Genesis
Chapter 26
1 There was not enough food in the country, in addition to the earlier food shortage during Abraham’s time. Isaac went to see Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, in Gerar.
2 God appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land I will tell you about.”
3 Stay in this land, and I will be with you and bless you. I will give all these countries to you and your descendants, and I will keep the promise I made to your father Abraham.
4 I will make your children as many as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands; through your descendants, all the world’s nations will be blessed.
5 Abraham listened to me and followed my orders, commands, rules, and laws.
6 Isaac lived in Gerar.
7 The local people asked him about his wife; he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought they might kill him because of Rebekah, as she was very beautiful.
8 When he had been there a long time, King Abimelech of the Philistines looked out a window and saw Isaac being affectionate with his wife Rebekah.
9 Abimelech called Isaac and said, “She is really your wife; why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac answered, “I thought I might be killed because of her.”
10 Abimelech asked, “What have you done to us? Someone could easily have slept with your wife, and you would have made us guilty.”
11 Abimelech told everyone, “Anyone who harms this man or his wife will definitely be killed.”
12 Then Isaac planted crops in that land, and in that same year, he got a hundred times more than he planted, and God blessed him.
13 The man became very successful and continued to prosper until he was extremely wealthy.
14 He owned many sheep, cattle, and had many workers: the Philistines were jealous of him.
15 All the wells that his father’s servants had dug during Abraham’s time, the Philistines had blocked them and filled them with dirt.
16 Abimelech said to Isaac, “Leave us; you are much stronger than we are.”
17 Isaac left that place and set up his tent in the Gerar valley and lived there.
18 Isaac reopened the water wells that were dug in his father Abraham’s time, because the Philistines had filled them after Abraham died. He named them what his father had named them.
19 Isaac’s workers dug in the valley and found a well with flowing water.
20 The herders from Gerar fought with Isaac’s herders, saying, “The water is ours!” So, he named the well Esek because they argued with him.
21 They dug another well, and people also fought over it; so he named it Sitnah.
22 He moved from there, dug another well, and no one fought over it. He named it Rehoboth, saying, “Now God has given us space, and we will grow in this land.”
23 He left that place and went to Beersheba.
24 That night, God appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and give you many descendants to honor my servant Abraham.”
25 He built an altar there, called on God’s name, set up his tent, and Isaac’s servants dug a well.
26 Abimelech from Gerar, his friend Ahuzzath, and Phichol, his army’s leader, went to him.
27 Isaac asked them, “Why do you come to me if you hate me and have made me leave you?”
28 They said, “We clearly saw that God was with you, so we thought, let’s make a promise between us and you, and let’s agree together.”
29 Please do us no harm, as we have not harmed you and have only treated you well, sending you off peacefully. You are now blessed by God.
30 He prepared a meal for them, and they ate and drank.
31 They got up early in the morning, made promises to each other, and then Isaac sent them away, and they left him peacefully.
32 That same day, Isaac’s workers came and told him about the well they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”
33 He named it Shebah, so the city is called Beersheba to this day.
34 Esau was forty when he married Judith, Beeri the Hittite’s daughter, and Bashemath, Elon the Hittite’s daughter.
35 They made Isaac and Rebekah very unhappy.