Genesis 26:12–22

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.”