Genesis 26:17

17 So Isaac moved away from there. He camped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there.

Genesis 26:17 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 26:17

And Isaac departed thence
At once, peaceably and quietly, though to his loss and disadvantage, without taking himself either to argument or arms, in favour of himself; he departed immediately, as soon as he perceived his abode was disagreeable to the king and his people; which gives us a very agree, able idea of the calm and peaceable disposition of Isaac: and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there;
at some distance from the city of Gerar, as Jarchi observes. Josephus F7 says it was not far from it; but how far is not certain; very probably it was not out of the country, though on the borders of it. Some render it, "the brook of Gerar" F8, and interpret it, that he pitched his tent, and dwelt by it; and the word used does signify a brook as well as a valley; and there was a brook of Gerar, which Sozomen F9 makes mention of.


FOOTNOTES:

F7 Antiqu. l. 1. c. 18. sect. 2.
F8 (rrg lxnb) "ad torrentem Gerarae", V. L.
F9 Eccl. Hist. l. 6. c. 32.

Genesis 26:17 In-Context

15 So they stopped up all of the wells the servants of his father Abraham had dug. They filled them with dirt.
16 Then Abimelech said to Isaac, "Move away from us. You have become too powerful for us."
17 So Isaac moved away from there. He camped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there.
18 Isaac opened up the wells again. They had been dug in the time of his father Abraham. The Philistines had stopped them up after Abraham died. Isaac gave the wells the same names his father had given them.
19 Isaac's servants dug for wells in the valley. There they discovered a well of fresh water.
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