26 And there was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. Therefore, Isaac went to Abimelech, King of the Philistines, to Gerar.

² For the LORD appeared to him, and said, “Do not go down into Egypt. Remain in the land which I shall show you.

³ “Dwell 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.

⁴ “Also, I will cause 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;

⁵ because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My Ordinance, My Commandments, My Statutes, and My Laws.”

⁶ So Isaac dwelt in Gerar.

⁷ 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,” said he, “the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah” (for she was beautiful to the eye).

⁸ So, after he had been there a long time, Abimelech, King of the Philistines, looked out a window. And lo, he saw Isaac, flirting with Rebekah, his wife.

⁹ Then Abimelech called Isaac, and said, “Lo, she is certainly your wife. And why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” To which Isaac answered, “Because I thought ‘It may be that I shall die for her.’”

¹⁰ Then Abimelech said, “Why have you done this to us? One of the people had almost lain with your wife. So would you have brought sin upon us.”

¹¹ Then Abimelech charged all his people, saying, “He who touches this man, or his wife, shall die the death.”

¹² Afterward, Isaac sowed in that land and found in the same year a hundredfold by estimation. And so, the LORD blessed him.

¹³ And the man grew mightily and continued to increase, until he was exceedingly great.

¹⁴ For he had flocks of sheep, and herds of cattle, and a mighty household. Therefore, the Philistines envied him,

¹⁵ insomuch that the Philistines stopped and filled with earth all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in his father Abraham’s time.

¹⁶ Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Get away from us. For you are a great deal mightier than we.”

¹⁷ Therefore, Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar and dwelt there.

¹⁸ And Isaac, returning, dug 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 gave them the same names that his father had given them.

¹⁹ Isaac’s servants then dug in the valley and found there a well of living water.

²⁰ But the herdsmen of Gerar strove with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” Therefore, he called the name of the well “Esek”, because they strove with him.

²¹ Afterward, they dug another well, and strove for that also; and he called the name of it “Sitnah”.

²² Then he left there and dug another well for which they did not strive. Therefore, he called the name of it “Rehoboth”, and said, “Because the LORD has now made us room, we shall increase upon the Earth.”

²³ So he went up from there to Beersheba.

²⁴ And the LORD appeared to him the same night, and said, “I am the God of Abraham, your father. Do not fear. I am with you and will bless you and multiply your seed for My servant, Abraham’s, sake.”

²⁵ Then he built an altar there and called upon the Name of the LORD and spread his tent there (where also Isaac’s servants had dug a well).

²⁶ Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath (one of his friends), and Phichol, the captain of his army.

²⁷ To whom Isaac said, “Why do you come to me, seeing you hate me and have put me away from you?”

²⁸ Who answered, “We saw that the LORD was certainly with you; and we thought, ‘Let there now be an oath between us — between us and you — and let us make a covenant with you,

²⁹ ‘that you shall do us no harm (as we have not touched you and as we have done nothing but good to you and sent you away in peace).’ You, now, are the blessed of the LORD.”

³⁰ Then he made them a feast; and they ate and drank.

³¹ And they rose up early in the morning and swore, one to another. Then Isaac let them go. And they departed from him in peace.

³² And that same day, Isaac’s servants came and told him of a well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”

³³ So he called it “Shebah”. Therefore, the name of the city is called “Beersheba” to this day.

³⁴ Now when Esau was forty years old, he took Judith for his wife (the daughter of Beeri, a Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon, a Hittite).

³⁵ And they were a grief of mind to Isaac and to Rebekah.