Genesis 26 · The Lantern

God’s Promise to Isaac

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

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

Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for to you, and to your seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father;

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

O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?

Observe, too, how the same promises are made to Isaac and to Jacob. For thus He speaks to Isaac: "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." And to Jacob: "And in thee and in thy seed shall all families of the earth be blessed." He says that neither to Esau nor to Reuben, nor to any other; only to those of whom the Christ should arise, according to the disp…

Then he teaches Isaac what it was he promised and the things about which God had given him confirmation. "I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven." This, you remember, he had said to the patriarch as well, that his descendants would be so numerous as to be compared with the stars and the sand: "I will give all this land to your descendants," he said, "an…

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

Isaac Deceives Abimelech

And Isaac dwelt in Gerar:

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, he said, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon.

And it happened, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and indeed, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.

And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Look, of a surety she is your wife: and how said you, She is my sister? And Isaac said to him, Because I said, Lest I die for her.

And Abimelech said, What is this you have done to us? one of the people might lightly have lien with your wife, and you should have brought guiltiness upon us.

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

Isaac’s Prosperity

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

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

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

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

And Abimelech said to Isaac, Go from us; for you are much mightier than we.

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

And Isaac dug again the wells of water, which they had dug 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.

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

For who is able worthily to explain either the mysteries of such great wells or of those things that are related to have been done for the wells, unless we invoke the Father of the living Word and he should deign to put the word in our mouth so that we may be able to draw a little "living water" for you who thirst from those wells which are so copious and numerous?There are, th…

For Abraham dug wells and Isaac too—that is, the mighty patriarchs—and Jacob also, as we find in the Gospel, as if they were fountains of the human race, and specifically fountains of faith and devotion. For what is a well of living water but a depth of profound instruction?

(Verse 19) And the servants of Isaac dug in the valley of Gerar and found there a well of living water. And for this valley, a stream was written; for never is a well of living water found in the valley.

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.

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

And he removed from there, and dug another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he 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 the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham your father: fear not, for I am with you, and will bless you, and multiply your seed for my servant Abraham’s sake.

And he built an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.

Isaac’s Covenant with Abimelech

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

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

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

That you will do us no hurt, as we have not touched you, and as we have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace: you are now the blessed of the LORD.

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

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

And it happened the same day, that Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had dug, and said to him, We have found water.

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

Esau’s Wives

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:

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