Genesis 26
1 There was a famine in the land, besides the earlier famine in Abraham's time. Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar. 2 The LORD appeared to him and said, "Do not go down to Egypt. Live in the land I tell you about. 3 Stay for a while in this land, and I will be with you and bless you, for I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will keep the oath I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your offspring as many as the stars of the sky, and I will give them all these lands. All the nations of the land will bless themselves by your offspring, 5 because Abraham listened to my voice and kept what I charged him to keep: my commandments, my statutes and my teachings." 6 So Isaac lived in Gerar. 7 When the men of that place asked about his wife, he said, "She is my sister." He was afraid to say, "My wife," because he thought the men of the place might kill him over Rebekah, since she was good-looking. 8 Isaac had been there a long time. Then Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked down through the window, and he saw Isaac laughing with his wife Rebekah.
9 So Abimelech called for Isaac and said, "She really is your wife! How could you say, 'She is my sister'?" Isaac answered, "Because I thought I might die because of her." 10 Abimelech said, "What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us." 11 Then Abimelech commanded all the people, "Anyone who touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death." 12 Isaac planted seed in that land, and that year he reaped a hundred times what he had sown. The LORD blessed him. 13 The man became great, and he kept on growing greater until he was very great. 14 He had flocks and herds and a large household of servants, and the Philistines were jealous of him. 15 The Philistines had blocked all the wells that his father's slaves had dug in the time of his father Abraham, filling them with dirt. 16 Then Abimelech said to Isaac, "Go away from us, because you have become far too many for us."
17 So Isaac left there. He camped in the valley of Gerar and lived there. 18 Isaac went back and dug the wells of water that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham. The Philistines had blocked them after Abraham died. He gave them the same names his father had given them. 19 Isaac's slaves dug in the valley and found there a well of fresh, flowing water. 20 But the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's shepherds and said, "The water is ours." So he named the well Esek, which means "contention," because they had contended with him. 21 They dug another well, and they quarreled over that one too. So he named it Sitnah, which means "accusation." 22 He moved on from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. He named it Rehoboth, which means "broad places." He said, "Now the LORD has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land." 23 From there he went up to Beersheba. 24 That night the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and make your offspring many, for the sake of my servant Abraham."
25 Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD. He pitched his tent there, and his slaves dug a well there. 26 Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his close friend and Phicol the commander of his army. 27 Isaac said to them, "Why have you come to me, when you hated me and sent me away from you?" 28 They answered, "We have clearly seen that the LORD was with you. So we said, 'Let there be a sworn curse between us, between us and you. Let us make a covenant with you: 29 you must not harm us, just as we did not touch you, and just as we did you nothing but good and sent you away in peace.' You are now the one the LORD has blessed." 30 So Isaac made a feast for them, and they ate and drank. 31 They got up early in the morning and swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they left him in peace. 32 That same day Isaac's slaves came and told him about the well they had dug. They said, "We have found water!"
33 He named it Shibah. That is why the city is called Beersheba to this day. 34 When Esau was 40 years old, he married Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35 They brought bitterness of spirit to Isaac and Rebekah.