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Yahweh Establishes the Oath with Isaac

¹ Now there was ^(C1)a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to ^(C2)Abimelech king of the Philistines.² And Yahweh ^(C1)appeared to him and said, "Do not go down to Egypt; ^(C2)dwell in the land of which I shall tell you.³ "Sojourn in this land, and ^(C1)I will be with you and ^(C2)bless you, for ^(C3)to you and to your seed I will give all these lands, and I will establish ^(C4)the oath which I swore to your father Abraham.⁴ "^(C1)And I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and I will give your seed all these lands; and ^(C2)by your seed all the nations of the earth ^(F1)shall be blessed;⁵ because Abraham ^(C1)listened to My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws."

Isaac and Abimelech

⁶ So Isaac ^(F1)lived in Gerar.⁷ Then the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, "^(C1)She is my sister," for he was ^(C2)afraid to say, "my wife," thinking, "lest the men of the place kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is ^(C3)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 ^(F1)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 (C1)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 ^(C1)touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death."

¹² And Isaac sowed in that land and ^(F1)reaped in the same year one hundredfold. And ^(C1)Yahweh blessed him,¹³ and the man ^(C1)became great and continued to grow greater until he became very great;¹⁴ and ^(C1)he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and many servants, so that the Philistines were jealous of him.¹⁵ Now ^(C1)all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up ^(F1)by filling them with earth.¹⁶ Then Abimelech said to Isaac, "Go away from us, for you are ^(F1)(C1)too mighty for us."¹⁷ And Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar and ^(F1)settled there.

The Quarrel over the Wells

¹⁸ Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which ^(F1)had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, but the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he ^(F2)called them by the same names by which his father had called them.¹⁹ Then Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well of ^(F1)flowing water.²⁰ And the herdsmen of Gerar ^(C1)contended with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, "The water is ours!" So he named the well ^(F1)Esek, because they quarreled with him.²¹ Then they dug another well, and they contended over it also, so he called it ^(F1)Sitnah.²² Then he moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not contend over it; so he named it ^(F1)Rehoboth, and he said, "^(F2)(C1)At last Yahweh has made ^(F3)room for us, and we will be ^(C2)fruitful in the land."

²³ And he went up from there to ^(C1)Beersheba.²⁴ And Yahweh ^(C1)appeared to him that night and said,

"^(C2)I am the God of your father Abraham;
^(C3)Do not fear, for I am with you.
I ^(C4)will bless you and multiply your seed,
For the sake of My servant Abraham."

Isaac's Oath with Abimelech

²⁶ Now ^(C1)Abimelech came to him from Gerar ^(F1)with his adviser Ahuzzath and Phicol the commander of his army.²⁷ And Isaac said to them, "^(C1)Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?"²⁸ Then they said, "We see plainly ^(C1)that Yahweh has been with you; so we said, 'Let there now be an oath between us—between ^(F1)you and us—and let us cut a covenant with you,²⁹ that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you ^(F1)and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the ^(C1)blessed of Yahweh.'"³⁰ Then ^(C1)he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.³¹ In the morning they arose early, and ^(C1)each swore to ^(F1)the other; then Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.³² Now it happened on that day, that Isaac's servants came in and told him about the well which they had dug and said to him, "We have found water."³³ So he called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is ^(C1)Beersheba to this day.

³⁴ And Esau was forty years old, ^(C1)and he took as a wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite;³⁵ and ^(C1)they ^(F1)brought bitterness to Isaac and Rebekah.