Genesis 26

1 And there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine which had been in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech the king of the Philistines, to 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 Jehovah appeared to him and said, Go not down to Egypt: dwell in the land that I shall tell thee of.

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 Sojourn in this land; and I will be with thee and bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries; and I will perform the oath which I swore unto Abraham thy father.

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 And I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and unto thy seed will I give all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves —

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 that Abraham hearkened to my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, 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 And Isaac dwelt at Gerar.

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

7 And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, She is my sister; for he feared to say, my wife, [saying to himself, ] Lest the men of the place slay me on account of Rebecca — because she was fair in countenance.

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 it came to pass when he had been there some time, that Abimelech the king of the Philistines looked out of the window, and saw, and behold, Isaac was dallying with Rebecca 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 Then Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, she is certainly thy wife; and how saidst thou, She is my sister? and Isaac said to him, Because I said, Lest I die on account 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 And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done to us? But a little and one of the people might have lain with thy wife, and thou wouldest have brought a trespass on us.

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 charged all the people, saying, He that touches this man or his wife shall certainly 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 And Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year a hundredfold; and Jehovah blessed him.

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

13 And the man became great, and he became continually greater, until he was very great.

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

14 And he had possessions of flocks, and possessions of herds, and a great number of servants; and the Philistines envied him.

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

15 And all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped them and filled them with earth.

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 from us; for thou art become much mightier than we.

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 And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his camp in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.

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

18 And Isaac dug again the wells of water that they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and that the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham; and he called their names after the names by which his father had called 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 And Isaac's servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.

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

20 But the shepherds of Gerar strove with Isaac's shepherds, saying, The water is ours. And he called the name of the well Esek, because they had quarrelled with him.

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 And they dug another well, and they strove for that also; and he called the name of it 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 And he removed thence and dug another well; and they did not strive for that. And he called the name of it Rehoboth, and said, For now Jehovah has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the 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 he went up thence to Beer-sheba.

From there Isaac went up to Beersheba.

24 And Jehovah appeared to him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake.

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 And he built an altar there, and called upon the name of Jehovah. And he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac's servants dug a well.

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, and Ahuzzath his friend, and Phichol the captain of his host, went to him from Gerar.

[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 are ye come to me, seeing ye hate me, and have driven 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 certainly that Jehovah is with thee; and we said, Let there be then an oath between us — between us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee,

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 thou wilt do us no wrong, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done to thee nothing but good, and have let thee go in peace; thou art now blessed of Jehovah.

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

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

31 And they rose early in the morning, and swore one to another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him 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 it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well that they had dug, and said to him, We have found 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 called it Shebah; therefore the name of the city 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 Esau was forty years old, when he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basmath 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 they were a grief of mind to Isaac and to Rebecca.

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