GenesisChapter 26

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¹Now there was another famine in the land. This was not the same as the famine in Abraham's time. Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, in Gerar. ²The LORD appeared to Isaac and said, "Don't go down to Egypt. Live in the land I tell you about. ³Stay in this land as a foreigner. I will be with you and bless you. I will give all these lands to you and your offspring. I will keep the promise I made to your father Abraham. ⁴I will make your descendants as many as the stars in the sky. I will give them all these lands. And through your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed. ⁵I will do this 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 there asked about his wife. He said, "She is my sister." He was afraid to say, "She is my wife." He thought, "The men here will kill me to get Rebekah, because she is so beautiful." ⁸Isaac had been there a long time. One day Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked down from a window. He was surprised to see Isaac hugging and kissing his wife Rebekah. ⁹Abimelech sent for Isaac. He said, "So she really is your wife! Why did you say, 'She is my sister'?" Isaac answered, "I thought I might be killed because of her." ¹⁰Abimelech said, "What have you done to us? One of the men could easily have slept with your wife. Then you would have brought guilt on us." ¹¹So Abimelech gave a warning to all the people. He said, "Anyone who harms this man or his wife will surely be put to death." ¹²Isaac planted crops in that land. That same year he harvested 100 times what he planted. The LORD blessed him. ¹³He got richer and richer, until he was very rich. ¹⁴He had so many flocks, herds, and servants that the Philistines became jealous of him. ¹⁵So the Philistines filled in all the wells with dirt. His father's servants had dug those wells back when his father Abraham was alive. ¹⁶Then Abimelech said to Isaac, "Go away from us. You have become much too powerful for us." ¹⁷So Isaac left that place. He set up camp in the Valley of Gerar and lived there. ¹⁸Isaac opened up the old wells again. They had been dug when his father Abraham was alive. The Philistines had filled them in after Abraham died. Isaac gave the wells the same names his father had given them. ¹⁹Then Isaac's servants dug in the valley. They found a well of fresh water there. ²⁰But the herdsmen of Gerar argued with Isaac's herdsmen. They said, "The water is ours!" So Isaac named the well Esek, because they argued with him.a ²¹Then they dug another well. They argued over that one too. So Isaac named it Sitnah.b ²²He moved on from there and dug another well. No one argued over it. He named it Rehoboth. He said, "At last the LORD has made room for us. We will grow and do well in the land."c ²³From there Isaac went up to Beersheba. ²⁴That night the LORD appeared to him. He said, "I am the God of your father Abraham. Don't be afraid, because I am with you. I will bless you. I will give you many descendants because of my servant Abraham." ²⁵So Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD. He set up his tent there. And his servants dug a well there too. ²⁶Later Abimelech came to Isaac from Gerar. Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army came with him. ²⁷Isaac asked them, "Why have you come to me? You hated me and sent me away." ²⁸They answered, "We can clearly see that the LORD has been with you. So we think there should be a promise between us and you. Let us make a covenant with you. ²⁹Promise that you won't harm us. We didn't harm you. We only did good to you, and we sent you away in peace. And now the LORD has blessed you." ³⁰So Isaac made a big meal for them, and they ate and drank. ³¹Early the next morning they got up and made promises to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they left him in peace. ³²That same day Isaac's servants came to him. They told him about the well they had dug. "We have found water!" they said. ³³So he named the well Shibah. That is why the city is named Beersheba to this day.d ³⁴When Esau was 40 years old, he married two women. One was Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite. The other was Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite. ³⁵These wives made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.