Read the Bible

¹ There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Avraham. Yitzchak went to Avimelekh king of the Pelishtim, to Gerar. ² The LORD appeared to him, and said, "Don't go down into Mitzrayim. Dwell in the land which I will tell you of. ³ Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you, and will 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 Avraham your father. ⁴ I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and will give to your seed all these lands. In your seed will all the nations of the eretz be blessed, ⁵ because Avraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my mitzvot, my statutes, and my laws."

⁶ Yitzchak lived in Gerar. ⁷ The men of the place asked him about his wife. He said, "She is my sister," for he was afraid to say, "My wife," lest, he thought, the men of the place might kill me for Rivka, because she was beautiful to look on. ⁸ It happened, when he had been there a long time, that Avimelekh king of the Pelishtim looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Yitzchak was caressing Rivka, his wife. ⁹ Avimelekh called Yitzchak, and said, "Behold, surely she is your wife. Why did you say, 'She is my sister?'" Yitzchak said to him, "Because I said, 'Lest I die because of her.'" ¹⁰ Avimelekh 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!" ¹¹ Avimelekh charged all the people, saying, "He who touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death."

¹² Yitzchak sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. The LORD blessed him. ¹³ The man grew great, and grew more and more until he became very great. ¹⁴ He had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great household. The Pelishtim envied him. ¹⁵ Now all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Avraham his father, the Pelishtim had stopped, and filled with eretz. ¹⁶ Avimelekh said to Yitzchak, "Go from us, for you are much mightier than we." ¹⁷ Yitzchak departed from there, encamped in the valley of Gerar, and lived there. ¹⁸ Yitzchak dug again the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Avraham his father. For the Pelishtim had stopped them after the death of Avraham. He called their names after the names by which his father had called them. ¹⁹ Yitzchak's servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of springing water. ²⁰ The herdsmen of Gerar argued with Yitzchak's herdsmen, saying, "The water is ours." He called the name of the well `Esek, because they contended with him. ²¹ They dug another well, and they argued over that, also. He called the name of it Sitnah. ²² He left that place, and dug another well. They didn't argue over that one. He called it Rechovot. He said, "For now the LORD has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land." ²³ He went up from there to Be'er-Sheva. ²⁴ The LORD appeared to him the same night, and said, "I am the God of Avraham your father. Don't be afraid, for I am with you, and will bless you, and multiply your seed for my servant Avraham's sake." ²⁵ He built an altar there, and called on the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there. There Yitzchak's servants dug a well.

²⁶ Then Avimelekh went to him from Gerar, and Achuzzat his friend, and Pikhol the captain of his host. ²⁷ Yitzchak said to them, "Why have you come to me, since you hate me, and have sent me away from you?" ²⁸ They said, "We saw plainly that the LORD 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, ²⁹ that 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 shalom.' You are now the blessed of the LORD." ³⁰ He made them a feast, and they ate and drink. ³¹ They rose up some time in the morning, and swore one to another. Yitzchak sent them away, and they departed from him in shalom. ³² It happened the same day, that Yitzchak's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had dug, and said to him, "We have found water." ³³ He called it Shibah. Therefore the name of the city is Be'er-Sheva to this day.

³⁴ When Esav was forty years old, he took as wife Yehudit, the daughter of Be'eri the Hittite, and Basemat, the daughter of Elon the Hittite. ³⁵ They grieved Yitzchak and Rivka's spirits.