20 Now Abraham moved south to the Negeb and settled between Kadesh and Shur. One day, when visiting the city of Gerar, ² he declared that Sarah was his sister! Then King Abimelech sent for her, and had her brought to him at his palace.

³ But that night God came to him in a dream and told him, “You are a dead man, for that woman you took is married.”

⁴ But Abimelech hadn’t slept with her yet, so he said, “Lord, will you slay an innocent man? ⁵ He told me, ‘She is my sister,’ and she herself said, ‘Yes, he is my brother.’ I hadn’t the slightest intention of doing anything wrong.”

⁶ “Yes, I know,” the Lord replied. “That is why I held you back from sinning against me; that is why I didn’t let you touch her. ⁷ Now restore her to her husband, and he will pray for you (for he is a prophet) and you shall live. But if you don’t return her to him, you are doomed to death along with all your household.”

⁸ The king was up early the next morning, and hastily called a meeting of all the palace personnel and told them what had happened. And great fear swept through the crowd.

^9-10 Then the king called for Abraham. “What is this you’ve done to us?” he demanded. “What have I done that deserves treatment like this, to make me and my kingdom guilty of this great sin? Who would suspect that you would do a thing like this to me? Whatever made you think of this vile deed?”

^11-12 “Well,” Abraham said, “I figured this to be a godless place. ‘They will want my wife and will kill me to get her,’ I thought. And besides, she is my sister—or at least a half sister (we both have the same father)—and I married her. ¹³ And when God sent me traveling far from my childhood home, I told her, ‘Have the kindness to mention, wherever we come, that you are my sister.’”

¹⁴ Then King Abimelech took sheep and oxen and servants—both men and women—and gave them to Abraham, and returned Sarah his wife to him.

¹⁵ “Look my kingdom over, and choose the place where you want to live,” the king told him. ¹⁶ Then he turned to Sarah. “Look,” he said, “I am giving your ‘brother’ a thousand silver pieces as damages for what I did, to compensate for any embarrassment and to settle any claim against me regarding this matter. Now justice has been done.”

¹⁷ Then Abraham prayed, asking God to cure the king and queen and the other women of the household, so that they could have children; ¹⁸ for God had stricken all the women with barrenness to punish Abimelech for taking Abraham’s wife.

²² About this time King Abimelech and Phicol, commander of his troops, came to Abraham and said to him, “It is evident that God helps you in everything you do; ²³ swear to me by God’s name that you won’t defraud me or my son or my grandson, but that you will be on friendly terms with my country, as I have been toward you.”

²⁴ Abraham replied, “All right, I swear to it!” ²⁵ Then Abraham complained to the king about a well the king’s servants had taken violently away from Abraham’s servants.

²⁶ “This is the first I’ve heard of it,” the king exclaimed, “and I have no idea who is responsible. Why didn’t you tell me before?”

²⁷ Then Abraham gave sheep and oxen to the king, as sacrifices to seal their pact.

^28-29 But when he took seven ewe lambs and set them off by themselves, the king inquired, “Why are you doing that?”

³⁰ And Abraham replied, “They are my gift to you as a public confirmation that this well is mine.”

³¹ So from that time on the well was called Beer-sheba (“Well of the Oath”), because that was the place where they made their covenant. ³² Then King Abimelech and Phicol, commander of his army, returned home again.

26 Now a severe famine overshadowed the land, as had happened before, in Abraham’s time, and so Isaac moved to the city of Gerar where Abimelech, king of the Philistines, lived.

² Jehovah appeared to him there and told him, “Don’t go to Egypt. ³ Do as I say and stay here in this land. If you do, I will be with you and bless you, and I will give all this land to you and to your descendants, just as I promised Abraham your father. ⁴ And I will cause your descendants to become as numerous as the stars! And I will give them all of these lands; and they shall be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. ⁵ I will do this because Abraham obeyed my commandments and laws.”

⁶ So Isaac stayed in Gerar. ⁷ And when the men there asked him about Rebekah, he said, “She is my sister!” For he feared for his life if he told them she was his wife; he was afraid they would kill him to get her, for she was very attractive. ⁸ But sometime later, King Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out of a window and saw Isaac and Rebekah making love.

⁹ Abimelech called for Isaac and exclaimed, “She is your wife! Why did you say she is your sister?”

“Because I was afraid I would be murdered,” Isaac replied. “I thought someone would kill me to get her from me.”

¹⁰ “How could you treat us this way?” Abimelech exclaimed. “Someone might carelessly have raped her, and we would be doomed.” ¹¹ Then Abimelech made a public proclamation: “Anyone harming this man or his wife shall die.”

¹² That year Isaac’s crops were tremendous—100 times the grain he sowed. For Jehovah blessed him. ¹³ He was soon a man of great wealth and became richer and richer. ¹⁴ He had large flocks of sheep and goats, great herds of cattle, and many servants. And the Philistines became jealous of him. ¹⁵ So they filled up his wells with earth—all those dug by the servants of his father Abraham.

¹⁶ And King Abimelech asked Isaac to leave the country. “Go somewhere else,” he said, “for you have become too rich and powerful for us.”

²⁶ One day Isaac had visitors from Gerar. King Abimelech arrived with his advisor, Ahuzzath, and also Phicol, his army commander.

²⁷ “Why have you come?” Isaac asked them. “This is obviously no friendly visit, since you kicked me out in a most uncivil way.”

²⁸ “Well,” they said, “we can plainly see that Jehovah is blessing you. We’ve decided to ask for a treaty between us. ²⁹ Promise that you will not harm us, just as we have not harmed you, and in fact, have done only good to you and have sent you away in peace; we bless you in the name of the Lord.”

³⁰ So Isaac prepared a great feast for them, and they ate and drank in preparation for the treaty ceremonies. ³¹ In the morning, as soon as they were up, they each took solemn oaths to seal a nonaggression pact. Then Isaac sent them happily home again.