And there was a famine in the land — besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham — and Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar.
And the LORD appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Settle in the land that I tell you.
Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and bless you — for to you and to your seed I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father.
And I will multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens, and I will give your seed all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed —
because Abraham listened to my voice and kept my charge: my commandments, my statutes, and my teachings.”
Isaac Deceives Abimelech
And Isaac lived in Gerar.
And the men of the place asked about his wife, and he said, “She is my sister” — for he was afraid to say “my wife,” thinking, “or the men of the place will kill me over Rebekah, because she is good-looking.”
And it happened, when his days there had grown long, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down through the window and saw — and look, Isaac was laughing with Rebekah his wife.
And Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Look here — she is your wife! How could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Or I will die over her.’”
And Abimelech 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.”
And Abimelech commanded all the people: “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
Isaac’s Prosperity
And Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in that year a hundredfold — and the LORD blessed him.
And the man became great, and he went on growing greater and greater until he was very great.
And he had livestock of sheep and livestock of cattle, and many servants — and the Philistines envied him.
And all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up and filled with dirt.
And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you have become far too mighty for us.”
And Isaac went from there and camped in the valley of Gerar, and lived there.
And Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father — for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham — and he called them by the names his father had called them.
And Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and they found there a well of living water.
And the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen: “The water is ours!” And he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him.
And they dug another well, and they quarreled over it too; and he called its name Sitnah.
And he moved on from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; and he called its name Rehoboth, and said, “For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”
And he went up from there to Beersheba.
And the LORD appeared to him that night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; and I will bless you and multiply your seed, for the sake of Abraham my servant.”
And he built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there; and Isaac’s servants dug a well there.
Isaac’s Covenant with Abimelech
And Abimelech came to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his companion and Phicol the commander of his army.
And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, when you hate me and sent me away from you?”
And they said, “We have surely seen that the LORD is with you, and we said: Let there now be an oath between us — between us and you — and let us cut a covenant with you,
that you will do us no evil, just as we have not touched you, and just as we have done only good with you and sent you away in peace. You are now blessed of the LORD.”
And he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
And they rose early in the morning and swore, each to his brother; and Isaac sent them off, and they went from him in peace.
And it happened that same day that Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”
And he called it Shibah. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
Esau’s Wives
And Esau was forty years old, and he took as wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.
And they were a bitterness of spirit to Isaac and to Rebekah.
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