The Promise Renewed to Isaac
26 1 Now there was a famine in the land, besides the earlier famine that occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar.
2 Our Father appeared to him and said, "Do not go down to Egypt; settle in the land that I will tell you about." 3 Stay in this land, and I will be with you and bless you, for I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will fulfill the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. 4 I will multiply your offspring like the stars in the sky and will give to your offspring all these lands, and through your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed, 5 because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
6 So Isaac settled in Gerar. 7 When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, "She is my sister," for he was afraid to say, "my wife" — thinking, "The men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful." 8 When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down through a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. 9 So Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, "She is certainly your wife! How could you say, 'She is my sister'?" Isaac said to him, "Because I thought I might die because of her."
10 Abimelech said, "What is this you have done to us? One of the people could easily have slept with your wife, and you would have made us guilty." 11 Then Abimelech commanded all the people, "Whoever touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death."
12 Isaac planted crops in that land, and that same year he harvested a hundred times what he had planted, because our Father blessed him. 13 The man grew rich and kept growing richer until he became very wealthy. 14 He had flocks and herds and a large household of servants, so that the Philistines envied him. 15 Now the Philistines had filled in all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham. 16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, "Move away from us, for you have become far too powerful for us."
17 So Isaac left there and camped in the Valley of Gerar, and he settled there. 18 Isaac reopened the wells of water that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had filled in after Abraham's death, and he gave them the same names his father had given them. 19 But when Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of fresh spring water, 20 the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, "The water is ours!" So he named the well Esek, because they disputed with him. a a v20 The name Esek means "contention." 21 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one too, so he named it Sitnah. b b v21 The name Sitnah means "opposition." 22 He moved on from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he named it Rehoboth, saying, "Now our Father has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land." c c v22 The name Rehoboth means "room" or "broad places."
23 From there he went up to Beersheba.
24 That night our Father appeared to him and said, "I am the Father of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your offspring for the sake of my servant Abraham."
25 So he built an altar there and called on the name of our Father, and he pitched his tent there. And there Isaac's servants dug a well.
26 Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army. 27 Isaac said to them, "Why have you come to me, since you hated me and sent me away from you?"
28 They said, "We have seen clearly that the Sovereign Father has been with you, so we said, 'Let there now be a sworn agreement between us — between you and us — and let us make a covenant with you, 29 that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done only good to you and sent you away in peace. You are now blessed by the Sovereign Father."
30 So Isaac made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31 Early the next morning they swore an oath to one another. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they left him in peace. 32 That same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well they had dug, and they said to him, "We have found water!" 33 So he named it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day. d d v33 Shibah means 'oath'; Beersheba means 'well of the oath.'
34 When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35 And they were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.