Genesis 26Book 1 of 66 · 35 verses · MBT primary, NKJV fallback where MBT pending

  1. There was a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that was in the days of Abraham, and Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines in Gerar.
  2. Then the LORD appeared to him and said, "Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you.
  3. Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
  4. I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and through your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.
  5. Because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My instructions.
  6. So Isaac dwelt 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, "She is my wife," thinking, "lest the men of the place kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful to behold."
  8. Now it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through a window and saw Isaac caressing Rebekah his wife.
  9. Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, "Quite obviously she is your wife; so how could you say, 'She is my sister'?" Isaac said to him, "Because I thought, 'Lest I die on account of her.'"
  10. 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."
  11. So Abimelech warned all his people, saying, "He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death."
  12. Then Isaac planted his crops in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the LORD blessed him.
  13. The man began to prosper, and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy.
  14. He had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great household of servants, so that the Philistines envied him.
  15. Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, filling them with dirt.
  16. And Abimelech said to Isaac, "Go away from us, for you have become much mightier than we."
  17. Then Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar, and settled there.
  18. And Isaac dug again the wells of water which 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 same names which his father had given them.
  19. Also Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found a well of fresh spring water there.
  20. But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, "The water is ours," so he called the name of the well Esek, which means contention, because they argued with him.
  21. Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also, so he named it Sitnah.
  22. And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it, so he called its name Rehoboth, saying, "For now at last the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land."
  23. Then he went up from there to Beersheba.
  24. And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, "I am the God of your father Abraham; do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your offspring for My servant Abraham's sake."
  25. So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the LORD, 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 Phichol the commander of his army.
  27. And Isaac said to them, "Why have you come to me, seeing that you hate me and have sent me away from you?"
  28. They said, "We have clearly seen that the LORD is with you, so we said, 'Let there now be a sworn oath 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 since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the LORD.
  30. So he prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank together.
  31. Then they arose early in the morning and exchanged oaths with one another; and Isaac sent them on their way, and they departed from him in peace.
  32. That same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well they had dug, saying to him, "We have found water."
  33. So he called it Shebah, therefore the name of the city is still Beersheba to this day.
  34. When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.
  35. And they were a grief of spirit to Isaac and Rebekah.