Genesis 26:1-13 ▼

1 Now 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.

2 And Yahweh appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you.

3 Sojourn 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.

4 And 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;

5 because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

6 So Isaac lived in Gerar.

7 Then 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.”

8 Now 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.

9 Then 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.’”

10 And 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.”

11 So Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

12 And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year one hundredfold. And Yahweh blessed him,

13 and the man became great and continued to grow greater until he became very great;