Genesis 26

The Promise Reaffirmed to Isaac

26There was another famine in the land in addition to the one that had occurred in Abraham’s time. ^oAnd Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar. ^p2The Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Live in the land that I tell you about; ³stay in this land as a foreigner, and I will be with you and bless you. ^qFor I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, ^rand I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. ^s4I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky, I will give your offspring all these lands, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed ^tby your offspring, ^u5because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My mandate, My commands, My statutes, and My instructions.” ^v6So Isaac settled in Gerar.

Isaac’s Deception

⁷When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” ^wfor he was afraid to say “my wife,” thinking, ^x“The men of the place will kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is a beautiful woman.” ^y8When Isaac had been there for some time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from the window and was surprised to see ^zIsaac caressing his wife Rebekah.

⁹Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, “So she is really your wife! How could you say, ‘She is my sister’?”

Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might die on account of her.”

¹⁰Then Abimelech said, “What is this you’ve done to us? One of the people could easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.” ^a11So Abimelech warned all the people with these words: “Whoever harms this man or his wife will certainly die.”

Conflicts over Wells

¹²Isaac sowed seed in that land, and in that year he reaped ^ba hundred times what was sown. The Lord blessed him, ^c13and the man became rich and kept getting richer until he was very wealthy. ¹⁴He had flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, and many slaves, and the Philistines were envious of him. ¹⁵The Philistines stopped up all the wells that his father’s slaves had dug in the days of his father Abraham, ^dfilling them with dirt. ¹⁶And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Leave us, for you are much too powerful for us.” ^e

¹⁷So Isaac left there, camped in the Valley of Gerar, and lived there. ¹⁸Isaac reopened the water wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham and that the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. He gave them the same names his father had given them. ¹⁹Then Isaac’s slaves dug in the valley and found a well of spring ^fwater there. ²⁰But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Quarrel ^gbecause they quarreled with him. ^h21Then they dug another well and quarreled over that one also, so he named it Hostility. ⁱ²²He moved from there and dug another, and they did not quarrel over it. He named it Open Spaces ^jand said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

The Lord Appears to Isaac

²³From there he went up to Beer-sheba, ²⁴and the Lord appeared to him that night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. ^kDo not be afraid, for I am with you. ^lI will bless you and multiply your offspring because of My servant Abraham.”

²⁵So he built an altar there, ^mcalled on the name of Yahweh, and pitched his tent there. Isaac’s slaves also dug a well there. ⁿ

Covenant with Abimelech

²⁶Now Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army. ^o27Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me? You hated me and sent me away from you.”

²⁸They replied, “We have clearly seen how the Lord has been with you. We think there should be an oath between two parties—between us and you. Let us make a covenant with you: ²⁹You will not harm us, just as we have not harmed you but have only done what was good to you, sending you away in peace. You are now blessed by the Lord.” ^p

³⁰So he prepared a banquet for them, and they ate and drank. ³¹They got up early in the morning and swore an oath to each other. ^qrThen Isaac sent them on their way, and they left him in peace. ³²On that same day Isaac’s slaves came to tell him about the well they had dug, saying to him, “We have found water!” ^s33He called it Sheba. ^tTherefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba ^uvto this day.

Esau’s Wives

³⁴When Esau was 40 years old, he took as his wives Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. ^w35They made life bitter ^xfor Isaac and Rebekah. ^y