Genesis 26 · WEB
Isaac and Abimelech
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There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar.
2Yahweh appeared to him, and said, "Don't go down into Egypt. Dwell in the land which I will tell you of.
3Live in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you, for I will give all these lands to you, and to your offspring, I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
4I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and will give all these lands to your offspring. In your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed,
5because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."
6Isaac lived in Gerar.
7The men of the place asked him about his wife. He said, "She is my sister," for he was afraid to say, "My wife," thinking, "lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to look at."
8When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was caressing Rebekah, his wife.
9Abimelech called Isaac, and said, "Behold, surely she is your wife. Why did you say, 'She is my sister'?" Isaac said to him, "Because I said, 'Lest I die because of her.'"
10Abimelech 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 on us!"
11Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, "He who touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death."
12Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he sowed. Yahweh blessed him.
13The man grew great, and grew more and more until he became very great.
14He had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great household. The Philistines envied him.
15Now all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped, and filled with earth.
16Abimelech said to Isaac, "Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we are."
17Isaac departed from there, and encamped in the valley of Gerar, and lived there.
18Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of Abraham his father. The Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham. He gave them the same names that his father had given them.
19Isaac's servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of spring water.
20The herdsmen of Gerar argued with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, "The water is ours." He called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him.
21They dug another well, and they argued over that also. He called its name Sitnah.
22He left there, and dug another well. They didn't argue over that one. He called it Rehoboth. He said, "For now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land."
23He went up from there to Beersheba.
24Yahweh appeared to him the same night, and said, "I am the God of Abraham your father. Don't be afraid, for I am with you, and will bless you, and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham's sake."
25He built an altar there, and called on the name of Yahweh, and pitched his tent there. Isaac's servants dug a well there.
26Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his friend, and Phicol the chief of his army.
27Isaac said to them, "Why have you come to me, since you hate me, and have sent me away from you?"
28They said, "We saw plainly that Yahweh was with you. We said, 'Let there now be an oath between us, even between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you,
29that you will do us no harm, as we have not touched you, and as we have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace.' You are now the blessed of Yahweh."
30He made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
31They rose up early in the morning, and swore one to another. Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
32On the same day, Isaac's servants came and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, "We have found water."
33He called it Shibah. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
34When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite as his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite as his wife.
35They grieved Isaac's and Rebekah's spirits.
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Summary
God directs Isaac to stay in Canaan during a famine rather than going to Egypt, renewing the Abrahamic promises to him. Isaac follows his father's pattern of calling his wife his sister, but Abimelech discovers the truth and rebukes him. Despite this, God blesses Isaac enormously — hundredfold crops, great wealth — until the Philistines expel him out of envy. Isaac patiently digs a series of wells, refusing to fight for any until he finds one with room enough. God appears to him at Beersheba, and Abimelech seeks a covenant, acknowledging that God is with Isaac.
Themes
- The transmission of covenant promises to the next generation
- Repeated failure (the sister deception) alongside genuine faith
- Patient trust in the face of opposition and envy
- Prosperity as testimony to others of God's blessing
- Worship as the consistent response to divine reassurance
Key verses
- Gen 26:22 — “He called it Rehoboth. He said, 'For now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.'”
- Gen 26:28 — “They said, 'We saw plainly that Yahweh was with you.'”
- Gen 26:3-4 — “Live in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you, for I will give all these lands to you, and to your offspring... In your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed.”
Context & background
Isaac is often seen as the "quiet" patriarch — less dramatic than Abraham and Jacob — but this chapter shows his genuine faith through patient persistence. The hundredfold harvest in a famine year is miraculous divine blessing. The three wells — Esek (contention), Sitnah (accusation), and Rehoboth (room/spacious) — tell a story of giving up the right to fight and trusting God to provide space. This is a model of peacemaking and trust. The chapter ends ominously with Esau's marriages to Hittite women, "a grief of mind" to Isaac and Rebekah, foreshadowing the conflict over the blessing in chapter 27.
Cross-references
- Galatians 3:16-18 — the covenant promises renewed to Isaac run to Christ
- Matthew 5:9 — blessed are the peacemakers — Isaac's nonresistance at the wells models this
- Proverbs 16:7 — when a man's ways please Yahweh, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him
- Psalm 37:11 — the meek shall inherit the earth, echoed in Isaac receiving Rehoboth
- Romans 12:18 — as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone