26 And there was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines, unto Gerar. ² And Jehovah appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: ³ sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; ⁴ and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these lands; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth ^[a]be blessed; ⁵ because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. ⁶ And Isaac dwelt 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, My wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon. 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 thy wife: and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die because of her. ¹⁰ And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might easily have lain with thy wife, and thou wouldest have brought guiltiness upon us. ¹¹ And Abimelech charged all the people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.

¹² And Isaac sowed in that land, and found in the same year a hundredfold: and Jehovah blessed him. ¹³ And the man waxed great, and grew more and more until he became very great: ¹⁴ and he had possessions of flocks, and possessions of herds, and a great household: and the Philistines envied him. ¹⁵ Now all the wells which his father’s servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped, and filled with earth. ¹⁶ And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we. ¹⁷ And Isaac departed thence, and encamped in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.

¹⁸ And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged 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 digged in the valley, and found there a well of ^[b]springing water. ²⁰ And the herdsmen of Gerar strove with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well ^[c]Esek, because they contended with him. ²¹ And they digged another well, and they strove for that also: and he called the name of it ^[d]Sitnah. ²² And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it ^[e]Rehoboth; and he said, For now Jehovah hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.

²³ And he went up from thence to Beer-sheba. ²⁴ And Jehovah appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham’s sake. ²⁵ And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of Jehovah, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac’s servants digged a well.

²⁶ Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath his friend, and Phicol the captain of his host. ²⁷ And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore are ye come unto me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you? ²⁸ And they said, We saw plainly that Jehovah was with thee: and we said, Let there now be an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee, ²⁹ that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou art now the blessed of Jehovah. ³⁰ And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink. ³¹ And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware 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 digged, and said unto him, We have found water. ³³ And he called it Shibah: therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba unto this day.

³⁴ And when Esau was forty years old he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: ³⁵ and they were ^[f]a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.