Genesis 26:1–11

Isaac Settles in Gerar

¹Now there was ^aa famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to ^bAbimelech king of the Philistines.

²The Lord ^aappeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; ^1bstay in the land of which I shall tell you.

³“Sojourn in this land and ^aI will be with you and ^bbless you, for ^cto you and to your ¹descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish ^dthe oath which I swore to your father Abraham.

⁴“^aI will multiply your ¹descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and ^bby your descendants all the nations of the earth ²shall be blessed;

⁵because Abraham ^1aobeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.”

⁶So Isaac ¹lived in Gerar.

⁷When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “^aShe is my sister,” for he was ^bafraid to say, “my wife,” thinking, “¹the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is ^cbeautiful.”

⁸It came about, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through a window, and saw, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah.

⁹Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, certainly she is your wife! How then did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘I might die on account of her.’ ”

^10aAbimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”

¹¹So Abimelech charged all the people, saying, “He who ^atouches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”