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.

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

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 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;

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 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;

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 has listened to My voice, and keeps My charge, My commands, 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 dwells in Gerar;

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

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.”

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 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.

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 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.”

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 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”;

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

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

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

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

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

14 and he has possession of a flock, and possession of a herd, and an abundant service; and the Philistines envy 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 which his father’s servants dug in the days of his father Abraham, the Philistines have stopped them, and fill them with dust.

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 says to Isaac, “Go from us; for you have 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 goes from there, and encamps in the Valley of Gerar, and dwells 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 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.

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 dig in the valley, and find there a well of living water,

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

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

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 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.”

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 goes up from there [to] Beer-Sheba,

From there Isaac went up to Beersheba.

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”;

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 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.

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

[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 says to them, “Why have you come to me, and you have hated me, and you send 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 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;

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 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.”

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 makes a banquet for them, and they eat and drink,

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

31 and rise early in the morning, and swear to one another, and Isaac sends them away, and they go 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 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”;

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 calls it Shebah, [oath, ] therefore the name of the city [is] Beer-Sheba, [Well of the Oath, ] 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 is a son of forty years, and he takes a wife, Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath, 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 are a bitterness of spirit to Isaac and to Rebekah.

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