Genesis Chapter 26

Isaac and Abimelech

            ¹ Another famine came over the region besides the one in Abraham’s time. Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech, king of the Philistines. ² Yahveh appeared to him,

“Don’t go down to Egypt. ³ Stay here, and I’ll be with you and bless you. I’ll give your descendants these lands and keep the oath I swore to your father. ⁴ I’ll multiply your descendants like stars in the sky. Your seed will bless all the nations in the world ⁵ because Abraham obeyed me, kept my charges, commandments, statutes, and laws.”

 ⁶ So Isaac lived in Gerar. ⁷ When the men there asked about his wife, he said, “She’s my sister.” He was afraid to say, “My wife,” afraid the men would kill him on account of Rebekah; she was beautiful. ⁸ When he’d been there a long time, Abimelech looked out the window, and saw Isaac caressing Rebekah. ⁹ He called him, “She has to be your wife! Why say she was your sister?”

            “For fear that I’d die on account of her.’”

¹⁰ Abimelech said, “What have you done to us? One of the men might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.” ¹¹ Abimelech charged everybody, “I’ll execute whoever touches this man or his wife.”

Gen 26:1-11

            ¹² Isaac sowed grain, and the same year it yielded 100 times as much as he planted. Yahveh blessed him, ¹³ and he kept getting richer and richer till he was extremely wealthy. ¹⁴ He had flocks, herds, and such a large household that the Philistines got jealous. ¹⁵ They filled the wells his father’s servants had dug. ¹⁶ Abimelech told Isaac, “Go away from us. You’re too big to be around us.” ¹⁷ Isaac left and settled down in the Valley of Gerar.

¹⁸ He dug again the wells they’d dug in Abraham’s time. The Philistines had stopped them up after Abraham died. He named them the same as his father did. ¹⁹ But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found a well with flowing water, ²⁰ the herdsmen at Gerar “quarreled” with his herdsmen, “That’s our water!” so he named the well Esek. ²¹ They dug another well, and they “quarreled” over that one too; so he named it Sitnah. ²² He moved and dug another well. They didn’t quarrel over it; so he named it Rehoboth because he said, “Finally, Yahveh has made ‘room’ for us to prosper here.”

Gen 26:12-22

            ²³ He went up to Beersheba, ²⁴ and Yahveh appeared to him that night, “I’m your father’s God. Don’t be afraid; I’m with you. I’ll bless you and multiply your descendants out of regard for Abraham.” ²⁵ He built an altar and called on Yahveh. He pitched his tent there, and his servants dug a well.

            ²⁶ Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his advisor and Phicol his commander. ²⁷ Isaac asked them,

“Why did you come to me? You despise me and drove me away.”

            ²⁸ “We can see Yahveh’s been with you, so we said, ‘Let’s take an oath between us now.’  Let us make a treaty with you: ²⁹ you won’t harm us like we haven’t done anything but good to you and sent you away on good terms. You’re Yahveh’s blessed.”

³⁰ He held a feast for them, and they ate together.

Gen 26:23-30

            ³¹ In the morning they got up early and exchanged oaths. Isaac saw them off, and they left on good terms. ³² The same day, Isaac’s servants came in and told him about the “well” they’d dug, “We found water.” ³³ So he called it Shibah. The town’s name is still Beersheba.

³⁴ When Esau was 40, he married two Hittite wives: Judith Bat-Beeri and Basemath Bat-Elon. ³⁵ They were a grief to Isaac and Rebekah.                                                                                                                                             

Gen 26:31-35