Chapter 26

  And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.  

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  And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:  

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

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  And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;  

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  Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.  

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  And Isaac dwelt in Gerar:  

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  And the men of the place asked [him] of his wife; and he said, She [is] my sister: for he feared to say, [She is] my wife; lest, [said he], the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she [was] fair to look upon.  

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  And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac [was] sporting with Rebekah his wife.  

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  And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she [is] thy wife: and how saidst thou, She [is] my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her.  

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  And Abimelech said, What [is] this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.  

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  And Abimelech charged all [his] people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.  

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  Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him.  

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  And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great:  

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  For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him.  

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  For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.  

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  And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we.  

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

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  And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.  

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  And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.  

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  And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water [is] ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him.  

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  And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah.  

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  And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.  

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  And he went up from thence to Beersheba.  

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  And the LORD appeared unto 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.  

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  And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac's servants digged a well.  

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  Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol the chief captain of his army.  

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  And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you?  

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  And they said, We saw certainly that the LORD was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, [even] betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee;  

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  That thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou [art] now the blessed of the LORD.  

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  And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink.  

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  And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.  

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  And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water.  

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  And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city [is] Beersheba unto this day.  

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  And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite:  

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  Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.  

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