Genesis 26

And there was a famine in the land, besides ^athe first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto ^bAbimelech king of the ^cPhilistims unto Gerar. ²And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in ^dthe land which I shall tell thee of: ^3esojourn in this land, and ^fI will be with thee, and ^gwill bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, ^hI will give all these countries, and I will perform ⁱthe oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; ⁴and ^kI will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; ^land in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; ^5mbecause that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. ⁶And Isaac dwelt in Gerar: ⁷and the men of the place asked him of his wife; and ⁿhe said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, ^osaid he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she ^pwas fair to look upon. ⁸And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistims looked out at a window, and saw, and behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife. ⁹And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife: and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her. ¹⁰And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and ^qthou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us. ¹¹And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. ¹²Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the Lord ^rblessed him. ¹³And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: ¹⁴for he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistims ^senvied him. ¹⁵For all the wells ^twhich his father’s servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistims had stopped them, and filled them with earth. ¹⁶And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for ^uthou art much mightier than we.

¹⁷And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. ¹⁸And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistims had stopped them after the death of Abraham: ^xand he called their names after the names by which his father had called them. ¹⁹And Isaac’s servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water. ²⁰And the herdmen of Gerar ^ydid strive with Isaac’s herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him. ²¹And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah. ²²And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall ^zbe fruitful in the land. ²³And he went up from thence to Beer-sheba. ²⁴And the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said, ^aI am the God of Abraham thy father: ^bfear not, for ^cI am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham’s sake. ²⁵And he ^dbuilded an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac’s servants digged a well. ²⁶Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and ^ePhichol the chief captain of his army. ²⁷And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have ^fsent me away from you? ²⁸And they said, We saw certainly that the Lord ^gwas with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee; ²⁹that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: ^hthou art now the blessed of the Lord. ³⁰ⁱAnd he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink. ³¹And they rose up betimes in the morning, and ^ksware one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. ³²And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water. ³³And he called it Shebah: ^ltherefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba unto this day.³⁴And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife ^mJudith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: ³⁵ⁿwhich were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.

XXVII.