Genesis 26
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 26
Isaac and Abimelech. 1 [a](A)There was a famine in the land, distinct from the earlier one that had occurred in the days of Abraham, and Isaac went down to Abimelech, king of the Philistines in Gerar.(B) 2 The Lord appeared to him and said: Do not go down to Egypt, but camp in this land wherever I tell you. 3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I will give all these lands, in fulfillment of the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.(C) 4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands, and in your descendants all the nations of the earth will find blessing—(D) 5 this because Abraham obeyed me, keeping my mandate, my commandments, my ordinances, and my instructions.
6 [b]So Isaac settled in Gerar. 7 When the men of the place asked questions about his wife, he answered, “She is my sister.” He was afraid that, if he called her his wife, the men of the place would kill him on account of Rebekah, since she was beautiful. 8 But when they had been there for a long time, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out of a window and saw Isaac fondling his wife Rebekah. 9 He called for Isaac and said: “She must certainly be your wife! How could you have said, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac replied, “I thought I might lose my life on her account.” 10 “How could you have done this to us!” exclaimed Abimelech. “It would have taken very little for one of the people to lie with your wife, and so you would have brought guilt upon us!” 11 Abimelech then commanded all the people: “Anyone who maltreats this man or his wife shall be put to death.”
12 [c]Isaac sowed a crop in that region and reaped a hundredfold the same year. Since the Lord blessed him, 13 (E)he became richer and richer all the time, until he was very wealthy. 14 He acquired flocks and herds, and a great work force, and so the Philistines became envious of him. 15 (F)The Philistines had stopped up and filled with dirt all the wells that his father’s servants had dug back in the days of his father Abraham. 16 So Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us; you have become far too numerous for us.” 17 Isaac left there and camped in the Wadi Gerar where he stayed. 18 Isaac reopened the wells which his father’s servants had dug back in the days of his father Abraham and which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham’s death; he gave them names like those that his father had given them. 19 But when Isaac’s servants dug in the wadi and reached spring water in their well, 20 the shepherds of Gerar argued with Isaac’s shepherds, saying, “The water belongs to us!” So he named the well Esek,[d] because they had quarreled there. 21 Then they dug another well, and they argued over that one too; so he named it Sitnah.[e] 22 So he moved on from there and dug still another well, but over this one they did not argue. He named it Rehoboth,[f] and said, “Because the Lord has now given us ample room, we shall flourish in the land.”
23 From there Isaac went up to Beer-sheba. 24 The same night the Lord appeared to him and said: I am the God of Abraham, your father. Do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of Abraham, my servant.(G) 25 So Isaac built an altar there and invoked the Lord by name. After he had pitched his tent there, Isaac’s servants began to dig a well nearby.
26 (H)Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath, his councilor, and Phicol, the general of his army. 27 Isaac asked them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have driven me away from you?” 28 They answered: “We clearly see that the Lord has been with you, so we thought: let there be a sworn agreement between our two sides—between you and us. Let us make a covenant with you: 29 you shall do no harm to us, just as we have not maltreated you, but have always acted kindly toward you and have let you depart in peace. So now, may you be blessed by the Lord!” 30 Isaac then made a feast for them, and they ate and drank. 31 Early the next morning they exchanged oaths. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they departed from him in peace.
32 That same day Isaac’s servants came and informed him about the well they had been digging; they told him, “We have reached water!” 33 He called it Shibah;[g] hence the name of the city is Beer-sheba to this day. 34 [h]When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, daughter of Elon the Hivite.(I) 35 But they became a source of bitterness to Isaac and Rebekah.
Footnotes
- 26:1 The promise of land and numerous descendants given to Abraham (12:1–3; 15; 17; 22:17–18) is renewed for his son Isaac. The divine blessing to Isaac is mentioned also in vv. 12, 24, and 29.
- 26:6–11 This scene is the third version of the wife-in-danger story (cf. chaps. 12 and 20). The mention of the famine in 26:1 recalls the famine in 12:10; the name Abimelech, king of the Philistines in Gerar, recalls 20:2. The deception, according to all the stories, is the claim that the wife is a sister. This story (from the Yahwist source) departs from the two previous accounts in that the wife is not taken into the harem of the foreign king.
- 26:12–33 The dispute is over water rights. In a sparsely watered land, wells were precious and claims on water could function as a kind of claim on the land. Scholars generally judge the account of the dispute over water rights and its settlement by a legal agreement between Isaac and Abimelech to be a Yahwist version of the similar story about Abraham in 21:22–34. Here, Abimelech realizes that Isaac has brought blessing to his people and thus desires a covenant with him. The feast in v. 30 is part of the covenant ceremony.
- 26:20 Esek: “quarrel.”
- 26:21 Sitnah: “opposition.”
- 26:22 Rehoboth: “wide spaces,” i.e., ample room to live; site is probably SW of modern day Beer-sheba.
- 26:33 Shibah: the place name Shibah is a play on two Hebrew words, shebu‘ah, “oath,” and shwebaa‘, “seven.” In v. 31, they exchanged oaths.
- 26:34–35 These verses from the Priestly source introduce the next section on Esau’s loss of his right as firstborn by suggesting a motivation for this in Isaac’s and Rebekah’s dislike for Esau’s Canaanite wives.
Genesis 26
New King James Version
Isaac and Abimelech
26 There was a famine in the land, besides (A)the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to (B)Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar.
2 Then the Lord appeared to him and said: (C)“Do not go down to Egypt; live in (D)the land of which I shall tell you. 3 (E)Dwell in this land, and (F)I will be with you and (G)bless you; for to you and your descendants (H)I give all these lands, and I will perform (I)the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. 4 And (J)I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; (K)and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; 5 (L)because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
6 So Isaac dwelt in Gerar. 7 And the men of the place asked about his wife. And (M)he said, “She is my sister”; for (N)he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” because he thought, “lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is (O)beautiful to behold.” 8 Now 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, [a]showing endearment to Rebekah his wife. 9 Then 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.’ ”
10 And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might soon have lain with your wife, and (P)you would have brought guilt on us.” 11 So Abimelech charged all his people, saying, “He who (Q)touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year (R)a hundredfold; and the Lord (S)blessed him. 13 The man (T)began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous; 14 for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines (U)envied him. 15 Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells (V)which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with earth. 16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for (W)you are much mightier than we.”
17 Then Isaac departed from there and [b]pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. 18 And 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. (X)He called them by the names which his father had called them.
19 Also Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found a well of running water there. 20 But the herdsmen of Gerar (Y)quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well [c]Esek, because they quarreled with him. 21 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also. So he called its name [d]Sitnah. 22 And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name [e]Rehoboth, because he said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall (Z)be fruitful in the land.”
23 Then he went up from there to Beersheba. 24 And the Lord (AA)appeared to him the same night and said, (AB)“I am the God of your father Abraham; (AC)do not fear, for (AD)I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.” 25 So he (AE)built an altar there and (AF)called on the name of the Lord, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
26 Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, (AG)and Phichol the commander of his army. 27 And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, (AH)since you hate me and have (AI)sent me away from you?”
28 But they said, “We have certainly seen that the Lord (AJ)is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a [f]covenant with you, 29 that 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. (AK)You are now the blessed of the Lord.’ ”
30 (AL)So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31 Then they arose early in the morning and (AM)swore an oath with one another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
32 It 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.” 33 So he called it [g]Shebah. (AN)Therefore the name of the city is [h]Beersheba to this day.
34 (AO)When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35 And (AP)they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah.
Footnotes
- Genesis 26:8 caressing
- Genesis 26:17 camped
- Genesis 26:20 Lit. Quarrel
- Genesis 26:21 Lit. Enmity
- Genesis 26:22 Lit. Spaciousness
- Genesis 26:28 treaty
- Genesis 26:33 Lit. Oath or Seven
- Genesis 26:33 Lit. Well of the Oath or Well of the Seven
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
