Genesis 26

1 Now a famine happened in the land, besides the first famine that had been in the days of Abraham. 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 Now Yahweh appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land that I tell you to live in.

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 Stay in this very land, and I will be with you and will bless you; for to you and to your descendants, I will give all these lands, and I will fulfill the oath that I swore to Abraham your 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 I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and will give to your descendants all these lands. Through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

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 I will do this because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my instructions, 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 So Isaac settled in Gerar.

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

7 When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister.” He feared to say, “She is my wife,” because he thought, “The men of this place will kill me to get Rebekah, because she is so 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 After Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines happened to look out of a window. He saw, behold, Isaac was caressing 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 Abimelech called Isaac to him and said, “Look, certainly she is your wife. Why did you say, 'She is my sister'?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought someone might kill me to get 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 Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon 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 So Abimelech warned all the people and said, “Whoever touches this man or his wife will surely 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 Isaac planted crops in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold, because Yahweh blessed him.

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

13 The man became rich, and grew more and more until he became very great.

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

14 He had many sheep and cattle, and a large household. 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 Now all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped them up by filling 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 Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are 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 So Isaac departed from there and settled in the Valley of Gerar, and lived there.

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

18 Once again Isaac dug out the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father. The Philistines had stopped them up after Abraham's death. Isaac called the wells by the same names that 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 When Isaac's servants dug in the valley, they found there a well of flowing water.

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

20 The herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, and said, “This water is ours.” So Isaac called that well “Esek,” because they had quarreled 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 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that, too, 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 He left there and dug yet another well, but they did not quarrel over that one. So he called it Rehoboth, and he said, “Now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will prosper 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 Then Isaac went up from there to Beersheba.

From there Isaac went up to Beersheba.

24 Yahweh appeared to him that 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 descendants, 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 Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of Yahweh. There he pitched his tent, and his 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 Then Abimelech went 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 Isaac said to them, “Why are you coming to me, since you hate me and have 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 Then they said, “We have clearly seen that Yahweh has been with you. So we decided that there should be an oath between us, yes, between us and you. So 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 that you will do us no harm, just as we have not harmed you, and as we have treated you well and have sent you away in peace. Indeed, you are blessed by Yahweh.”

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

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

31 They rose early in the morning and swore an oath with each other. Then Isaac sent them away, and they left 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 That same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well that they had dug. They said, “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 He called the well Shibah, so the name of that city is Beersheba 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 When Esau was forty years old, he took a wife, Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also 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 They brought sorrow to Isaac and Rebekah.

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