Genesis 26

1 Then came a time of great need in the land, like that which had been before in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar.

Some time later there was a severe (famine/scarcity of food) there. That was different from the famine that occurred when Abraham was alive. So Isaac went [southeast] to Gerar [town, to talk] to Abimelech, the king of the Philistine people-group. [What happened was this: Isaac considered going to Egypt],

2 And the Lord came to him in a vision and said, Do not go down to Egypt; keep in the land of which I will give you knowledge:

but Yahweh appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt! Live in the land where I will tell you to go!

3 Keep in this land, and I will be with you and give you my blessing; for to you and to your seed will I give all these lands, giving effect to the oath which I made to your father Abraham;

Stay in this land for a while, and I will help you and bless you, because it is to you and your descendants that I will give all these lands, and I will do what I solemnly promised to your father.

4 I will make your seed like the stars of heaven in number, and will give them all these lands, and your seed will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth;

I will cause your descendants to be as numerous as the stars in the sky. I will give to your descendants all these lands, and I will cause your descendants to be a blessing to the people of [MTY] all nations on the earth.

5 Because Abraham gave ear to my voice and kept my words, my rules, my orders, and my laws.

I will do that because your father Abraham obeyed me. He obeyed everything that I told him to do, everything that I declared and all the laws that I gave him.” So Isaac [went and asked King Abimelech if he would permit him to live in the Gerar area. The king said, “Okay,”]

6 So Isaac went on living in Gerar;

[so Isaac] stayed there [along with his wife and sons].

7 And when he was questioned by the men of the place about his wife, he said, She is my sister; fearing to say, She is my wife; for, he said, the men of the place may put me to death on account of Rebekah; because she is very beautiful.

When the men in Gerar [town] asked who Rebekah was, Isaac said, “She is my sister.” He said that because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “Rebekah is very beautiful, so they will want her. [If I say that she is my sister, they know they will have to negotiate about a bride price because I am her older brother; but if I say that she is my wife, no negotiation will be possible]. They will just kill me to get her.”

8 And when he had been there for some time, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looking through a window, saw Isaac playing with Rebekah his wife.

When Isaac had been there a long time, one day Abimelech, the king of the Philistine people-group, looked down from a window [in his palace] and was surprised to see Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.

9 And he said to Isaac, It is clear that she is your wife: why then did you say, She is my sister? And Isaac said, For fear that I might be put to death because of her.

So Abimelech summoned Isaac and said to him, “Now I realize that she is really your wife! So why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac replied to him, “I said that because I thought that someone here might kill me to get her.”

10 Then Abimelech said, What have you done to us? one of the people might well have had connection with your wife, and the sin would have been ours.

Abimelech said, “(You should not have done this to us!/Why did you do this?) [RHQ] One of our people might have (had sex with/slept with) [EUP] your wife, and you would have caused us to be guilty of a great sin!”

11 And Abimelech gave orders to his people that anyone touching Isaac or his wife was to be put to death.

Then Abimelech commanded all his people, saying, “Do not harm/molest this man or his wife! Anyone who does that will surely be executed!”

12 Now Isaac, planting seed in that land, got in the same year fruit a hundred times as much, for the blessing of the Lord was on him.

Isaac planted grain in that land that year, and he harvested a very large crop, because Yahweh blessed him.

13 And his wealth became very great, increasing more and more;

Isaac continued to acquire more and more possessions, until finally he became very wealthy.

14 For he had great wealth of flocks and herds and great numbers of servants; so that the Philistines were full of envy.

He had large herds of sheep and goats and cattle, and many slaves. Because of that, the Philistine people envied him.

15 Now all the water-holes, which his father's servants had made in the days of Abraham, had been stopped up with earth by the Philistines.

So all the wells that the servants of his father Abraham had dug during the time when he was alive, the people filled up with dirt.

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

Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “You people have become more numerous than we are, so I want you to get out of our area.”

17 So Isaac went away from there, and put up his tents in the valley of Gerar, making his living-place there.

So Isaac [and his family] moved from there. They set up their tents in Gerar Valley [and started to live there].

18 And he made again the water-holes which had been made in the days of Abraham his father, and which had been stopped up by the Philistines; and he gave them the names which his father had given them.

There were several wells in that area that had been dug when Isaac’s father Abraham was living, but Philistine people had filled them up [with dirt] after Abraham died. Now Isaac and his servants removed the dirt, and Isaac gave the wells the same names that his father had given to them.

19 Now Isaac's servants made holes in the valley, and came to a spring of flowing water.

Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water.

20 But the herdmen of Gerar had a fight with Isaac's herdmen, for they said, The spring is ours: so he gave the spring the name of Esek, because there was a fight about it.

But other men who lived in Gerar [Valley] who took care of their animals argued/quarreled with the men who took care of Isaac’s animals, and said, “The water in this well is ours!” So Isaac named the well Esek, which means ‘dispute’, because they disputed about who owned it.

21 Then they made another water-hole, and there was a fight about that, so he gave it the name of Sitnah.

Then Isaac’s servants dug another well, but they quarreled about who owned that one also. So Isaac named it Sitnah, [which means ‘opposition]’.

22 Then he went away from there, and made another water-hole, about which there was no fighting: so he gave it the name of Rehoboth, for he said, Now the Lord has made room for us, and we will have fruit in this land.

They moved on from there and dug another well, but this time no one quarreled about who owned it. So Isaac named it Rehoboth, [which means ‘uninhabited place’], saying, “Yahweh has given us an uninhabited place to live in, a place that is not wanted by other people, and we will become very prosperous here.”

23 And from there he went on to Beer-sheba.

From there Isaac went up to Beersheba.

24 That night the Lord came to him in a vision, and said, I am the God of your father Abraham: have no fear for I am with you, blessing you, and your seed will be increased because of my servant Abraham.

The first night that he was there, Yahweh appeared to him and said, “I am God, whom your father Abraham worshiped. Do not be afraid of anything. I will help you and bless you, and because of what I promised my servant Abraham, I will greatly increase the number of your descendants.”

25 Then he made an altar there, and gave worship to the name of the Lord, and he put up his tents there, and there his servants made a water-hole.

So Isaac built a stone altar there [and offered a sacrifice] to worship Yahweh. He [and his servants] set up their tents there, and his servants started to dig a well.

26 And Abimelech had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his friend and Phicol, the captain of his army.

[While they were digging the well], King Abimelech came to Isaac from Gerar, along with Ahuzzath, his advisor, and Phicol, the commander of his army.

27 And Isaac said to them, Why have you come to me, seeing that in your hate for me you sent me away from you?

Isaac asked them, “You (acted in a hostile way toward me/treated me like an enemy) before, and sent me away. So why have you come to me now?”

28 And they said, We saw clearly that the Lord was with you: so we said, Let there be an oath between us and you, and let us make an agreement with you;

One of them answered, “We have seen that Yahweh helps you. So we said to each other, ‘We should have an agreement between us and you. We should make a peace treaty with you,

29 That you will do us no damage, even as we put no hand on you, and did you nothing but good, and sent you away in peace: and now the blessing of the Lord is on you.

stating that you will not harm us, in the same way that we did not molest [EUP] you.’ We always treated you well and sent you away peacefully. And now Yahweh is blessing you.”

30 Then he made a feast for them, and they all had food and drink.

So Isaac made a feast for them, and they all ate and drank.

31 And early in the morning they took an oath one to the other: then Isaac sent them away and they went on their way in peace.

Early the next morning they all (swore/solemnly promised) each other that they would do what they had promised. Then Isaac sent them home peacefully.

32 And that day Isaac's servants came to him and gave him word of the water-hole which they had made, and said to him, We have come to water.

That day Isaac’s servants came to him and told him about the well that they had finished digging. They said, “We found water in the well!”

33 And he gave it the name of Shibah: so the name of that town is Beer-sheba to this day.

Isaac named the well Shibah, [which sounds like the Hebrew word that means ‘oath’]. To the present time the town there has the name Beersheba [which means ‘Friendship Agreement Well’].

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

When Esau was 40 years old, he married Judith, the daughter of Beeri, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon. Both of those women were descendants of Heth, [not from Isaac’s clan].

35 And Isaac and Rebekah had grief of mind because of them.

Esau’s two wives made life miserable for Isaac and Rebekah.