XXVI. * 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. 2 And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in dthe land which I shall tell thee of: 3 esojourn 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; 4 and 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; 5 mbecause that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. 6 And Isaac dwelt in Gerar: 7 and 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. 8 And 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. 9 And 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. 10 And 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. 11 And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. 12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and * received in the same year an hundredfold: and the Lord rblessed him. 13 And the man waxed great, and * went forward, and grew until he became very great: 14 for he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of * servants: and the Philistims senvied him. 15 For 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. 16 And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for uthou art much mightier than we.

17 And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. 18 And 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. 19 And Isaac’s servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of * springing water. 20 And 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. 21 And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it * Sitnah. 22 And 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. 23 And he went up from thence to Beer-sheba. 24 And 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. 25 And 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. 26 Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and ePhichol the chief captain of his army. 27 And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have fsent me away from you? 28 And 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; 29 * that 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. 30 iAnd he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink. 31 And they rose up betimes in the morning, and ksware one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. 32 And 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. 33 And he called it * Shebah: ltherefore the name of the city is * Beer-sheba unto this day. 34 And 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: 35 nwhich were * a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.