Genesis 26
Big idea: The only chapter that belongs to Isaac alone, and it is a study in inherited promise. Famine comes, as it did to his father, and God tells him explicitly not to go to Egypt — stay here, and I will be with you — repeating to the son the promise sworn to the father. Isaac stays. Then he repeats his father's failure word for word, calling his wife his sister, and is caught by a king looking out of a window. He prospers so spectacularly that the Philistines envy him and stop up his wells, and his response defines him: he digs them again, and when they quarrel he moves on, and digs again, and moves on, until there is finally room. The chapter ends with the same king coming to make a treaty, because Yahweh is plainly with him.
Chapter 26 ends with Isaac settled and Esau marrying two Hittite women who grieve his parents. Chapter 27 opens with Isaac old and blind, ready to bless that same son before he dies.
26:1–6 — Don't go down to Egypt
A famine comes, distinct from the one in Abraham's day, and Isaac goes to Abimelech in Gerar. Yahweh appears with a direct instruction — don't go down into Egypt; live in the land I tell you — and repeats the whole promise to him: I will be with you, bless you, give all these lands to your offspring, multiply them as the stars, and in your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Isaac stays in Gerar.
1 There was a famine in the land, in addition to the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar. 2 Yahweh appeared to him, and said, “Don’t go down into Egypt. Live in the land I will tell you about. 3 Live in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For I will give to you, and to your offspring, all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. 4 I 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, 5 because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” 6 Isaac lived in Gerar.
26:7–11 — She is my sister — again
Asked about his wife, Isaac says she is my sister, afraid the men will kill him for Rebekah. Time passes, and Abimelech looks out of a window and sees Isaac caressing her. He confronts him: she is obviously your wife — why did you say that? One of the people might easily have lain with her and brought guilt on us. Then he issues a public order: whoever touches this man or his wife dies.
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 Rebekah, because she is beautiful to look at.” 8 When 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. 9 Abimelech 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.’” 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 on us!” 11 Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death.”
26:12–25 — Digging the wells again
Isaac sows and reaps a hundredfold in a famine year, and grows great until the Philistines envy him and Abimelech asks him to leave. He moves to the valley of Gerar and reopens the wells his father dug, which the Philistines had stopped up, restoring their old names. Twice his herdsmen find water and twice the locals claim it, so he names the wells Contention and Enmity and moves on; the third he names Room — for now Yahweh has made room for us. At Beersheba God appears again, and Isaac builds an altar.
12 Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh 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 Philistines envied him. 15 Now 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. 16 Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.” 17 Isaac departed from there, encamped in the valley of Gerar, and lived there. 18 Isaac dug again the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham. He called their names after the names by which his father had called them. 19 Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of flowing water. 20 The herdsmen of Gerar argued with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him. 21 They dug another well, and they argued over that, also. So he called its name Sitnah. 22 He left that place, and dug another well. They didn’t argue over that one. So he called it Rehoboth. He said, “For now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.” 23 He went up from there to Beersheba. 24 Yahweh 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.” 25 He built an altar there, and called on Yahweh’s name, and pitched his tent there. There Isaac’s servants dug a well.
26:26–35 — A treaty, a well, and two Hittite wives
Abimelech comes to Beersheba with his adviser and his army commander. Isaac asks why they have come, since they hate him and sent him away — and their answer is the chapter's summary: we saw plainly that Yahweh was with you. They swear a mutual oath of peace over a feast. That same day Isaac's servants report water in the new well, and he names it Shibah, which is why the city is called Beersheba. The chapter ends with Esau, at forty, marrying two Hittite women who grieve his parents.
26 Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his friend, and Phicol the captain of his army. 27 Isaac 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 Yahweh was with you. We said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, even between us and you, and let’s 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 peace.’ You are now the blessed of Yahweh.” 30 He made them a feast, and they ate and drank. 31 They rose up some time in the morning, and swore an oath to one another. Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. 32 The same day, Isaac’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 “Beersheba” to this day. 34 When Esau was forty years old, he took as wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35 They grieved Isaac’s and Rebekah’s spirits.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).