Conflicts over Wells

¹² Isaac sowed seed in that land, and in that year he reaped^[a] a hundred times what was sown. The Lord blessed him,^{(A) 13} and the man became rich and kept getting richer until he was very wealthy. ¹⁴ He had flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, and many slaves, and the Philistines were envious of him. ¹⁵ The Philistines stopped up all the wells that his father’s slaves had dug in the days of his father Abraham,^(B) filling them with dirt. ¹⁶ And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Leave us, for you are much too powerful for us.”^[b]

¹⁷ So Isaac left there, camped in the Valley of Gerar, and lived there. ¹⁸ Isaac reopened the water wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham and that the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. He gave them the same names his father had given them. ¹⁹ Then Isaac’s slaves dug in the valley and found a well of spring^[c] water there. ²⁰ But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Quarrel^[d] because they quarreled with him.^{(C) 21} Then they dug another well and quarreled over that one also, so he named it Hostility.^{[e] 22} He moved from there and dug another, and they did not quarrel over it. He named it Open Spaces^[f] and said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

The Lord Appears to Isaac

²³ From there he went up to Beer-sheba, ²⁴ and the Lord appeared to him that night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham.^(D) Do not be afraid, for I am with you.^(E) I will bless you and multiply your offspring because of My servant Abraham.”

²⁵ So he built an altar there,^(F) called on the name of Yahweh, and pitched his tent there. Isaac’s slaves also dug a well there.^(G)