Genesis 26
Yahweh Establishes the Oath with Isaac
26Now there was aa famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to bAbimelech king of the Philistines. 2And Yahweh aappeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; bdwell in the land of which I shall tell you. 3“Sojourn in this land, and aI will be with you and bbless you, for cto you and to your seed I will give all these lands, and I will establish dthe oath which I swore to your father Abraham. 4“aAnd I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and I will give your seed all these lands; and bby your seed all the nations of the earth 1shall be blessed; 5because Abraham alistened to My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
Isaac and Abimelech
6So Isaac 1lived in Gerar. 7Then the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, “aShe is my sister,” for he was bafraid to say, “my wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is cbeautiful in appearance.” 8Now it happened, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through a window and saw, and behold, Isaac was 1caressing his wife Rebekah. 9Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, surely she is your wife! How then did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’” 10aAnd Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” 11So Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “He who atouches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
12And Isaac sowed in that land and 1reaped in the same year one hundredfold. And aYahweh blessed him, 13and the man abecame great and continued to grow greater until he became very great; 14and ahe had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and many servants, so that the Philistines were jealous of him. 15Now aall the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up 1by filling them with earth. 16Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are 1,atoo mighty for us.” 17And Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar and 1settled there.
The Quarrel over the Wells
18Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which 1had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, but the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he 2called them by the same names by which his father had called them. 19Then Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of 1flowing water. 20And the herdsmen of Gerar acontended with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, “The water is ours!” So he named the well 1Esek, because they quarreled with him. 21Then they dug another well, and they contended over it also, so he called it 1Sitnah. 22Then he moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not contend over it; so he named it 1Rehoboth, and he said, “2,aAt last Yahweh has made 3room for us, and we will be bfruitful in the land.”
23And he went up from there to aBeersheba. 24And Yahweh aappeared to him that night and said, “bI am the God of your father Abraham;cDo not fear, for I am with you.I dwill bless you and multiply your seed,For the sake of My servant Abraham.”
25So he built an aaltar there and called upon the name of Yahweh and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug out a well.
Isaac’s Oath with Abimelech
26Now aAbimelech came to him from Gerar 1with his adviser Ahuzzath and Phicol the commander of his army. 27And Isaac said to them, “aWhy have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?” 28Then they said, “We see plainly athat Yahweh has been with you; so we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us—between 1you and us—and let us cut a covenant with you, 29that 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 ablessed of Yahweh.’” 30Then ahe made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31In the morning they arose early, and aeach swore to 1the other; then Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. 32Now it happened on that 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.” 33So he called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is aBeersheba to this day.