Genesis 26
- Now there was a famine in the land -- besides
the earlier famine of Abraham's time -- and Isaac went to Abimelech king of
the Philistines in Gerar.
- The LORD appeared to Isaac and said, "Do
not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live.
- Stay in this land for a while, and I will
be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give
all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham.
- I will make your descendants as numerous
as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your
offspring all nations on earth will be blessed,
- because Abraham obeyed me and kept my requirements,
my commands, my decrees and my laws."
- So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
- When the men of that place asked him about
his wife, he said, "She is my sister," because he was afraid to
say, "She is my wife." He thought, "The men of this place might
kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful."
- When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech
king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing
his wife Rebekah.
- So Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, "She
is really your wife! Why did you say, 'She is my sister'?" Isaac answered
him, "Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her."
- Then Abimelech said, "What is this
you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife,
and you would have brought guilt upon us."
- So Abimelech gave orders to all the people:
"Anyone who molests this man or his wife shall surely be put to death."
- Isaac planted crops in that land and the
same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him.
- The man became rich, and his wealth continued
to grow until he became very wealthy.
- He had so many flocks and herds and servants
that the Philistines envied him.
- So all the wells that his father's servants
had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling
them with earth.
- Then Abimelech said to Isaac, "Move
away from us; you have become too powerful for us."
- So Isaac moved away from there and encamped
in the Valley of Gerar and settled there.
- Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug
in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after
Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.
- Isaac's servants dug in the valley and discovered
a well of fresh water there.
- But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with
Isaac's herdsmen and said, "The water is ours!" So he named the
well Esek, because they disputed with him.
- Then they dug another well, but they quarreled
over that one also; so he named it Sitnah.
- He moved on from there and dug another well,
and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth, saying, "Now the
LORD has given us room and we will flourish in the land."
- From there he went up to Beersheba.
- That night the LORD 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 will increase the number of your descendants
for the sake of my servant Abraham."
- Isaac built an altar there and called on
the name of the LORD. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug
a well.
- Meanwhile, Abimelech had come to him from
Gerar, with Ahuzzath his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his
forces.
- Isaac asked them, "Why have you come
to me, since you were hostile to me and sent me away ?"
- They answered, "We saw clearly that
the LORD was with you; so we said, 'There ought to be a sworn agreement between
us' -- between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you
- that you will do us no harm, just as we
did not molest you but always treated you well and sent you away in peace.
And now you are blessed by the LORD."
- Isaac then made a feast for them, and they
ate and drank.
- Early the next morning the men swore an
oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they left him in
peace.
- That day Isaac's servants came and told
him about the well they had dug. They said, "We've found water !"
- He called it Shibah, and to this day the
name of the town has been Beersheba.
- When Esau was forty years old, he married
Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the
Hittite.
- They were a source of grief to Isaac and
Rebekah.
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