The Promise Renewed to Isaac
Famine returns and Isaac repeats his father's lie about his wife, and is caught. He grows rich as our Father blesses him, and his wells are seized one after another until he digs where no one fights him. Then the king who envied him comes asking for a treaty.
26 1Now there was a famine in the land, besides the earlier famine that occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar.
2Our Father appeared to him and said, "Do not go down to Egypt; settle in the land that I will tell you about. 3Stay in this land, and I will be with you and bless you, for I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will fulfill the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. 4I will multiply your offspring like the stars in the sky and will give to your offspring all these lands, and through your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed, 5because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."
6So Isaac settled in Gerar. 7The local men asked about his wife, and he answered, "She's my sister"—afraid to say "my wife," thinking, "The men here would kill me over Rebekah, since she's beautiful." 8When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down through a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. 9So Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, "She is certainly your wife! How could you say, 'She is my sister'?" Isaac said to him, "Because I thought I might die because of her."
10Abimelech said, "What have you done to us? One of the people might easily have slept with your wife, and you'd have brought guilt on us." 11Abimelech ordered all the people, "Whoever touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death."
12Isaac sowed in that land and reaped a hundredfold that year, because our Father blessed him. 13The man grew rich and kept growing richer until he became very wealthy. 14He had flocks and herds and a large household of servants, so that the Philistines envied him. 15The Philistines had filled in every well his father's servants dug in his father Abraham's days. 16Abimelech said to Isaac, "Leave us—you've grown far too strong for us."
17So Isaac left there and camped in the Valley of Gerar, and he settled there. 18Isaac redug the water wells dug in his father Abraham's days, which the Philistines plugged after Abraham died, and called them by the names his father had called them. 19But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of fresh spring water, 20Gerar's herders argued with Isaac's herders, saying, "The water is ours." He named the well Esek, for they argued with him. a a v20 The name Esek means "contention." 21Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one too, so he named it Sitnah. b b v21 The name Sitnah means "opposition." 22From there he moved and dug another well; they did not quarrel over it, so he named it Rehoboth, saying, "Now our Father has made room for us; we will be fruitful in the land." c c v22 The name Rehoboth means "room" or "broad places."
23From there he went up to Beersheba.
24That night our Father appeared to him and said, "I am the God of your father Abraham. Don't be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your offspring, for my servant Abraham's sake."
25There he built an altar and called on the name of our Father, pitched his tent, and there Isaac's servants dug a well.
26Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol, head of his army. 27Isaac said to them, "Why come to me, since you hated me and sent me away from you?"
28They said, "We clearly saw that God has been with you, so we said, 'Let there be an oath between us—between you and us—and let us make a covenant with you, 29that you'll do us no harm—just as we didn't touch you but did you only good—and sent you away in peace. You are now blessed by God.'"
30So Isaac made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31Early the next morning they swore an oath to each other; Isaac sent them off, and they left him in peace. 32That day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well they'd dug and said, "We found water!" 33So he named it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day. d d v33 Shibah means 'oath'; Beersheba means 'well of the oath.'
34At forty, Esau married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35And they were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.
