Genesis 26
26
Isaac and Abimelech
1There was a famine in the land, besides #Gen. 12:10the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to #Gen. 20:1, 2Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar.
2Then the Lord appeared to him and said: #Gen. 12:7; 17:1; 18:1; 35:9“Do not go down to Egypt; live in #Gen. 12:1the land of which I shall tell you. 3#Gen. 20:1; Ps. 39:12; Heb. 11:9Dwell in this land, and #Gen. 28:13, 15I will be with you and #Gen. 12:2bless you; for to you and your descendants #Gen. 12:7; 13:15; 15:18I give all these lands, and I will perform #Gen. 22:16; Ps. 105:9the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. 4And #Gen. 15:5; 22:17; Ex. 32:13I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; #Gen. 12:3; 22:18; Gal. 3:8and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; 5#Gen. 22:16, 18because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
6So Isaac dwelt in Gerar. 7And the men of the place asked about his wife. And #Gen. 12:13; 20:2, 12, 13he said, “She is my sister”; for #Prov. 29:25he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” because he thought, “lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is #Gen. 12:11; 24:16; 29:17beautiful to behold.” 8Now it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked through a window, and saw, and there was Isaac, showing endearment to Rebekah his wife. 9Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Quite obviously she is your wife; so how could you say, ‘She is my sister’?”
Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’ ”
10And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might soon have lain with your wife, and #Gen. 20:9you would have brought guilt on us.” 11So Abimelech charged all his people, saying, “He who #Ps. 105:15touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
12Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year #Matt. 13:8, 23; Mark 4:8a hundredfold; and the Lord #Gen. 24:1; 25:8, 11; 26:3; Job 42:12; Prov. 10:22blessed him. 13The man #Gen. 24:35; (Prov. 10:22)began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; 14for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines #Gen. 37:11; Eccl. 4:4envied him. 15Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells #Gen. 21:25, 30which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with earth. 16And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for #Ex. 1:9you are much mightier than we.”
17Then Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. 18And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. #Gen. 21:31He called them by the names which his father had called them.
19Also Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found a well of running water there. 20But the herdsmen of Gerar #Gen. 21:25quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they quarreled with him. 21Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also. So he called its name Sitnah. 22And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, because he said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall #Gen. 17:6; 28:3; 41:52; Ex. 1:7be fruitful in the land.”
23Then he went up from there to Beersheba. 24And the Lord #Gen. 26:2appeared to him the same night and said, #Gen. 17:7, 8; 24:12; Ex. 3:6; Acts 7:32“I am the God of your father Abraham; #Gen. 15:1do not fear, for #Gen. 26:3, 4I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.” 25So he #Gen. 12:7, 8; 13:4, 18; 22:9; 33:20built an altar there and #Gen. 21:33; Ps. 116:17called on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
26Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, #Gen. 21:22and Phichol the commander of his army. 27And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, #Judg. 11:7since you hate me and have #Gen. 26:16sent me away from you?”
28But they said, “We have certainly seen that the Lord #Gen. 21:22, 23is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you, 29that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. #Gen. 24:31; Ps. 115:15You are now the blessed of the Lord.’ ”
30#Gen. 19:3So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31Then they arose early in the morning and #Gen. 21:31swore an oath with one another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
32It came to pass the same day that Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.” 33So he called it Shebah. #Gen. 21:31; 28:10Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
34#Gen. 28:8; 36:2When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35And #Gen. 27:46; 28:1, 8they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah.
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Genesis 26: NKJV
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
B'resheet (Gen) 26
26
1A 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. 2Adonai appeared to him and said, “Don’t go down into Egypt, but live where I tell you. 3Stay 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 — 4I 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. 5All 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.”
(ii) 6So Yitz’chak settled in G’rar. 7The men of the place asked him about his wife, and out of fear he said, “She is my sister.” He thought, “If I tell them she’s my wife, they might kill me in order to take Rivkah. After all, she is a beautiful woman.” 8But one day, after he had lived there a long time, Avimelekh king of the P’lishtim happened to be looking out of a window when he spotted Yitz’chak caressing Rivkah his wife. 9Avimelekh summoned Yitz’chak and said, “So she is your wife, after all! How come you said, ‘She is my sister’?” Yitz’chak responded, “Because I thought, ‘I could get killed because of her.’” 10Avimelekh said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people could easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!” 11Then Avimelekh warned all the people: “Whoever touches this man or his wife will certainly be put to death.”
12Yitz’chak planted crops in that land and reaped that year a hundred times as much as he had sowed. Adonai had blessed him.
(iii) 13The man became rich and prospered more and more, until he had become very wealthy indeed. 14He had flocks, cattle and a large household; and the P’lishtim envied him. 15Now the P’lishtim had stopped up and filled with dirt all the wells his father’s servants had dug during the lifetime of Avraham his father. 16Avimelekh said to Yitz’chak, “You must go away from us, because you have become much more powerful than we are.” 17So Yitz’chak left, set up camp in Vadi G’rar and lived there. 18Yitz’chak reopened the wells which had been dug during the lifetime of Avraham his father, the ones the P’lishtim had stopped up after Avraham died, and called them by the names his father had used for them. 19Yitz’chak’s servants dug in the vadi and uncovered a spring of running water. 20But the herdsmen of G’rar quarreled with Yitz’chak’s herdsmen, claiming, “That water is ours!” So he called the well ‘Esek [quarrel], because they quarreled with him. 21They dug another well and quarreled over that one too. So he called it Sitnah [enmity]. 22He went away from there and dug another well, and over that one they didn’t quarrel. So he called it Rechovot [wide open spaces] and said, “Because now Adonai has made room for us, and we will be productive in the land.”
(iv) 23From there Yitz’chak went up to Be’er-Sheva. 24Adonai appeared to him that same night and said, “I am the God of Avraham your father. Don’t be afraid, because I am with you; I will bless you and increase your descendants for the sake of my servant Avraham.” 25There he built an altar and called on the name of Adonai. He pitched his tent there, and there Yitz’chak’s servants dug a well.
26Then Avimelekh went to him from G’rar with his friend Achuzat and Pikhol the commander of his army. 27Yitz’chak said to them, “Why have you come to me, even though you were unfriendly to me and sent me away?” 28They answered, “We saw very clearly that Adonai has been with you; so we said, ‘Let there be an oath between us: let’s make a pact between ourselves and you 29that you will not harm us, just as we have not caused you offense but have done you nothing but good and sent you on your way in peace. Now you are blessed by Adonai.’”
(v) 30Yitz’chak prepared a banquet for them, and they ate and drank. 31The next morning, they got up early and swore to each other. Then Yitz’chak sent them on their way, and they left him peacefully. 32That very day Yitz’chak’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug, “We have found water.” 33So he called it Shiv‘ah [oath, seven], and for this reason the name of the city is Be’er-Sheva [well of seven, well of an oath] to this day.
34When ‘Esav was forty years old, he took as wives Y’hudit the daughter of Be’eri the Hitti and Basmat the daughter of Elon the Hitti. 35But they became a cause for embitterment of spirit to Yitz’chak and Rivkah.
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