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Genesis 26
Living Bible

26 Now a severe famine overshadowed the land, as had happened before, in Abraham’s time, and so Isaac moved to the city of Gerar where Abimelech, king of the Philistines, lived.

2 Jehovah appeared to him there and told him, “Don’t go to Egypt. 3 Do as I say and stay here in this land. If you do, I will be with you and bless you, and I will give all this land to you and to your descendants, just as I promised Abraham your father. 4 And I will cause your descendants to become as numerous as the stars! And I will give them all of these lands; and they shall be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. 5 I will do this because Abraham obeyed my commandments and laws.”

6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar. 7 And when the men there asked him about Rebekah, he said, “She is my sister!” For he feared for his life if he told them she was his wife; he was afraid they would kill him to get her, for she was very attractive. 8 But sometime later, King Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out of a window and saw Isaac and Rebekah making love.

9 Abimelech called for Isaac and exclaimed, “She is your wife! Why did you say she is your sister?”

“Because I was afraid I would be murdered,” Isaac replied. “I thought someone would kill me to get her from me.”

10 “How could you treat us this way?” Abimelech exclaimed. “Someone might carelessly have raped her, and we would be doomed.” 11 Then Abimelech made a public proclamation: “Anyone harming this man or his wife shall die.”

12 That year Isaac’s crops were tremendous—100 times the grain he sowed. For Jehovah blessed him. 13 He was soon a man of great wealth and became richer and richer. 14 He had large flocks of sheep and goats, great herds of cattle, and many servants. And the Philistines became jealous of him. 15 So they filled up his wells with earth—all those dug by the servants of his father Abraham.

16 And King Abimelech asked Isaac to leave the country. “Go somewhere else,” he said, “for you have become too rich and powerful for us.”

17 So Isaac moved to Gerar Valley and lived there instead. 18 And Isaac redug the wells of his father Abraham, the ones the Philistines had filled after his father’s death, and gave them the same names they had had before, when his father had named them. 19 His shepherds also dug a new well in Gerar Valley, and found a gushing underground spring.

20 Then the local shepherds came and claimed it. “This is our land and our well,” they said, and argued over it with Isaac’s herdsmen. So he named the well, “The Well of Argument!”[a] 21 Isaac’s men then dug another well, but again there was a fight over it. So he called it, “The Well of Anger.”[b] 22 Abandoning that one, he dug again, and the local residents finally left him alone. So he called it, “The Well of Room Enough for Us at Last!”[c] “For now at last,” he said, “the Lord has made room for us and we shall thrive.”

23 When he went to Beer-sheba, 24 Jehovah appeared to him on the night of his arrival. “I am the God of Abraham your father,” he said. “Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you, and will give you so many descendants that they will become a great nation—because of my promise to Abraham, who obeyed me.” 25 Then Isaac built an altar and worshiped Jehovah; and he settled there, and his servants dug a well.

26 One day Isaac had visitors from Gerar. King Abimelech arrived with his advisor, Ahuzzath, and also Phicol, his army commander.

27 “Why have you come?” Isaac asked them. “This is obviously no friendly visit, since you kicked me out in a most uncivil way.”

28 “Well,” they said, “we can plainly see that Jehovah is blessing you. We’ve decided to ask for a treaty between us. 29 Promise that you will not harm us, just as we have not harmed you, and in fact, have done only good to you and have sent you away in peace; we bless you in the name of the Lord.”

30 So Isaac prepared a great feast for them, and they ate and drank in preparation for the treaty ceremonies. 31 In the morning, as soon as they were up, they each took solemn oaths to seal a nonaggression pact. Then Isaac sent them happily home again.

32 That very same day Isaac’s servants came to tell him, “We have found water”—in the well they had been digging. 33 So he named the well, “The Well of the Oath,”[d] and the city that grew up there was named “Oath,” and is called that to this day.

34 Esau, at the age of forty, married a girl named Judith, daughter of Be-eri the Hethite; and he also married Basemath, daughter of Elon the Hethite. 35 But Isaac and Rebekah were bitter about his marrying them.

Footnotes

  1. Genesis 26:20 The Well of Argument, i.e., Esek.
  2. Genesis 26:21 The Well of Anger, i.e., Sitnah.
  3. Genesis 26:22 The Well of Room Enough for Us at Last, i.e., Rehoboth.
  4. Genesis 26:33 The Well of the Oath, i.e., Shibah. Oath, i.e., Beer-sheba.
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Genesis 26
Legacy Standard Bible

Yahweh Establishes the Oath with Isaac

26 Now there was (A)a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to (B)Abimelech king of the Philistines. 2 And Yahweh (C)appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; (D)dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. 3 Sojourn in this land, and (E)I will be with you and (F)bless you, for (G)to you and to your seed I will give all these lands, and I will establish (H)the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. 4 (I)And I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and I will give your seed all these lands; and (J)by your seed all the nations of the earth [a]shall be blessed; 5 because Abraham (K)listened to My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

Isaac and Abimelech

6 So Isaac [b]lived in Gerar. 7 Then the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, “(L)She is my sister,” for he was (M)afraid to say, “my wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is (N)beautiful in appearance.” 8 Now it happened, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through a window and saw, and behold, Isaac was [c]caressing his wife Rebekah. 9 Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, surely she is your wife! How then did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’” 10 (O)And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” 11 So Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “He who (P)touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

12 And Isaac sowed in that land and [d]reaped in the same year one hundredfold. And (Q)Yahweh blessed him, 13 and the man (R)became great and continued to grow greater until he became very great; 14 and (S)he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and many servants, so that the Philistines were jealous of him. 15 Now (T)all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up [e]by filling them with earth. 16 Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are [f](U)too mighty for us.” 17 And Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar and [g]settled there.

The Quarrel over the Wells

18 Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which [h]had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, but the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he [i]called them by the same names by which his father had called them. 19 Then Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of [j]flowing water. 20 And the herdsmen of Gerar (V)contended with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, “The water is ours!” So he named the well [k]Esek, because they quarreled with him. 21 Then they dug another well, and they contended over it also, so he called it [l]Sitnah. 22 Then he moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not contend over it; so he named it [m]Rehoboth, and he said, “[n](W)At last Yahweh has made [o]room for us, and we will be (X)fruitful in the land.”

23 And he went up from there to (Y)Beersheba. 24 And Yahweh (Z)appeared to him that night and said,

“(AA)I am the God of your father Abraham;
(AB)Do not fear, for I am with you.
I (AC)will bless you and multiply your seed,
For the sake of My servant Abraham.”

25 So he built an (AD)altar there and called upon the name of Yahweh and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug out a well.

Isaac’s Oath with Abimelech

26 Now (AE)Abimelech came to him from Gerar [p]with his adviser Ahuzzath and Phicol the commander of his army. 27 And Isaac said to them, “(AF)Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?” 28 Then they said, “We see plainly (AG)that Yahweh has been with you; so we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us—between [q]you and us—and let us cut a covenant with you, 29 that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you [r]and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the (AH)blessed of Yahweh.’” 30 Then (AI)he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31 In the morning they arose early, and (AJ)each swore to [s]the other; then Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. 32 Now it happened on that 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.” 33 So he called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is (AK)Beersheba to this day.

34 And Esau was forty years old, (AL)and he took as a wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite; 35 and (AM)they [t]brought bitterness to Isaac and Rebekah.

Footnotes

  1. Genesis 26:4 Or experience blessing repeatedly, bless themselves
  2. Genesis 26:6 Lit dwelt
  3. Genesis 26:8 Lit laughing with
  4. Genesis 26:12 Lit found
  5. Genesis 26:15 Lit and filled them
  6. Genesis 26:16 Lit much mightier than we
  7. Genesis 26:17 Lit dwelt
  8. Genesis 26:18 Lit they had dug
  9. Genesis 26:18 Lit called their names as the names
  10. Genesis 26:19 Lit living
  11. Genesis 26:20 Contention
  12. Genesis 26:21 Enmity
  13. Genesis 26:22 Broad places
  14. Genesis 26:22 Lit Truly now
  15. Genesis 26:22 Or broad
  16. Genesis 26:26 Lit and his confidential friend
  17. Genesis 26:28 Lit us and you
  18. Genesis 26:29 Lit and just as we
  19. Genesis 26:31 Lit his brother
  20. Genesis 26:35 Lit were a bitterness of spirit to
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