Genesis 26:17

17 So Isaac departed from there and 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 And the Philistines stopped up all the wells that the servants of his father had dug in the days of Abraham his father. They filled them with earth.
16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, "Go [away] from us, for you have become much too powerful for us."
17 So Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar, and settled there.
18 And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after the death of Abraham. And he gave to them {the same names} which his father had given them.
19 And when the servants of Isaac dug in the valley, they found a well of fresh water there.
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