Genesis 26

Isaac's Journey: Famine, Covenant, and Conflicts Over Wells

4 min read

1 And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines to Gerar.
2 And the LORD appeared to him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell you of:
3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for to you, and to your seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father;
4 And I will make your seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give to your seed all these countries; and in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;
5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. ¶
6 And Isaac dwelled in Gerar:
7 And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look on.
8 And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.
9 And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is your wife; and how said you, She is my sister? And Isaac said to him, Because I said, Lest I die for her.
10 And Abimelech said, What is this you have done to us? one of the people might lightly have lien with your wife, and you should have brought guiltiness on us.
11 And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.
12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundred times: and the LORD blessed him.
13 And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great:
14 For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him.
15 For all the wells which his father’s servants had dig in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.
16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, Go from us; for you are much mightier than we. ¶
17 And Isaac departed there, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelled there.
18 And Isaac dig again the wells of water, which they had dig in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.
19 And Isaac’s servants dig in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.
20 And the herdsmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him.
21 And they dig another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah.
22 And he removed from there, and dig another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.
23 And he went up from there to Beersheba.
24 And the LORD appeared to him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham your father: fear not, for I am with you, and will bless you, and multiply your seed for my servant Abraham’s sake.
25 And he built an altar there, and called on the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac’s servants dig a well. ¶
26 Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol the chief captain of his army.
27 And Isaac said to them, Why come you to me, seeing you hate me, and have sent me away from you?
28 And they said, We saw certainly that the LORD was with you: and we said, Let there be now an oath between us, even between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you;
29 That you will do us no hurt, as we have not touched you, and as we have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace: you are now the blessed of the LORD.
30 And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink.
31 And they rose up betimes in the morning, and swore one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
32 And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had dig, and said to him, We have found water.
33 And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day. ¶
34 And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite:
35 Which were a grief of mind to Isaac and to Rebekah.
Previous Next