Genesis 26:2

2 ADONAI appeared to him and said, "Don't go down into Egypt, but live where I tell you.

Genesis 26:2 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 26:2

And the Lord appeared unto him
In a vision or dream, when he was at Gerar: and said, go not down into Egypt;
as his father had done in the like case, and where Isaac thought to have gone, and the rather, as that was a fruitful country; and so the Targum of Jonathan,

``and it was in the heart of Isaac to go down into Egypt, and the Lord appeared unto him''

and charged him not to go thither; partly to try his faith in him, and dependence on his providence for support in this time of famine, and partly lest he should think of continuing there, and be unmindful of the promise of the land of Canaan to Abraham's seed: dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of;
even the land of Canaan, which he was now about to give him on account of the promise of it to Abraham and his seed, and to renew it to him and to his seed.

Genesis 26:2 In-Context

1 A famine came over the land, not the same as the first famine, which had taken place when Avraham was alive. Yitz'chak went to G'rar, to Avimelekh king of the P'lishtim.

2 ADONAI appeared to him and said, "Don't go down into Egypt, but live where I tell you.

3 Stay in this land, and I will be with you and bless you, because I will give all these lands to you and to your descendants. I will fulfill the oath which I swore to Avraham your father -

4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, I will give all these lands to your descendants, and by your descendants all the nations of the earth will bless themselves.

5 All this is because Avraham heeded what I said and did what I told him to do -he followed my mitzvot, my regulations and my teachings."