Genesis 26
26
Isaac Settles in Gerar
1Now there was a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines. 2And the Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you. 3Live for a time in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your #26:3 Lit seeddescendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. 4I will multiply your #26:4 Lit seeddescendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your #26:4 Lit seeddescendants all these lands; and by your #26:4 Lit seeddescendants all the nations of the earth #26:4 Or bless themselvesshall be blessed, 5because Abraham #26:5 Lit listened diligently to My voiceobeyed Me and fulfilled his duty to Me, and kept My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
6So Isaac lived in Gerar. 7When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say, “my wife,” thinking, “#26:7 Lit lest...placethe men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, since she is beautiful.” 8Now it came about, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down through a window, and saw them, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah. 9Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she certainly is your wife! So how is it that you said, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘otherwise I might be killed on account of her.’ ” 10And Abimelech said, “What is this that you have done to us? One of the people might easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” 11So Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife will certainly be put to death.”
12Now Isaac sowed in that land and #26:12 Lit foundreaped in the same year a hundred times as much. And the Lord blessed him, 13and the man became rich, and continued to grow #26:13 Lit greatricher until he became very #26:13 Lit greatwealthy; 14for he had possessions of flocks #26:14 Lit and possessions of herdsand herds, and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. 15Now all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up #26:15 Lit and filled themby filling them with dirt. 16Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are #26:16 Lit much mightier than wetoo powerful for us.” 17So Isaac departed from there and camped in the Valley of Gerar, and #26:17 Lit dweltsettled there.
Argument over the Wells
18Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which #26:18 Lit they had dughad been dug in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he #26:18 Lit called their names as the namesgave them the same names which his father had #26:18 Lit calledgiven them. 19But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of #26:19 Lit livingflowing water, 20the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, “The water is ours!” So he named the well #26:20 I.e., argumentEsek, because they argued with him. 21Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over it too, so he named it #26:21 I.e., accusationSitnah. 22Then he moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it #26:22 I.e., broad placesRehoboth, for he said, “#26:22 Lit Truly nowAt last the Lord has made #26:22 Or broadroom for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”
23And he went up from there to Beersheba. 24And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said,
“I am the God of your father Abraham;
Do not fear, for I am with you.
I will bless you and multiply your #26:24 Lit seeddescendants,
For the sake of My servant Abraham.”
25So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
Covenant with Abimelech
26Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar #26:26 Lit and his confidential friendwith his adviser Ahuzzath, and Phicol the commander of his army. 27Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?” 28They said, “We have seen plainly that the Lord has been with you; so we said, ‘An oath must now be taken #26:28 Lit between usby us,’ that is, #26:28 Lit between us and youby you and us. So let us make a covenant with you, 29that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you #26:29 Lit and just as weand have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.” 30Then he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31In the morning they got up early and #26:31 Lit swore one to anotherexchanged oaths; then Isaac sent them away, and they left him in peace. 32Now it came about on the same day, that Isaac’s servants came in and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.” 33So he called it #26:33 Meaning uncertain, perhaps oathShibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
34When Esau was forty years old he #26:34 Lit took as wifemarried Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite; 35and they #26:35 Lit were a bitterness of spirit tobrought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.
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Genesis 26: NASB2020
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Genesis 26
26
1There was a famine in the country—not the one that happened before in Abraham's time, but a later one. So Isaac moved to Gerar in the territory of Abimelech, king of the Philistines.
2The Lord appeared to Isaac and told him, “Don't go to Egypt—live in the country that I tell you to. 3Stay here in this country. I will be with you and I will bless you, because I'm going to give you and your descendants all these lands. I will keep the solemn promise that I swore to Abraham your father. 4I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and I will give them all these lands. All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your descendants, 5because Abraham did what I told him, and kept my requirements, my commands, my regulations, and my laws.”
6So Isaac stayed in Gerar. 7When the men there asked him about his wife, he told them, “She's my sister,” because he was afraid. He said to himself, “If I say she's my wife, the men here will kill me to get Rebekah, because she's so beautiful.” 8But later on, after he'd been there a while, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, happened to look out the window and saw Isaac lovingly fondling his wife Rebekah.
9Abimelech sent for Isaac and complained. “From what I saw she's clearly your wife!” he said. “Why on earth did you say, ‘She's my sister’?”
“Because I thought I'd be killed because of her,” Isaac replied.
10“Why would you do this to us?” Abimelech asked. “One of the men here might have slept with your wife, and you would have made us all guilty!”
11Abimelech issued orders to all the people, warning them, “Anyone who touches this man or his wife will be executed.”
12Isaac sowed grain that year, and the Lord blessed him with a harvest that was a hundred times what he planted. 13He became a rich man, and his wealth steadily increased until he was very rich. 14He owned many flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, as well as many slaves. He had so much that the Philistines became jealous of him. 15So the Philistines used dirt to block up all the wells his father Abraham's servants had dug.
16Then Abimelech told Isaac, “You have to leave our country, because you've become much too powerful for us.”
17So Isaac moved away and set up his tents in the Gerar Valley where he settled down. 18He unblocked the wells that had been dug in his father Abraham's time—the ones the Philistines had blocked after the death of Abraham. He gave them the same names his father had.
19Isaac's servants also dug a new well in the valley and found spring water. 20But the herdsmen from Gerar argued with Isaac's herdsmen, claiming, “That's our water!” So Isaac named the well, “Argument,” because they argued with him. 21He had another well dug, and they argued over that one too. He named the well, “Opposition.”#26:21. “Opposition”: The word is in fact the female form of the word, “satan,” meaning opponent or adversary. 22So they moved on from there and he had another well dug. This time there was no argument so he named the well, “Freedom,”#26:22. “Freedom”: literally, “wide/open space,” which is often used in Hebrew as a synonym for freedom, since people are then given room to move around. See for example Job 36:16; Psalms 118:5. saying, “Now the Lord has given us freedom to expand and be successful in this land.”
23From there he moved on to Beersheba. 24That night the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Don't be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and give you many descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.” 25Isaac built an altar and worshiped the Lord. He also set up his tent, and his servants dug a well there.
26Sometime later Abimelech came from Gerar to see Isaac, along with Ahuzzath his advisor, and Phicol the commander of his army.#26:26. See 21:22. In view of the length of time between these events it is unlikely that they are the same individuals. These were probably official titles rather than personal names. 27“Why have you come to see me?” Isaac asked them. “Previously you hated me and told me to leave!”
28“Now we realize that the Lord is with you,” they replied. “So we agreed that we should make a sworn agreement with you. 29You'll promise not to harm us in the same way we've never hurt you. You'll agree that we've always treated you well, and when we asked you to leave we did so kindly. Now look at how the Lord is blessing you!”
30So Isaac had a special meal prepared to celebrate the agreement. They ate and drank, 31and got up early in the morning and they each swore oaths to one other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they left in peace.
32It was that very day when Isaac's servants who'd been digging a well came and told him, “We've found water!” 33So Isaac named the well, “Oath,” and that's why the name of the town is “Well of the Oath” (Beersheba) to this day.
34When Esau was 40, he married Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite, as well as Basemath, daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35They caused Isaac and Rebekah a great deal of grief.
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Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com