or welling up, water.

20But also strife of [the] shepherds of Gerar was there against the shep-herds of Isaac, and they said, The water is ours; wherefore of that strife that befelled, Isaac called the name of that well False Challenge, or Esek, or Quarrel.

21And they digged another well, and they strived also for that, and Isaac called that well Enmities, or Sitnah, or Enmity.

22And he went forth from thence, and digged another pit, for which they strived not, [and] therefore he called the name of that well Breadth, either Largeness; and said, Now God hath alarged us, and hath made us to increase on [the] earth.

23Isaac forsooth went up from that place into Beersheba,

24where the Lord appeared to him in that night; and said, I am [the] God of Abraham, thy father; do not thou dread, for I am with thee, and I shall bless thee, and I shall multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham.

25And so Isaac builded there an altar to the Lord; and when the name of the Lord was inwardly called, he stretched forth a tabernacle; and he commanded his servants that they should dig pits.

26And when Abimelech, and Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phicol, [the] duke of knights, had come from Gerar to that place,

27Isaac spake to them, What came ye to me, a man whom ye have hated, and putted away from you?

28Which answered, We saw that God is with thee, and therefore we said now, An oath be betwixt us, and make we a covenant of peace,

29that thou do not any [thing of] evil to us, as we touched nothing of thine, neither did that that hurted thee, but with peace we let go thee increased by the blessings of the Lord.

30Therefore Isaac made them a feast; and after meat and drink,

31they rose early, and swore each to other; and Isaac let go them peaceably into their place.

32Lo! forsooth in that day the servants of Isaac came, telling to him of the pit which they had digged, and said, We have found water.

33Wherefore Isaac called that pit Abundance or Shebah; and the name of the city was set Beersheba till into this present day.

34Esau forsooth forty years eld [or old] wedded two wives, Judith#26:34 She is also known as Oholibamah or Aholibamah., the daughter of Beeri Hittite, and Bashemath#26:34 She is also known as Adah., the daughter of Elon, of the same place;

35which both offended the soul of Isaac and of Rebecca.

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Berĕshith (Genesis) 26

1And there was a scarcity of food in the land, besides the first scarcity of food which was in the days of Aḇraham. And Yitsḥaq went to Aḇimeleḵ, sovereign of the Philistines, in Gerar.

2And יהוה appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Mitsrayim, live in the land which I command you.

3“Sojourn in this land. And I shall be with you and bless you, for I give all these lands to you and your seed. And I shall establish the oath which I swore to Aḇraham your father.

4And I shall increase your seed like the stars of the heavens, and I shall give all these lands to your seed. And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,”

5because Aḇraham obeyed My voice and guarded My Charge: My commands, My laws, and My Torot.”#Torot - plural of Torah, teaching.

6And Yitsḥaq dwelt in Gerar.

7And when the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister.” For he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me for Riḇqah, because she is good-looking.”

8And it came to be, when he had been there a long time, that Aḇimeleḵ sovereign of the Philistines looked through a window, and he watched and saw Yitsḥaq playing with Riḇqah his wife.

9So Aḇimeleḵ called Yitsḥaq and said, “See, truly she is your wife! So how could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” And Yitsḥaq said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’ ”

10And Aḇimeleḵ said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people had almost lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.”

11And Aḇimeleḵ commanded all his people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife shall certainly be put to death.”

12And Yitsḥaq sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold, and יהוה blessed him.

13And the man grew great and went forward until he became very great.

14And he came to have possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great body of servants, and the Philistines envied him.

15And the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Aḇraham his father, and filled them with dirt.

16And Aḇimeleḵ said to Yitsḥaq, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”

17So Yitsḥaq went from there and pitched his tent in the wadi Gerar, and dwelt there.

18And Yitsḥaq dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Aḇraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Aḇraham. And he called them by the names which his father had called them.

19But when Yitsḥaq’s servants dug in the wadi and found a well of running water there,

20the herdsmen of Gerar strove with Yitsḥaq’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” And he called the name of the well Ěseq, because they strove with him.

21And they dug another well, and they strove over that one too, and he called its name Sitnah.

22And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not strive over it. And he called its name Reḥoḇoth, and said, “For now יהוה has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

23And from there he went up to Be’ĕrsheḇa.

24And יהוה appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the Elohim of your father Aḇraham. Do not fear, for I am with you, and shall bless you and increase your seed for My servant Aḇraham’s sake.”

25And he built a slaughter-place there, and called on the Name of יהוה, and he pitched his tent there, and the servants of Yitsḥaq dug a well there.

26And Aḇimeleḵ came to him from Gerar, with Aḥuzzath, one of his friends, and Piḵol the commander of his army.

27And Yitsḥaq said to them, “Why have you come to me, seeing you have hated me and have sent me away from you?”

28But they said, “We have clearly seen that יהוה is with you. And we said, ‘Please, let there be an oath between us, between you and us. And let us make a covenant with you,

29that you do no evil to us, as we have not touched you, and as we have done only good toward you, and have sent you away in peace. You are now blessed by יהוה.’ ”

30And he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

31And they rose early in the morning and swore an oath with one another. And Yitsḥaq let them go, and they departed from him in peace.

32And on the same day it came to be that the servants of Yitsḥaq came and informed him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”

33So he called it Shiḇah. Therefore the name of the city is Be’ĕrsheḇa to this day.

34And when Ěsaw was forty years old, he took as wives Yehuḏith the daughter of Be’ĕri the Ḥittite, and Basemath the daughter of Ělon the Ḥittite.

35And they were a bitterness of spirit to Yitsḥaq and Riḇqah.

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