Genesis 26

Isaac and Abimelech

1Once during Abraham's lifetime, the fields had not produced enough grain, and now the same thing happened. So Isaac went to King Abimelech of the Philistines in the land of Gerar, 2because the LORD had appeared to Isaac and said:

Isaac, stay away from Egypt! I will show you where I want you to go. 3You will live there as a foreigner, but I will be with you and bless you. I will keep my promise to your father Abraham by giving this land to you and your descendants.#Gn 22.16-18.

4I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land. They will be a blessing to every nation on earth,#26.4 They…on earth: Or “All nations on earth will ask me to bless them.” 5because Abraham did everything I told him to do.

6Isaac moved to Gerar 7with his beautiful wife Rebekah. He was afraid that someone might kill him to get her, and so he told everyone that Rebekah was his sister.#Gn 12.13; 20.2. 8After Isaac had been there a long time, King Abimelech looked out of a window and saw Isaac hugging and kissing Rebekah. 9Abimelech called him in and said, “Rebekah must be your wife! Why did you say she is your sister?”

“Because I thought someone would kill me,” Isaac answered.

10“Don't you know what you've done?” Abimelech exclaimed. “If someone had slept with her, you would have made our whole nation guilty!” 11Then Abimelech warned his people that anyone who even touched Isaac or Rebekah would be put to death.

12Isaac planted grain and had a good harvest that same year. The LORD blessed him, 13and Isaac was so successful that he became very rich. 14In fact, the Philistines were jealous of the large number of sheep, goats, and slaves that Isaac owned, 15and they stopped up the wells that Abraham's servants had dug before his death. 16Finally, Abimelech said, “Isaac, I want you to leave our country. You have become too powerful to stay here.”

17Isaac left and settled in Gerar Valley, 18where he cleaned out those wells that the Philistines had stopped up. Isaac also gave each of the wells the same name#26.18 gave…same name: By doing this Isaac claimed ownership of the wells. that Abraham had given to them. 19While his servants were digging in the valley, they found a spring-fed well. 20But the shepherds of Gerar Valley quarrelled with Isaac's shepherds and claimed the water belonged to them. So the well was named “Quarrel”, because they had quarrelled with Isaac.

21Isaac's servants dug another well, and the shepherds also quarrelled about it. So that well was named “Jealous”. 22Finally, they dug one more well. There was no quarrelling this time, and the well was named “Lots of Room”, because the LORD had given them room and would make them very successful.

23Isaac went on to Beersheba, 24where the LORD appeared to him that night and told him, “Don't be afraid! I am the God who was worshipped by your father Abraham, my servant. I will be with you and bless you, and because of Abraham I will give you many descendants.” 25Isaac built an altar there and worshipped the LORD. Then he set up camp, and his servants started digging a well.

26Meanwhile, Abimelech had left Gerar and was taking his adviser Ahuzzath and his army commander Phicol to see Isaac.#Gn 21.22. 27When they arrived, Isaac asked, “Why are you here? Didn't you send me away because you hated me?”

28They answered, “We now know for certain that the LORD is with you, and we have decided there needs to be a peace treaty between you and us. So let's make a solemn agreement 29not to harm each other. Remember, we have never hurt you, and when we sent you away, we let you go in peace. The LORD has truly blessed you.”

30Isaac gave a big feast for them, and everyone ate and drank. 31Early the next morning Isaac and the others made a solemn agreement, then he let them go in peace.

32Later that same day Isaac's servants came and said, “We've struck water!” 33So Isaac named the well Shibah,#26.33 Shibah: In Hebrew “Shibah” sounds something like “good luck” and “promise”. and the town is still called Beersheba.#26.33 Beersheba: Meaning “Well of Good Fortune” or “Peace Treaty Well”.

Esau's foreign wives

34When Esau was forty, he married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35But these two women brought a lot of grief to his parents Isaac and Rebekah.

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Genesis 26

Isaac Settles in Gerar

1Now there was a famine in the land [of Canaan], besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to #This is not the Abimelech of ch 20. Abimelech may actually be a dynastic title, like Caesar or Pharaoh, instead of a proper name. The events recounted in chapters 20 and 26 are separated by almost a hundred years.Abimelech king of the Philistines. 2The Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I will tell you. 3Live temporarily [as a resident] in this land and I will be with you and will bless and favor you, for I will give all these lands to you and to your descendants, and I will establish and carry out the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. 4I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of the heavens, and will give to your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, 5because Abraham listened to and obeyed My voice and [consistently] kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

6So Isaac stayed in Gerar. 7The men of the place asked him about his wife, and he said, “She is my #When Abraham used this ploy, it was a half-truth; when Isaac said this it was a complete lie. At this time Isaac was at least seventy-five years old; Rebekah’s age at this time is not known.sister,” for he was afraid to say, “my wife”—thinking, “the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, since she is very beautiful.” 8It happened when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac #The name “Isaac” is based on the Hebrew verb translated “caressing,” whose primary meaning is “to laugh” (cf 17:19).caressing Rebekah his wife. 9Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “See here, Rebekah is in fact your wife! How did you [dare to] say to me, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I thought I might be killed because of her [desirability].” 10Abimelech said, “What is this that you have done to us? One of the men [among our people] might easily have been intimate with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us [before God].” 11Then Abimelech commanded all his people, “Whoever touches this man [Isaac] or his wife [Rebekah] shall without exception be put to death.”

12Then Isaac planted [seed] in that land [as a farmer] and reaped in the same year a hundred times [as much as he had planted], and the Lord blessed and favored him. 13And the man [Isaac] became great and gained more and more until he became very wealthy and extremely distinguished; 14he owned flocks and herds and a great household [with a number of servants], and the Philistines envied him. 15Now all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up by filling them with dirt. 16Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from here, because you are far too powerful for us.” 17So Isaac left that region and camped in the Valley of Gerar, and settled there.

Quarrel over the Wells

18Now Isaac again dug [and reopened] the wells of water which had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, because the Philistines had filled them up [with dirt] after the death of Abraham; and he gave the wells the same names that his father had given them. 19But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of flowing [spring] water, 20the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours!” So Isaac named the well Esek (quarreling), because they quarreled with him. 21Then his servants dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so Isaac named it Sitnah (enmity). 22He moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over that one; so he named it Rehoboth (broad places), saying, “For now the Lord has made #I.e. broad places.room for us, and we shall be #Lit fruitful.prosperous in the land.”

23Then he went up from there to Beersheba. 24The Lord appeared to him the same night and said,

“I am the God of Abraham your father;

Do not be afraid, for I am with you.

I will bless and favor you, and multiply your descendants,

For the sake of My servant Abraham.”

25So Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord [in prayer]. He pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.

Covenant with Abimelech

26Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, his [close friend and confidential] adviser, and Phicol, the commander of his army. 27Isaac said to them, “Why have you [people] come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?” 28They said, “We see clearly that the Lord has been with you; so we said, ‘There should now be an oath between us [with a curse for the one who breaks it], that is, between you and us, and let us make a covenant (binding agreement, solemn promise) with you, 29that you will not harm us, just as we have not touched you and have done nothing but good to you and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed and favored of the Lord!’ ” 30Then Isaac held a [formal] banquet (covenant feast) for them, and they ate and drank. 31They got up early in the morning and swore oaths [pledging to do nothing but good to each other]; and Isaac sent them on their way and they left him in peace. 32Now on the same day, Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug, saying, “We have found water.” 33So he named the well #This could mean “oath” or “overflow, abundance.” Likewise, the name Beersheba could mean “well of abundance,” or “well of the oath,” or “seven wells.”Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

34When Esau was forty years old he married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite as his wives; 35and they were a #Lit bitterness of spirit.source of grief to [Esau’s parents] Isaac and Rebekah.

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