Genesis 26:1-35

Now, another famine struck the land, like the one in Abraham’s time. Isaac traveled to Gerar where Abimelech was the Philistine king. YAHWEH appeared before Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Stay in the land that I will reveal to you. Live there as a foreigner, and my presence will be with you. I promise to bless you, for I will give all these lands to you and your descendants. I will fulfill the oath I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven, and I will one day give them all these lands. I will bless all the nations of the earth through your offspring because Abraham was faithful to me. He listened to my voice and yielded his heart to follow my direction. He kept my commandments, my instructions, and my teachings.” So Isaac settled in Gerar. The men of the land noticed Rebekah’s beauty and asked Isaac about her. “Oh, she’s just my sister,” he replied. Rebekah was indeed very beautiful, and he was afraid to tell them, “She’s my wife,” for he thought that the men of the land would kill him and take his wife. One day, after Isaac had lived there awhile, the Philistine king Abimelech looked out his window and saw Isaac affectionately caressing his wife Rebekah. So Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, “So, this woman is your wife! Why did you say that she was your sister?” “Because I thought the men of the land would kill me and take her,” Isaac said. “Don’t you realize what you’ve done to us?” Abimelech asked. “One of our men might have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt and punishment upon us!” So Abimelech issued a stern warning to all the people, saying, “Whoever lays a hand on this man or his wife shall be put to death!” Isaac planted crops in that land, and in the same year reaped a hundred-fold harvest, for YAHWEH greatly blessed him! Isaac grew richer and richer until he was extremely wealthy. He acquired so many flocks and herds and so many servants that the Philistines grew jealous, so the Philistines stopped up all of Isaac’s wells and filled them with dirt—the same wells his father’s servants had dug in the time of Abraham. Eventually Abimelech’s jealousy got the better of him, and he said to Isaac, “You must leave us! You have become too rich and powerful for us!” So Isaac departed from Abimelech’s domain and camped near the Wadi of Gerar, where he settled. Isaac reopened and restored the wells his father Abraham had originally dug—the wells the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham’s death. And Isaac gave these wells the same names that his father had given them. One day, when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, they uncovered a spring-fed well. But the herdsmen of Gerar picked a fight with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “That’s our well!” So Isaac named the well Argument because of the sharp contention. They dug a second well, and it also caused a quarrel, so Isaac named that well Hostility. Then he pulled up stakes from there and dug a third well, but this one was dug without any quarreling, so Isaac named it Spacious, saying, “Finally, YAHWEH has made ample room for us and we will become prosperous in the land!” From there, Isaac moved his camp to Beersheba. That very night, YAHWEH appeared before him and said: “I am the God of Abraham your father. You will never need to fear a thing for I am with you and I will greatly bless you. Your children will flourish and succeed because of the promises I gave my servant Abraham.” So Isaac built an altar, prayed, and worshiped YAHWEH there. He pitched his tent there, and his servants started digging another well. Then King Abimelech came to Isaac from Gerar with his adviser Ahuzzath and his army commander Phicol. Isaac asked them, “Why have you come to me now, since you hated me and sent me away?” They answered, “We have witnessed firsthand how powerfully YAHWEH’s favor has been with you, so we say, let there be a peace treaty among us. Let us make a covenant to do each other no harm. Swear to us that you will not trouble us, just as we have not troubled you and have always treated you well and sent you away in peace. Now look at how YAHWEH has blessed you!” So Isaac prepared a wonderful feast for them, and they all ate and drank together. Then the next morning, they got up early and exchanged oaths. Isaac said goodbye to them, and they left Isaac in peace. Later that same day, Isaac’s servants came with wonderful news about the well they had dug, saying, “We’ve just found water!” So he named it Oath. This is why the city where they dug the well is called Beersheba to this day. When Esau was forty, he married two Hittite women, Judith the daughter of Beeri and Basemath the daughter of Elon. They made life miserable for Isaac and Rebekah.