Genesis 26

1. And there was a famine in the land (besides the former famine that had been in the days of Abraham). And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, to Gerar.

2. And the LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down into Egypt. Live in the land which I shall tell you of.

3. Stay in this land, and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your seed, I will give all these lands; and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.

4. And I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and will give to your seed all these lands. And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,

5. Because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

6. And Isaac lived in Gerar.

7. And when the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister” for he feared to say, “She is my wife,” lest the men of the place should kill him for Rebekah because she was beautiful to look upon.

8. And when he had been there a long time, it came to pass that Abimelech, king of the Philistines, was looking out a window and saw Isaac caressing Rebekah his wife.

9. And Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she surely is your wife. Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’ ”

10. And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us!”

11. And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

12. Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year a hundredfold. And the LORD blessed him.

13. And the man became great—and continued gaining until he became very great.

14. And he had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants. And the Philistines envied him.

15. (Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father and filled them with dirt.)

16. And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are mightier than we are.”

17. So Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar and lived there.

18. And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. And he called them by the names which his father had called them.

19. And Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of flowing water.

20. But the herdsmen of Gerar strove with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” And he called the name of the well Contention because they strove with him.

21. And they dug another well, and they strove over that one too. And he called its name, Opposition.

22. Then he moved from there and dug another well, but they did not strive over it. So he called its name, Broad Places. And he said, “For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

23. And he went from there to Beersheba.

24. And the LORD appeared to him the same night, and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Do not fear, for I am with you, and will bless you and multiply your seed for My servant Abraham’s sake.”

25. And he built an altar there and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there. And Isaac’s servants dug a well there.

26. Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phicol the commander of his army.

27. And Isaac said to them, “Why do you come to me since you hate me and have sent me away from you?”

28. And they said, “We saw certainly that the LORD was with you. And we said, ‘Let there be now an oath between us, between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you;

29. That you will do us no harm since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing but good to you, and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the LORD.’ ”

30. And he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

31. And they rose up early in the morning and swore an oath to one another. And Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

32. And the same day Isaac’s servants came and told him about a well which they had dug, saying to him, “We have found water.”

33. And he called the well, Shebah. Therefore the name of the city is The Well of Sheba Beersheba to this day.

34. And when Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

35. And they both were a grief of spirit to Isaac and to Rebekah.