Genesis 26

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

Isaac and Abimelech

26 Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar, to Abim′elech king of the Philistines. ² And the Lord appeared to him, and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. ³ Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will fulfil the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. ⁴ I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give to your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves: ⁵ because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

⁶ So Isaac dwelt in Gerar. ⁷ When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister”; for he feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me for the sake of Rebekah”; because she was fair to look upon. ⁸ When he had been there a long time, Abim′elech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac fondling Rebekah his wife. ⁹ So Abim′elech called Isaac, and said, “Behold, she is your wife; how then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’” ¹⁰ Abim′elech 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 Abim′elech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall be put to death.”

¹² And Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him, ¹³ and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. ¹⁴ He had possessions of flocks and herds, and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. ¹⁵ (Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.) ¹⁶ And Abim′elech said to Isaac, “Go away from us; for you are much mightier than we.”

¹⁷ So Isaac departed from there, and encamped in the valley of Gerar and dwelt there. ¹⁸ And Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham; and he gave them the names which his father had given them. ¹⁹ But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of springing water, ²⁰ the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek,^[a] because they contended with him. ²¹ Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also; so he called its name Sitnah.^{[b] 22} And he moved from there and dug another well, and over that they did not quarrel; so he called its name Reho′both,^[c] saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

²³ From there he went up to Beer-sheba. 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 descendants for my servant Abraham’s sake.” ²⁵ So 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.

²⁶ Then Abim′elech went to him from Gerar with Ahuz′zath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army. ²⁷ Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?” ²⁸ They said, “We see plainly that the Lord is with you; so we say, let there be an oath between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, ²⁹ that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.” ³⁰ So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. ³¹ In the morning they rose early and took oath with one another; and Isaac set them on their way, and they departed from him in peace. ³² That same day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.” ³³ He called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba to this day.

Esau’s Hittite Wives

³⁴ When Esau was forty years old, he took to wife Judith the daughter of Be-e′ri the Hittite, and Bas′emath the daughter of Elon the Hittite; ³⁵ and they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.