Genesis 26
26
Isaac Settles in Gerar
1Now there was a famine in the land [of Canaan], besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to #This is not the Abimelech of ch 20. Abimelech may actually be a dynastic title, like Caesar or Pharaoh, instead of a proper name. The events recounted in chapters 20 and 26 are separated by almost a hundred years.Abimelech king of the Philistines. 2The Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I will tell you. 3Live temporarily [as a resident] in this land and I will be with you and will bless and favor you, for I will give all these lands to you and to your descendants, and I will establish and carry out the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. 4I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of the heavens, and will give to your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, 5because Abraham listened to and obeyed My voice and [consistently] kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
6So Isaac stayed in Gerar. 7The men of the place asked him about his wife, and he said, “She is my #When Abraham used this ploy, it was a half-truth; when Isaac said this it was a complete lie. At this time Isaac was at least seventy-five years old; Rebekah’s age at this time is not known.sister,” for he was afraid to say, “my wife”—thinking, “the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, since she is very beautiful.” 8It happened when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac #The name “Isaac” is based on the Hebrew verb translated “caressing,” whose primary meaning is “to laugh” (cf 17:19).caressing Rebekah his wife. 9Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “See here, Rebekah is in fact your wife! How did you [dare to] say to me, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I thought I might be killed because of her [desirability].” 10Abimelech said, “What is this that you have done to us? One of the men [among our people] might easily have been intimate with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us [before God].” 11Then Abimelech commanded all his people, “Whoever touches this man [Isaac] or his wife [Rebekah] shall without exception be put to death.”
12Then Isaac planted [seed] in that land [as a farmer] and reaped in the same year a hundred times [as much as he had planted], and the Lord blessed and favored him. 13And the man [Isaac] became great and gained more and more until he became very wealthy and extremely distinguished; 14he owned flocks and herds and a great household [with a number of servants], and the Philistines envied him. 15Now all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up by filling them with dirt. 16Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from here, because you are far too powerful for us.” 17So Isaac left that region and camped in the Valley of Gerar, and settled there.
Quarrel over the Wells
18Now Isaac again dug [and reopened] the wells of water which had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, because the Philistines had filled them up [with dirt] after the death of Abraham; and he gave the wells the same names that his father had given them. 19But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of flowing [spring] water, 20the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours!” So Isaac named the well Esek (quarreling), because they quarreled with him. 21Then his servants dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so Isaac named it Sitnah (enmity). 22He moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over that one; so he named it Rehoboth (broad places), saying, “For now the Lord has made #I.e. broad places.room for us, and we shall be #Lit fruitful.prosperous in the land.”
23Then he went up from there to Beersheba. 24The Lord appeared to him the same night and said,
“I am the God of Abraham your father;
Do not be afraid, for I am with you.
I will bless and favor you, and multiply your descendants,
For the sake of My servant Abraham.”
25So Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord [in prayer]. He pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
Covenant with Abimelech
26Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, his [close friend and confidential] adviser, and Phicol, the commander of his army. 27Isaac said to them, “Why have you [people] come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?” 28They said, “We see clearly that the Lord has been with you; so we said, ‘There should now be an oath between us [with a curse for the one who breaks it], that is, between you and us, and let us make a covenant (binding agreement, solemn promise) with you, 29that you will not harm us, just as we have not touched you and have done nothing but good to you and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed and favored of the Lord!’ ” 30Then Isaac held a [formal] banquet (covenant feast) for them, and they ate and drank. 31They got up early in the morning and swore oaths [pledging to do nothing but good to each other]; and Isaac sent them on their way and they left him in peace. 32Now on the same day, Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug, saying, “We have found water.” 33So he named the well #This could mean “oath” or “overflow, abundance.” Likewise, the name Beersheba could mean “well of abundance,” or “well of the oath,” or “seven wells.”Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
34When Esau was forty years old he married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite as his wives; 35and they were a #Lit bitterness of spirit.source of grief to [Esau’s parents] Isaac and Rebekah.
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Genesis 26
26
CHAPTER 26
1Forsooth for hunger rose on the land, after that barrenness that befelled in the days of Abraham, Isaac went forth to Abimelech, king of Palestines, in Gerar.
2And the Lord appeared to him, and said, Go not down into Egypt, but rest thou in the land which I shall say to thee,
3and be thou a pilgrim therein; and I shall be with thee, and I shall bless thee; for I shall give all these countries to thee, and to thy seed, and I shall [ful] fill the oath which I promised to Abraham, thy father.
4And I shall multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and I shall give all these countries to thine heirs, and all folks of the earth shall be blessed in thy seed,
5for Abraham obeyed to my voice, and kept my behests, and my commandments, and my ceremonies, and my laws.
6And so Isaac dwelled in Gerar.
7And when he was asked of [the] men of that place of his wife, he answered, She is my sister; for he dreaded to acknowledge that she was fellowshipped to him in matrimony, and he guessed lest peradventure they would slay him for the fairness of her.
8And when full many days were passed, and he dwelled there, Abimelech, king of Palestines, beheld by a window, and saw him playing with Rebecca, his wife.
9And when Isaac was called, the king said, It is open, that she is thy wife; why saidest thou, that she was thy sister? Isaac answered, For I dreaded, lest I should die for her.
10And Abimelech said, Why hast thou deceived us? Some man of the people might do lechery with thy wife, and thou haddest brought in grievous sin on us.
11And the king commanded to all the people, and said, He that toucheth the wife of this man shall die by death.
12Forsooth Isaac sowed in that land, and he found an hundredfold increase in that year; and the Lord blessed him.
13And the man was made rich, and he went profiting and increasing, till he was made full great.
14Also he had possessions of sheep and of great beasts, and full much of menials. For this thing Palestines had envy to him,
15and they stopped in that time and filled with earth all the pits or wells which the servants of Abraham his father had digged,
16in so much that Abimelech himself said to Isaac, Go thou away from us, for thou art made greatly mightier than we.
17And he went away, that he should come to the strand of Gerar, and dwelled there.
18And he digged again other wells, which the servants of Abraham his father had digged, and which the Philistines had stopped sometime, when Abraham was dead; and he called those pits by the same names, by which his father had called before.
19They digged in the strand, and they found quick, or welling up, water.
20But also strife of [the] shepherds of Gerar was there against the shep-herds of Isaac, and they said, The water is ours; wherefore of that strife that befelled, Isaac called the name of that well False Challenge, or Esek, or Quarrel.
21And they digged another well, and they strived also for that, and Isaac called that well Enmities, or Sitnah, or Enmity.
22And he went forth from thence, and digged another pit, for which they strived not, [and] therefore he called the name of that well Breadth, either Largeness; and said, Now God hath alarged us, and hath made us to increase on [the] earth.
23Isaac forsooth went up from that place into Beersheba,
24where the Lord appeared to him in that night; and said, I am [the] God of Abraham, thy father; do not thou dread, for I am with thee, and I shall bless thee, and I shall multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham.
25And so Isaac builded there an altar to the Lord; and when the name of the Lord was inwardly called, he stretched forth a tabernacle; and he commanded his servants that they should dig pits.
26And when Abimelech, and Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phicol, [the] duke of knights, had come from Gerar to that place,
27Isaac spake to them, What came ye to me, a man whom ye have hated, and putted away from you?
28Which answered, We saw that God is with thee, and therefore we said now, An oath be betwixt us, and make we a covenant of peace,
29that thou do not any [thing of] evil to us, as we touched nothing of thine, neither did that that hurted thee, but with peace we let go thee increased by the blessings of the Lord.
30Therefore Isaac made them a feast; and after meat and drink,
31they rose early, and swore each to other; and Isaac let go them peaceably into their place.
32Lo! forsooth in that day the servants of Isaac came, telling to him of the pit which they had digged, and said, We have found water.
33Wherefore Isaac called that pit Abundance or Shebah; and the name of the city was set Beersheba till into this present day.
34Esau forsooth forty years eld [or old] wedded two wives, Judith#26:34 She is also known as Oholibamah or Aholibamah., the daughter of Beeri Hittite, and Bashemath#26:34 She is also known as Adah., the daughter of Elon, of the same place;
35which both offended the soul of Isaac and of Rebecca.
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