Genesis 26 (New American Standard)

Isaac Settles in Gerar

1 Now there was ¹a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to ²Abimelech king of the Philistines. 2 The LORD ³appeared to him and said, "Do not go down to Egypt ; ^a4stay in the land of which I shall tell you. 3 "Sojourn in this land and ⁵I will be with you and ⁶bless you, for ⁷to you and to your ^bdescendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish ⁸the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. 4 "⁹I will multiply your ^cdescendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your ^ddescendants all these lands ; and ¹⁰by your ^edescendants all the nations of the earth ^fshall be blessed ; 5 because Abraham ^g11obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws." 6 So Isaac ^hlived in Gerar. 7 When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, "¹²She is my sister," for he was ¹³afraid to say, "my wife," thinking, "ⁱthe men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is ¹⁴beautiful." 8 It came about, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through a window, and saw, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah. 9 Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, "Behold, certainly she is your wife ! How then did you say, 'She is my sister '?" And Isaac said to him, "Because I said, 'I might die on account of her.' " 10 ¹⁵Abimelech said, "What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us." 11 So Abimelech charged all the people, saying, "He who ¹⁶touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death." 12 Now Isaac sowed in that land and ^jreaped in the same year a hundredfold . And ¹⁷the LORD blessed him, 13 and the man ¹⁸became rich, and continued to grow ^kricher until he became very ^lwealthy ; 14 for ¹⁹he had possessions of flocks ^mand herds and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. 15 Now ²⁰all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up ⁿby filling them with earth. 16 Then Abimelech said to Isaac, "Go away from us, for you are ^o21too powerful for us." 17 And Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar, and ^psettled there.

Quarrel over the Wells

18 Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which ^qhad been dug in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham ; and he ^rgave them the same names which his father had ^sgiven them. 19 But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of ^tflowing water, 20 the herdsmen of Gerar ²²quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, "The water is ours!" So he named the well ^uEsek, because they contended with him. 21 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over it too, so he named it ^vSitnah. 22 He moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it ^wRehoboth, for he said, "^x23At last the LORD has made ^yroom for us, and we will be ²⁴fruitful in the land." 23 Then he went up from there to ²⁵Beersheba. 24 The LORD ²⁶appeared to him the same night and said, "²⁷I am the God of your father Abraham ; ²⁸Do not fear, for I am with you. I ²⁹will bless you, and multiply your ^zdescendants, For the sake of My servant Abraham." 25 So he built an ³⁰altar there and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there ; and there Isaac's servants dug a well.

Covenant with Abimelech

26 Then ³¹Abimelech came to him from Gerar ^aawith his adviser Ahuzzath and Phicol the commander of his army. 27 Isaac said to them, "³²Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?" 28 They said, "We see plainly ³³that the LORD has been with you; so we said, 'Let there now be an oath between us, even between ^bbyou and us, and let us make a covenant with you, 29 that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you ^ccand have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the ³⁴blessed of the LORD.' " 30 Then ³⁵he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31 In the morning they arose early and ^dd36exchanged oaths ; then Isaac sent them away and they departed from him in peace. 32 Now it came about on the same day, that Isaac's servants came in and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, "We have found water." 33 So he called it Shibah ; therefore the name of the city is ³⁷Beersheba to this day. 34 When Esau was forty years old ³⁸he ^eemarried Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite ; 35 and ³⁹they ^ffbrought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.