1Now there was a famine in the land, apart from the first famine that had been in the days of Abraham; and Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, to Gerar.
2And Yahweh appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I tell you.
3Sojourn 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 lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father.
4And I will multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens, and I will give to your seed all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
5because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”
6So Isaac dwelt in Gerar.
7And the men of the place asked about his wife, and he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say, “My wife” — thinking, “lest the men of the place kill me over Rebekah, because she is beautiful in appearance.”
8And it happened, when his days there had grown long, that Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out through the window and saw — and behold, Isaac was caressing Rebekah his wife.
9And Abimelech called for Isaac and said, “Surely, behold, she is your wife! How could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’”
10And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might soon have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”
11And Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
12And Isaac sowed in that land, and in that year he reaped a hundredfold; and Yahweh blessed him.
13And the man became great, and he went on growing greater and greater until he became very great.
14And he had flocks of sheep and herds of cattle and a large household of servants, and the Philistines envied him.
15Now all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up and filled with dirt.
16And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you have become much mightier than we.”
17So Isaac went from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and dwelt there.
18And Isaac dug again the wells of water that they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham’s death; and he called them by the names that his father had called them.
19And Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of living water.
20And the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s shepherds, saying, “The water is ours!” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they had contended with him.
21And they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one too, so he called its name Sitnah.
22And he moved on from there and dug another well, and over it they did not quarrel; so he called its name Rehoboth, and he said, “For now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”
23And from there he went up to Beersheba.
24And Yahweh appeared to him that night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; and I will bless you and multiply your seed for the sake of Abraham my servant.”
25And he built there an altar and called on the name of Yahweh, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
26And Abimelech went to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his friend and Phicol the commander of his army.
27And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, seeing that you hated me and sent me away from you?”
28And they said, “We have plainly seen that Yahweh has been with you, so we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us — between us and you — and let us cut a covenant with you,
29that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done only good to you and sent you away in peace. You are now blessed of Yahweh.’”
30And he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
31They rose early in the morning and swore an oath, each man to his brother. Then Isaac sent them off, and they went from him in peace.
32Now it happened on that same day that Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug, and they said to him, “We have found water.”
33So he called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
34When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.
35And they became a bitterness of spirit to Isaac and to Rebekah.
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