Genesis 26:8-18

8 It happened, when he had been there a long time, that Avimelekh king of the Pelishtim looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Yitzchak was caressing Rivka, his wife.

9 Avimelekh called Yitzchak, and said, "Behold, surely she is your wife. Why did you say, 'She is my sister?'" Yitzchak said to him, "Because I said, 'Lest I die because of her.'"

10 Avimelekh 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 on us!"

11 Avimelekh charged all the people, saying, "He who touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death."

12 Yitzchak sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. The LORD blessed him.

13 The man grew great, and grew more and more until he became very great.

14 He had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great household. The Pelishtim envied him.

15 Now all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Avraham his father, the Pelishtim had stopped, and filled with eretz.

16 Avimelekh said to Yitzchak, "Go from us, for you are much mightier than we."

17 Yitzchak departed from there, encamped in the valley of Gerar, and lived there.

18 Yitzchak dug again the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Avraham his father. For the Pelishtim had stopped them after the death of Avraham. He called their names after the names by which his father had called them.

Genesis 26:8-18 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 26

This chapter treats of Isaac's removal to Gerar, occasioned by a famine, Ge 26:1; of the Lord's appearance to him there, advising him to sojourn in that place, and not go down to Egypt; renewing the covenant he had made with Abraham, concerning giving that country to him and his seed, Ge 26:2-6; of what happened unto him at Gerar on account of his wife, Ge 26:7-11; of Isaac's great prosperity and success, which drew the envy of the Philistines upon him, Ge 26:12-15; of his departure from hence to the valley of Gerar, at the instance of Abimelech; and of the contentions between his herdsmen, and those of Gerar, about wells of water, which caused him to remove to Beersheba, Ge 26:16-23; of the Lord's appearance to him there, renewing the above promise to him, where he built an altar, pitched his tent, and his servants dug a well, Ge 26:24,25; of Abimelech's coming to him thither, and making a covenant with him, Ge 26:26-31; which place had its name from the oath then made, and the well there dug, Ge 26:32,33; and lastly, of the marriage of Esau, which was a great grief to Isaac and Rebekah, Ge 26:34,35.