Genesis 26:10-35 ▼

10 And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people had almost lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”

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

12 And Isaac sowed in that land, and he reaped in that year a hundred fold, and YHWH blessed him.

13 And the man became great, and he went on, going on and becoming greater, until that he became very great.

14 And he had a possession of flock, and a possession of cattle, and much service; and the Philistines envied him.

15 And all the wells that the servants of his father had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped them up and filled them with earth.

16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go from us, for you have become much mightier than we.”

17 And Isaac departed from there and camped in the Valley of Gerar, and he dwelt there.

18 And Isaac returned dug the wells of water that they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he called to them names, according to the names that his father had called them.

19 And Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and they found there a well of living water.

20 And the shepherds of Gerar strove with the shepherds of Isaac, saying, “The water is ours!” And he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him.

21 And they dug another well, and they strove also over it. And he called its name Sitnah.

22 And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not strive over it. And he called its name Rehoboth and said, “For now YHWH has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

23 And he went up from there to Beersheba.

24 And YHWH appeared to him in that night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father; do not fear, for I am with you, and I will bless you and I will multiply your seed for the sake of Abraham My servant.”

25 And he built there an altar and called on the name of YHWH. And he pitched there his tent, and there the servants of Isaac dug a well.

26 And Abimelech came to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath his companion, and Phichol the commander of his army.

27 And Isaac said to them, “Why have you? come to me? And you?—you? hated me and you? sent me away from you?.”

28 And they said, “We have surely seen that YHWH has been with you, and we said, let there be, please, an oath between us—between us and between you—and let us cut a covenant with you,

29 that you will do to us no evil, since we have not touched you, and since we have done to you only good and sent you away in peace. You are now blessed of YHWH!”

30 And he made for them a feast, and they ate and they drank.

31 And they arose early in the morning, and they swore, a man to his brother; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

32 And it came to pass on that day that the servants of Isaac came and told to him about the circumstances of the well that they had dug, and they said to him, “We have found water.”

33 And he called it Shibah; upon thus the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

34 And Esau was a son of forty years, and he took a wife, Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite,

35 and they were a bitterness of spirit to Isaac and to Rebekah.