26:1 Now there was a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines.
26:2 And the LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you.
26:3 Live for a time in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your ①descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham.
▷ ①Lit seed
26:4 I will multiply your ①descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your ②descendants all these lands; and by your ③descendants all the nations of the earth ④shall be blessed,
▷ ①Lit seed ②Lit seed ③Lit seed ④Or bless themselves
26:5 because Abraham ①obeyed Me and fulfilled his duty to Me, and kept My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
▷ ①Lit listened diligently to My voice
26:6 So Isaac lived in Gerar.
26:7 When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say, “my wife,” thinking, “ ①the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, since she is beautiful.”
▷ ①Lit lest...place
26:8 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.
26:9 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.’ ”
26:10 And 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.”
26:11 So Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife will certainly be put to death.”
26:12 Now Isaac sowed in that land and ①reaped in the same year a hundred times as much. And the LORD blessed him,
▷ ①Lit found
26:13 and the man became rich, and continued to grow ①richer until he became very ②wealthy;
▷ ①Lit great ②Lit great
26:14 for he had possessions of flocks ①and herds, and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him.
▷ ①Lit and possessions of herds
26:15 Now all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up ①by filling them with dirt.
▷ ①Lit and filled them
26:16 Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are ①too powerful for us.”
▷ ①Lit much mightier than we
26:17 So Isaac departed from there and camped in the Valley of Gerar, and ①settled there.
▷ ①Lit dwelt
26:18 Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which ①had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he ②gave them the same names which his father had ③given them.
▷ ①Lit they had dug ②Lit called their names as the names ③Lit called
26:19 But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of ①flowing water,
▷ ①Lit living
26:20 the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, “The water is ours!” So he named the well ①Esek, because they argued with him.
▷ ①I.e., argument
26:21 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over it too, so he named it ①Sitnah.
▷ ①I.e., accusation
26:22 Then he moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it ①Rehoboth, for he said, “ ②At last the LORD has made ③room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”
▷ ①I.e., broad places ②Lit Truly now ③Or broad
26:23 And he went up from there to Beersheba.
26:24 And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said,
“I am the God of your father Abraham;
Do not fear, for I am with you.
I will bless you and multiply your ①descendants,
For the sake of My servant Abraham.”
▷ ①Lit seed
26:25 So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
26:26 Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar ①with his adviser Ahuzzath, and Phicol the commander of his army.
▷ ①Lit and his confidential friend
26:27 Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?”
26:28 They said, “We have seen plainly that the LORD has been with you; so we said, ‘An oath must now be taken ①by us,’ that is, ②by you and us. So let us make a covenant with you,
▷ ①Lit between us ②Lit between us and you
26:29 that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you ①and have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the LORD.”
▷ ①Lit and just as we
26:30 Then he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
26:31 In the morning they got up early and ①exchanged oaths; then Isaac sent them away, and they left him in peace.
▷ ①Lit swore one to another
26:32 Now it came about on the same day, that Isaac’s servants came in and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”
26:33 So he called it ①Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
▷ ①Meaning uncertain, perhaps oath
26:34 When Esau was forty years old he ①married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite;
▷ ①Lit took as wife
26:35 and they ①brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.
▷ ①Lit were a bitterness of spirit to