1 Now there was AGen 12:10a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to BGen 20:1, 2Abimelech king of the Philistines. 2 The Loʀᴅ AGen 12:7; 17:1; 18:1appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; 1Lit dwellBGen 12:1stay in the land of which I shall tell you. 3  “Sojourn in this land and AGen 26:24; 28:15; 31:3I will be with you and BGen 12:2bless you, for CGen 12:7; 13:15; 15:18to you and to your 1Lit seeddescendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish DGen 22:16-18; Ps 105:9the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. 4  “AGen 15:5; 22:17; Ex 32:13I will multiply your 1Lit seeddescendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your 1Lit seeddescendants all these lands; and BGen 22:18; Gal 3:8by your 1Lit seeddescendants all the nations of the earth 2Or bless themselvesshall be blessed; 5 because Abraham 1Lit hearkened to My voiceAGen 22:16obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.”

6 So Isaac 1Lit dweltlived in Gerar. 7 When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “AGen 12:13; 20:2, 12She is my sister,” for he was BProv 29:25afraid to say, “my wife,” thinking, “1Lit lest...placethe men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is CGen 12:11; 24:16; 29:17beautiful.” 8 It came about, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through a window, and saw, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah. 9 Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, certainly she is your wife! How then did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘I might die on account of her.’ ” 10 AGen 20:9Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” 11 So Abimelech charged all the people, saying, “He who APs 105:15touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

12 Now Isaac sowed in that land and 1Lit foundreaped in the same year a hundredfold. And AGen 24:1; 26:3; Job 42:12; Prov 10:22the Loʀᴅ blessed him, 13 and the man AProv 10:22became rich, and continued to grow 1Lit greatricher until he became very 1Lit greatwealthy; 14 for AGen 24:35; 25:5he had possessions of flocks 1Lit and possessions of herdsand herds and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. 15 Now AGen 21:25, 30all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up 1Lit and filled themby filling them with earth. 16 Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are 1Lit much mightier than weAEx 1:9too powerful for us.” 17 And Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar, and 1Lit dweltsettled there.

18 Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which 1Lit they had dughad been dug in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he 2Lit called their names as the namesgave them the same names which his father had 3Lit calledgiven them. 19 But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of 1Lit livingflowing water, 20 the herdsmen of Gerar AGen 21:25quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, “The water is ours!” So he named the well 1I.e. contentionEsek, because they contended with him. 21 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over it too, so he named it 1I.e. enmitySitnah. 22 He moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it 1I.e. broad placesRehoboth, for he said, “2Lit Truly nowAPs 4:1; Is 54:2, 3At last the Loʀᴅ has made 3Or broadroom for us, and we will be BGen 17:6; Ex 1:7fruitful in the land.”

23 Then he went up from there to AGen 22:19Beersheba. 24 The Loʀᴅ AGen 26:2appeared to him the same night and said,

26 Then AGen 21:22Abimelech came to him from Gerar 1Lit and his confidential friendwith his adviser Ahuzzath and Phicol the commander of his army. 27 Isaac said to them, “AJudg 11:7Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?” 28 They said, “We see plainly AGen 21:22, 23that the Loʀᴅ has been with you; so we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, even between 1Lit us and youyou 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 1Lit and just as weand have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the AGen 24:31; Ps 115:15blessed of the Loʀᴅ.’ ” 30 Then AGen 19:3he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31 In the morning they arose early and 1Lit swore one to anotherAGen 21:31exchanged oaths; then Isaac sent them away and they departed from him in peace. 32 Now it came about on the same day, that Isaac’s servants came in and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.” 33 So he called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is AGen 21:31Beersheba to this day.

34 When Esau was forty years old AGen 28:8; 36:2he 1Lit took as wifemarried Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite; 35 and AGen 27:46they 1Lit were a bitterness of spirit tobrought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.