Genesis 26

Isaac Lives at Gerar

1There was another famine in the land besides the earlier one during the time of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar. 2The LORD had appeared to Isaac and had said, “Do not go to Egypt; stay in this land, where I tell you to stay. 3#Gen 22.16–18Live here, and I will be with you and bless you. I am going to give all this territory to you and to your descendants. I will keep the promise I made to your father Abraham. 4I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky, and I will give them all this territory. All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants. 5I will bless you, because Abraham obeyed me and kept all my laws and commands.”

6So Isaac lived at Gerar. 7#Gen 12.13; 20.2When the men there asked about his wife, he said that she was his sister. He would not admit that she was his wife, because he was afraid that the men there would kill him to get Rebecca, who was very beautiful. 8When Isaac had been there for some time, King Abimelech looked down from his window and saw Isaac and Rebecca making love. 9Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, “So she is your wife! Why did you say she was your sister?”

He answered, “I thought I would be killed if I said she was my wife.”

10“What have you done to us?” Abimelech said. “One of my men might easily have slept with your wife, and you would have been responsible for our guilt.” 11Abimelech warned all the people: “Anyone who ill-treats this man or his wife will be put to death.”

12Isaac sowed seed in that land, and that year he harvested a hundred times as much as he had sown, because the LORD blessed him. 13He continued to prosper and became a very rich man. 14Because he had many herds of sheep and cattle and many servants, the Philistines were jealous of him. 15So they filled in all the wells which the servants of his father Abraham had dug while Abraham was alive.

16Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Leave our country. You have become more powerful than we are.” 17So Isaac left and set up his camp in the Valley of Gerar, where he stayed for some time. 18He dug once again the wells which had been dug during the time of Abraham and which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham's death. Isaac gave the wells the same names that his father had given them.

19Isaac's servants dug a well in the valley and found water. 20The shepherds of Gerar quarrelled with Isaac's shepherds and said, “This water belongs to us.” So Isaac named the well “Quarrel”.

21Isaac's servants dug another well, and there was a quarrel about that one also, so he named it “Enmity”. 22He moved away from there and dug another well. There was no dispute about this one, so he named it “Freedom”. He said, “Now the LORD has given us freedom to live in the land, and we will be prosperous here.”

23Isaac left and went to Beersheba. 24That night the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid; I am with you. I will bless you and give you many descendants because of my promise to my servant Abraham.” 25Isaac built an altar there and worshipped the LORD. Then he set up his camp there, and his servants dug another well.

The Agreement between Isaac and Abimelech

26 # Gen 21.22 Abimelech came from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army to see Isaac. 27So Isaac asked, “Why have you now come to see me, when you were so unfriendly to me before and made me leave your country?”

28They answered, “Now we know that the LORD is with you, and we think that there should be a solemn agreement between us. We want you to promise 29that you will not harm us, just as we did not harm you. We were kind to you and let you leave peacefully. Now it is clear that the LORD has blessed you.” 30Isaac prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank. 31Early next morning each man made his promise and sealed it with a vow. Isaac said goodbye to them, and they parted as friends.

32On that day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well which they had dug. They said, “We have found water.” 33He named the well “Vow”. That is how the city of Beersheba#26.33 Beersheba: This name in Hebrew means “Well of the Vow” or “Well of Seven” (see also 21.31). got its name.

Esau's Foreign Wives

34When Esau was forty years old, he married two Hittite women, Judith the daughter of Beeri, and Basemath the daughter of Elon. 35They made life miserable for Isaac and Rebecca.

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Genesis 26

God made the same promise to Isaac that he made to Abraham

1At another time, there was no rain and no food plants growing in the country where Isaac and Rebekah lived. It was like the time when there was no rain a long time before, while Abraham was still alive.

So Isaac and his family left that country, and they went to the town called Gerar, in Philistia country. The big boss of the Philistia people was called Abimelek, and he lived in that town.

2God showed himself to Isaac in that place, and God said, “Don’t go to Egypt country to try to get food. I’m going to tell you where you have to live. 3-4I’m telling you to camp here, in this country. You don’t need to worry. I will be with you, to take care of you. I will keep on being good to you. Remember that strong promise that I made to your father Abraham. Now I’m making the same promise to you. I will give you a really big family. You see, lots of kids and grand-kids will be born into your family later on, and they will become a really big mob of people. There will be lots and lots of them, just like there are lots of stars in the sky. And I will give them all of this country, and I will use them to do good things for all the nations in the world.#Genesis 12:2-3, 7; 15:5; 22:16-18; Acts 3:25 5You know, your father Abraham listened to me and did what I told him to do. That’s why I’m making that same promise to you that I made to him.”

6So Isaac set up his camp in Gerar, just like God told him to.

Isaac tried to trick the men in Gerar

7The men in Gerar saw Isaac’s wife Rebekah, and they asked Isaac, “Who is that woman?”#Genesis 12:13; 20:2

You know, Rebekah was very beautiful. So Isaac got worried about those men. He thought, “Maybe those men want to marry Rebekah. If I tell them that she is my wife, maybe they will kill me to get her.”

So Isaac lied and said, “She is my sister.”

8After that, Isaac and Rebekah lived in Gerar for a long time. But one day Abimelek, the big boss of the Philistia people, he looked out of his window, and he saw Isaac hugging Rebekah. Then Abimelek knew that Rebekah was Isaac’s wife. 9So Abimelek sent somebody to get Isaac. Then Abimelek said to Isaac, “Now I know that Rebekah is your wife. Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?”

Isaac said, “I was too frightened to say, ‘She is my wife.’ I thought that the men in Gerar will kill me and take Rebekah for themselves. So I said, ‘She is my sister.’ ”

10Then Abimelek was angry. He said to Isaac, “That was a bad thing that you did to us. You didn’t tell us that Rebekah is your wife. We thought that she is not married. What if one of my men slept with her, like men sleep with their wives? Think about that. Then me and all my people, we would be guilty of that bad thing.”

11After that, Abimelek talked strongly to all the people in Gerar. He said, “If any one of you hurts Isaac or Rebekah, I will kill you.”

God was good to Isaac

12While Isaac lived in Gerar, he planted seeds in the ground. And God was really good to Isaac. That same year, those seeds grew into really good food plants, so Isaac had lots and lots of food. 13And Isaac got more and more money and good things, and he became very rich. 14He had lots of sheep and cows, and lots of people that worked for him.

The Philistia people that lived in Gerar, they saw that Isaac was very rich, and they got jealous of him. 15So they got dirt and filled up the water-holes that Isaac was using. A long time before that, Isaac’s father Abraham got his workers to dig those water-holes.

Isaac dug some water-holes

16Then Abimelek, the big boss of the Philistia people, he said to Isaac, “Listen, you and your mob are a lot stronger than us now, so I don’t want you to keep on living here. You have to leave this place.”

17So Isaac and his family left Gerar, and they moved their camp to a place called the Valley of Gerar, and they lived in that place for a long time.

18A long time before this, when Isaac’s father Abraham was alive, Abraham and his workers dug lots of water-holes in that place, and Abraham gave all those water-holes names. But then, after Abraham died, the Philistia people filled up all those water-holes with dirt, so nobody could get water from them. Now, when Isaac moved there, he got his workers to take the dirt out of those water-holes, so that everybody could get water again. And Isaac gave those water-holes the same names that Abraham gave them a long time before.

19One day, Isaac’s workers dug a new water-hole in the valley, and they found fresh running water in that hole. 20But there were some men there from Gerar, looking after their animals, and those men came and argued with the men that looked after Isaac’s animals. The men from Gerar said, “That water belongs to us.” So Isaac called that water-hole Esek. That name means they argue.

21After that, Isaac’s workers dug another water-hole, but the men from Gerar came and argued with them about that water-hole too. So Isaac called that water-hole Sitnah. That name means they are enemies.

22Then Isaac moved his camp to a new place, and his workers dug a water-hole in that place. This time, nobody argued with them about the water-hole. So Isaac called that water-hole Rehoboth. That name means big place. And Isaac said, “God has given us a big place to live. Our family will grow here, and our life will be good.”

God talked to Isaac at Beersheba

23Later on, Isaac moved his camp to the place called Beersheba.

24When Isaac got to Beersheba, that same night, God showed himself to Isaac. God said, “I am God. I am the one that looked after your father Abraham. Don’t be frightened. I am here with you, to take care of you. I will be good to you, and I will give you a really big family, just like I promised to your father Abraham.”

25Then Isaac wanted to show respect to God, so he piled up stones to make a table with a flat top. It was a special place for him to burn animals to show right respect to God. Then Isaac prayed to God, and he called God by his special name Yahweh.

After that, Isaac set up his camp, and he sent his workers to go and dig a water-hole.

Isaac and Abimelek made an agreement

26Abimelek, the big boss of the Philistia mob, he wanted to talk to Isaac again. So he left his home in Gerar, and he went to Isaac’s camp in Beersheba. He took 2 other men with him. One of those men was called Ahuzath, and he was Abimelek’s helper. The other man was called Ficol, and he was the leader of Abimelek’s army.

27When Isaac saw Abimelek and the 2 other men, he was shocked, and he said, “You told me to leave your country, so I know you hate me. So why did you come here to talk to me?”

28Then they said to Isaac, “We know that Yahweh your God is with you, and he helps you with everything you do. So we want you to make an agreement with us. 29We want you to promise that you will never hurt us or our people. Remember that time when you lived in our country. We never hurt you, and we always did good things for you. Even when we told you to leave our country, we didn’t make trouble for you. After that, your God kept on being good to you. That’s why we are asking you to promise that you will never hurt us.”

30Then Isaac agreed to make that promise, and he got lots of good food ready for Abimelek and the other 2 men. They all ate that food together, and then they stayed the night in that place. 31Early the next morning, they got up, and Isaac and Abimelek made strong promises to each other. They said, “I promise that I will never hurt you or your people.” So Isaac and Abimelek both felt happy and quiet inside themselves. Then Isaac said goodbye to Abimelek and the other 2 men, and they left to go back to their home country.

32Later that day, Isaac’s workers came to him, and they said, “We dug a water-hole, just like you said, and we found water.” 33Then Isaac called that water-hole Sheba. That name means promise. So people kept on calling the town near there Beersheba. That name means water-hole where they made a promise. They still use that town’s name today.

Esau married 2 women

34Isaac and Rebekah’s oldest son was called Esau. When Esau was 40 years old, he married 2 women. One of those women was called Judith. Her father was called Beeri, and he was from the Heth tribe. The other woman was called Basemath. Her father was called Elon, and he was from the Heth tribe too. 35Those 2 women gave Isaac and Rebekah a lot of trouble, and that made them very sad.

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