Genesis 26

1There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that had been in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar.

2Then Yahweh appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Dwell in the land that I will tell you.”

3Stay in this land, and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father.

4And I will multiply your offspring like the stars of the heavens, and I will give to your offspring all these lands, and in your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

5because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

6So Isaac stayed in Gerar.

7When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” lest the men of the place kill me because of Rebekah, because she was beautiful in appearance.

8And it happened, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through the window and saw, and behold, Isaac was laughing with Rebekah his wife.

9So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Surely, she is your wife! So how could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die because of her.’”

10And Abimelech 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.”

11Then Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

12Isaac sowed in that land, and in that year he found a hundredfold, and Yahweh blessed him.

13And the man became great, and he continued to grow greater until he became very great.

14He had flocks, herds, and a large household, and the Philistines envied him.

15All the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up and filled them with earth.

16Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, because you have become much stronger than we are.”

17So Isaac went away from there and camped in the Valley of Gerar, and settled there.

18Then Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham's death, and he called them by the names that his father had given them.

19Then Isaac’s servants dug in the wadi and found there a well of living water.

20Then the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s shepherds, saying, “The water is ours.” So he named the well Esek, because they had quarreled with him.

21Then they dug another well, and they also quarreled over it, so he called its name Sitnah.

22He moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, and said, “For now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

23From there he went up to Beersheba.

24And Yahweh appeared to him that night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Do not fear, for I am with you, and I will bless you and multiply your offspring for the sake of Abraham my servant.”

25So he built an altar there and called on the name of Yahweh, and he pitched his tent there. And Isaac’s servants dug a well there.

26Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his friend and Phicol the commander of his army.

27Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hated me and sent me away from among you?”

28And they said, “We have clearly seen that Yahweh has been with you. So we said, ‘Please let there be an oath between us, between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you.’”

29that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and just as we have done to you only good and sent you away in peace. You are now blessed by Yahweh.”

30And he prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank.

31And they rose early in the morning and swore an oath, each man to his brother; then Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

32And it happened on that day that Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well that they had dug, and they said to him, “We have found water.”

33And he called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

34When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.

35And they were a bitterness of spirit to Isaac and Rebekah.