Yahweh Establishes the Oath with Isaac

1Now there was a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines. 2And Yahweh appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. 3Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your seed I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. 4And I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and I will give your seed all these lands; and by your seed all the nations of the earth [†]shall be blessed; 5because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

Isaac and Abimelech

6So Isaac [†]lived in Gerar. 7Then 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 on account of Rebekah, for she is beautiful in appearance.” 8Now it happened, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through a window and saw, and behold, Isaac was [†]caressing his wife Rebekah. 9Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, surely she is your wife! How then did 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 easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” 11So Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

12And Isaac sowed in that land and [†]reaped in the same year one hundredfold. And Yahweh blessed him, 13and the man became great and continued to grow greater until he became very great; 14and he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and many servants, so that the Philistines were jealous of him. 15Now all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up [†]by filling them with earth. 16Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are [†]too mighty for us.” 17And Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar and [†]settled there.

The Quarrel over the Wells

18Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which [†]had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, but the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he [†]called them by the same names by which his father had called them. 19Then Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of [†]flowing water. 20And the herdsmen of Gerar contended with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, “The water is ours!” So he named the well [†]Esek, because they quarreled with him. 21Then they dug another well, and they contended over it also, so he called it [†]Sitnah. 22Then he moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not contend over it; so he named it [†]Rehoboth, and he said, “[†]At last Yahweh has made [†]room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

23And he went up from there to Beersheba. 24And Yahweh appeared to him that night and said,

“I am the God of your father Abraham;

Do not fear, for I am with you.

I will bless you and multiply your seed,

For the sake of My servant Abraham.”

25So he built an altar there and called upon the name of Yahweh and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug out a well.

Isaac’s Oath with Abimelech

26Now Abimelech came to him from Gerar [†]with his adviser Ahuzzath and Phicol the commander of his army. 27And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?” 28Then they said, “We see plainly that Yahweh has been with you; so we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us—between [†]you and us—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 to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of Yahweh.’” 30Then he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31In the morning they arose early, and each swore to [†]the other; then Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. 32Now it happened on that day, that Isaac’s servants came in and told him about the well which they had dug and said to him, “We have found water.” 33So he called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

34And Esau was forty years old, and he took as a wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite; 35and they [†]brought bitterness to Isaac and Rebekah.