64 | Genesis 26:3
3 Stay in this land for a while, h and I will be with you and will bless you. i For to you and your de scen dants I will give all these lands j and will con firm the oath I swore to your fa ther Abraham. 4 I will make your de scen dants as nu mer ous as the stars in the sky k and will give them all these lands, and through your off spring a all na tions on earth will be blessed, b l 5 because Abraham obeyed me m and did ev ery thing I re quired of him, keep ing my com mands, my decrees and my instructions.” 6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said,“ She is my sis ter, n” because he was afraid to say,“ She is my wife.” He thought,“ The men of this place might kill me on ac count of Re bekah, be cause she is beau ti ful.”
8 When Isaac had been there a long time, Abim e lek king of the Phi lis tines looked down from a win dow and saw Isaac ca ress ing his wife Re bekah. 9 So Abimelek summoned Isaac and said,“ She is really your wife! Why did you say,‘ She is my sis ter’?” Isaac an swered him,“ Be cause I thought I might lose my life on ac count of her.” 10 Then Abim e lek said,“ What is this you have done to us? o One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” 11 So Abim e lek gave or ders to all the peo ple:“ Any one who harms p this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
12 Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hun dred fold, be cause the Lord blessed him. q 13 The man be came rich, and his wealth con tin ued to grow un til he became very wealthy. r 14 He had so many flocks and herds and ser vants s that the Phi lis tines envied him. t
15 So all the wells u that his fa ther’ s ser vants had dug in the time of his fa ther Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, v fill ing them with earth. 16 Then Abim e lek said to Isaac,“ Move away from us; you have be come too pow er ful for us. w” 17 So Isaac moved away from there and en camped in the Val ley of Ge rar, where he settled. 18 Isaac re opened the wells x that had been dug in the time of his fa ther Abra ham, which the Phi lis tines had stopped up af ter Abra ham died, and he gave them the same names his fa ther had given them.
19 Isaac’ s ser vants dug in the val ley and dis cov ered a well of fresh wa ter there. 20 But the herd ers of Ge rar quar reled with those of Isaac and said,“ The wa ter is ours!” y So he named the well Esek, c be cause they dis puted with him. 21 Then they dug an other well, but they quar reled over that one also; so he named it Sit nah. d 22 He moved on from there and dug an other well, and no one quar reled over it. He named it Re ho both, e say ing,“ Now the Lord has given us room and we will flour ish z in the land.”
23 From there he went up to Be er sheba. 24 That night the Lord ap peared to him and said,“ I am the God of your fa ther Abra ham. a Do not be afraid, b for I am with you; I will bless you and will in crease the num ber of your de scen dants c for the sake of my ser vant Abra ham.” d
25 Isaac built an al tar e there and called on the name of the Lord. There he pitched his tent, and there his ser vants dug a well.
26 Mean while, Abim e lek had come to him from Ge rar, with Ahuz zath his per sonal adviser and Phi col the com mander of his forces. f 27 Isaac asked them,“ Why have you come to me, since you were hos tile to me and sent me away? g”
28 They an swered,“ We saw clearly that the Lord was with you; h so we said,‘ There ought to be a sworn agree ment be tween us’— be tween us and you. Let us make a treaty with you 29 that you will do us no harm, just as we did not harm you but al ways treated you well and sent you away peace fully. And now you are blessed by the Lord.” i
26:3 h Ge 20:1; 28:15 i Ge 12:2; 22:16-18
j Ge 12:7; 13:15; 15:18
26:4 k Ge 15:5; 22:17; Ex 32:13 l Ge 12:3; 22:18; Gal 3:8
26:5 m Ge 22:16
26:7 n Ge 12:13; 20:2, 12; Pr 29:25
26:10 o Ge 20:9 26:11 p Ps 105:15
26:12 q ver 3; Job 42:12
26:13 r Pr 10:22
26:14 s Ge 24:36 t Ge 37:11
26:15 u Ge 21:30 v Ge 21:25
26:16 w Ex 1:9 26:18 x Ge 21:30 26:20 y Ge 21:25 26:22 z Ge 17:6; Ex 1:7
26:24 a Ge 24:12; Ex 3:6 b Ge 15:1 c ver 4 d Ge 17:7
26:25 e Ge 12:7, 8; 13:4, 18; Ps 116:17
26:26 f Ge 21:22 26:27 g ver 16 26:28 h Ge 21:22
26:29 i Ge 24:31; Ps 115:15 a 4 Or seed b 4 Or and all nations on earth will use the name of your offspring in blessings( see 48:20) c 20 Esek means dispute. d 21 Sitnah means opposition. e 22 Rehoboth means room.
26:3 – 5 God accompanies his instructions to Isaac with assurances that resonate with the promises he gave to Abraham. Through Isaac God will“ confirm the oath”( v. 3) that he swore to Abraham( 22:16 – 18). Since Isaac was present when God made that oath, he would easily recall the occasion. By associating this oath with Abraham’ s obedience and by underlining that Abraham kept God’ s commands, decrees, and instructions, God encourages Isaac to obey him. Obeying God takes many forms. 26:7 Famine forces Isaac to relocate to a new region( see v. 1). Like Abraham( 12:10 – 20; 20:1 – 18), Isaac pretends that his wife is his sister in order to safeguard his own life.
Isaac’ s behavior implies that the region was far from peaceful. It also reflects his lack of trust in God. 26:8 – 11 When Abimelek discovers Isaac’ s deception, he acts with integrity, fearful that unknowingly he and his people may become guilty of adultery. Abimelek’ s reaction contrasts sharply with what Isaac expected. This incident parallels Abraham’ s earlier ruse( 20:1 – 18; cf. 12:10 – 20). 26:12 the Lord blessed him. God’ s favor or blessing is associated with those who belong to the unique lineage Genesis traces. Like Abraham, Isaac prospers materially( v. 13). 26:14 – 16 Isaac’ s prosperity causes the Philistines to become envious and fearful of Isaac, so Isaac moves away. 26:17 – 23 Isaac’ s move brings him to a location where earlier Abraham dug wells. Since the Philistines subsequently stopped up these wells( presumably to discourage seminomadic herdsmen from settling there), Isaac reopens them( v. 18). Unfortunately, his actions provoke protests( vv. 20 – 21), which eventually cause him to move further away from Gerar( vv. 22 – 23). 26:26 – 31 When Isaac relocates to Beersheba, Abimelek comes to him seeking to make a treaty. This event recalls 21:22 – 32, which records that Abraham and the king of Gerar made a similar peace treaty in Beersheba.