26There was very little food in the land. The same thing had been true earlier, in Abraham’s time. Isaac went to Abimelech in Gerar. Abimelech was the king of the Philistines.

²The Lord appeared to Isaac. He said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Live in the land where I tell you to live. ³Stay here for a while. I will be with you and give you my blessing. I will give all of these lands to you and your children after you. And I will keep the promise I made with an oath to your father Abraham. ⁴I will make your children after you as many as the stars in the sky. And I will give them all these lands. All nations on earth will be blessed because of your children.

⁵“I will do all of those things because Abraham obeyed me. He did what I required. He kept my commands, my rules and my laws.” ⁶So Isaac stayed in Gerar.

⁷The men of that place asked him about his wife. He said, “She’s my sister.” He was afraid to say, “She’s my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me because of Rebekah. She’s a beautiful woman.”

⁸Isaac had been there a long time. One day Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, looked down from a window. He saw Isaac hugging and kissing his wife Rebekah.

⁹So Abimelech sent for Isaac. He said, “She’s really your wife, isn’t she? Why did you say, ‘She’s my sister’?”

Isaac answered him, “I thought I might lose my life because of her.”

¹⁰Then Abimelech said, “What have you done to us? What if one of the men had sex with your wife? Then you would have made us guilty.”

¹¹So Abimelech gave orders to all of the people. He said, “You can be sure that anyone who harms this man or his wife will be put to death.”

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