Genesis 26:1-18

New American Standard Bible

Isaac Settles in Gerar

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 the Lord ^(C)appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; ^(D)stay in the land of which I shall tell you. ³ Live for a time in this land and ^(E)I will be with you and ^(F)bless you, for ^(G)to you and to your ^[a]descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish ^(H)the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. ^4 (I)I will multiply your ^[b]descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your ^[c]descendants all these lands; and ^(J)by your ^[d]descendants all the nations of the earth ^[e]shall be blessed, ⁵ because Abraham ^[f](K)obeyed Me and fulfilled his duty to Me, and kept My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

⁶ So Isaac lived in Gerar. ⁷ When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “^(L)She is my sister,” for he was ^(M)afraid to say, “my wife,” thinking, “^[g]the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, since she is ^(N)beautiful.” ⁸ Now 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. ⁹ Then 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.’” ¹⁰ And ^(O)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.” ¹¹ So Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “He who ^(P)touches this man or his wife will certainly be put to death.”

¹² Now Isaac sowed in that land and ^[h]reaped in the same year a hundred times as much. And ^(Q)the Lord blessed him, ¹³ and the man ^(R)became rich, and continued to grow ^[i]richer until he became very ^[j]wealthy; ¹⁴ for ^(S)he had possessions of flocks ^[k]and herds, and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. ¹⁵ Now ^(T)all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up ^[l]by filling them with dirt. ¹⁶ Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are ^[m](U)too powerful for us.” ¹⁷ So Isaac departed from there and camped in the Valley of Gerar, and ^[n]settled there.

Argument over the Wells

¹⁸ Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which ^[o]had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he ^[p]gave them the same names which his father had ^[q]given them.