Genesis 26

1 And there is a famine in the land, besides the first famine which was in the days of Abraham, and Isaac goes to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar.

2 And YHWH appears to him and says, “Do not go down toward Egypt, dwell in the land concerning which I speak to you,

3 sojourn in this land, and I am with you, and bless you, for to you and to your seed I give all these lands, and I have established the oath which I have sworn to your father Abraham;

4 and I have multiplied your seed as stars of the heavens, and I have given to your seed all these lands; and all nations of the earth have blessed themselves in your Seed;

5 because that Abraham has listened to My voice, and keeps My charge, My commands, My statutes, and My laws.”

6 And Isaac dwells in Gerar;

7 and men of the place ask him of his wife, and he says, “She [is] my sister”: for he has been afraid to say, “My wife—lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, for she [is] of good appearance.”

8 And it comes to pass, when the days have been prolonged to him there, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looks through the window, and sees, and behold, Isaac is playing with his wife Rebekah.

9 And Abimelech calls for Isaac and says, “Behold, she [is] surely your wife; and how could you have said, She [is] my sister?” And Isaac says to him, “Because I said, Lest I die for her.”

10 And Abimelech says, “What [is] this you have done to us? As a little thing one of the people had lain with your wife, and you had brought on us guilt”;

11 and Abimelech commands all the people, saying, “He who comes against this man or against his wife, dying does die.”

12 And Isaac sows in that land, and finds in that year a hundredfold, and YHWH blesses him;

13 and the man is great, and goes on, going on and becoming great, until he has been very great,

14 and he has possession of a flock, and possession of a herd, and an abundant service; and the Philistines envy him,

15 and all the wells which his father’s servants dug in the days of his father Abraham, the Philistines have stopped them, and fill them with dust.

16 And Abimelech says to Isaac, “Go from us; for you have become much mightier than we”;

17 and Isaac goes from there, and encamps in the Valley of Gerar, and dwells there;

18 and Isaac turns back, and digs the wells of water which they dug in the days of his father Abraham, which the Philistines have stopped after the death of Abraham, and he calls to them names according to the names which his father called them.

19 And Isaac’s servants dig in the valley, and find there a well of living water,

20 and shepherds of Gerar strive with shepherds of Isaac, saying, “The water [is] ours”; and he calls the name of the well “Strife,” because they have striven habitually with him;

21 and they dig another well, and they strive also for it, and he calls its name “Hatred.”

22 And he removes from there, and digs another well, and they have not striven for it, and he calls its name “Enlargements,” and says, “For—now has YHWH given enlargement to us, and we have been fruitful in the land.”

23 And he goes up from there [to] Beer-Sheba,

24 and YHWH appears to him during that night and says, “I [am] the God of your father Abraham, do not fear, for I [am] with you, and have blessed you, and have multiplied your seed, because of My servant Abraham”;

25 and he builds there an altar, and preaches in the Name of YHWH, and stretches out there his tent, and there Isaac’s servants dig a well.

26 And Abimelech has gone to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath his friend, and Phichol head of his host;

27 and Isaac says to them, “Why have you come to me, and you have hated me, and you send me away from you?”

28 And they say, “We have certainly seen that YHWH has been with you, and we say, Now let there be an oath between us, between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you;

29 do no evil with us, as we have not touched you, and as we have only done good with you, and send you away in peace; you [are] now blessed of YHWH.”

30 And he makes a banquet for them, and they eat and drink,

31 and rise early in the morning, and swear to one another, and Isaac sends them away, and they go from him in peace.

32 And it comes to pass during that day that Isaac’s servants come and declare to him concerning the circumstances of the well which they have dug, and say to him, “We have found water”;

33 and he calls it Shebah, [oath, ] therefore the name of the city [is] Beer-Sheba, [Well of the Oath, ] to this day.

34 And Esau is a son of forty years, and he takes a wife, Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath, daughter of Elon the Hittite,

35 and they are a bitterness of spirit to Isaac and to Rebekah.