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 The LORD appeared to him and said, |Do not go down to Egypt; stay 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 descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham.

4 |I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;

5 because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.|

6 So Isaac lived in Gerar.

7 When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, |She is my sister,| for he was afraid to say, |my wife,| [thinking], |the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is beautiful.|

8 It came about, 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, certainly she is your wife! How then did you say, 'She is my sister?| And Isaac said to him, |Because I said, 'I might die on account of her.'|

10 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 charged all the people, saying, |He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.|

12 Now Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. And the LORD blessed him,

13 and the man became rich, and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy;