Genesis 26

Thomson^{(i) 1} Now there had been a famine in the land besides the former famine which happened in the time of Abraham. And Isaak went to Abimelech the king of the Philistines, to Gerar. ² For the Lord had appeared to him and said, Go not down into Egypt, but dwell in the land which I will tell thee. ³ Sojourn in this land and I will be with thee and bless thee: for to thee and to thy seed I will give all this land. And I will establish my oath which I sware to thy father Abraham ⁴ and multiply thy seed like the stars of heaven. And to thy seed I will give all this land; and by thy seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; ⁵ because Abraham thy father hearkened to my voice and kept my ordinances and my commandments and my rules of rectitude and my rites. ⁶ And while Isaak dwelt at Gerar ⁷ the men of the place made inquiry respecting his wife Rebekka; and he said, She is my sister, for he was afraid to say, She is my wife, lest peradventure the men of the place should kill him for Sebeka"s sake, for she was of a very beautiful countenance. ⁸ However he continued there a long time; for Abimelech king of the Gerarites happening to look through a window saw Isaak dallying with Rebekka his wife. ⁹ Whereupon Abimelech called Isaak and said to him certainly she is thy wife. Why then didst thou say, She is my sister? And Isaak said to him, Because I thought I might perhaps die for her. ¹⁰ And Abimelech said to him, Why hast thou dealt thus with us? In a little while some person of my family might have lain with thy wife, and thou wouldst have brought guilt upon us through ignorance. ¹¹ Then Abimelech gave a strict charge to all his people saying, Whoever toucheth this man or his wife shall be liable to death. ¹² And Isaak sowed in that land and got that year an hundred fold of barley. And the Lord blessed him ¹³ and the man was exalted and prospered more and more till he became exceeding great. ¹⁴ And he had flocks and herds of cattle and many fields under cultivation. And the Philistines envied him; ¹⁵ and all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the time of his father, the Philistines stopped up and filled them with earth. ¹⁶ And Abimelech said to Isaak, Depart from us, for thou art become far mightier than we. ¹⁷ Upon this Isaak departed thence and took up his abode in the valley of Gerar and dwelt there. ¹⁸ And Isaak digged again the wells of water, which the servants of his father Abraham had digged and which the Philistines had stopped up, after the death of his father Abraham. And he called them by the same names, by which his father had named them. ¹⁹ Isaak's servants also digged in the valley of Gerar, and found there a well of spring water. ²⁰ But the shepherds of the Gerarites contended with Isaak's shepherds, saying the water was theirs. So he called the name of that well Injustice: because they did him injustice. ²¹ Then he removed thence and digged another well; and about this also they contended; so he called its name Enmity. ²² And he removed thence and digged another well; and about this they did not contend; So he called the name of it, Room-enough; saying, For now the Lord hath made room for us, though he hath increased us in the land. ²³ And he went up thence to Well of the Oath; ²⁴ and the Lord appeared to him that night and said, I am the God of thy father Abraham; Fear not; for I am with thee; and I will bless thee and multiply thy seed for the sake of thy father Abraham. ²⁵ So he built there an altar and invoked the name of the Lord and fixed his tent there. And while the servants of Isaak were digging a well there in the valley of Gerar, ²⁶ Abimelech came to him from Gerar, accompanied with Ochozath his chamberlain and Phichol the general of his army. ²⁷ And Isaak said to them, Why are you come to me, seeing you have hated me and sent me away from you? ²⁸ And they said, We saw plainly that the Lord is with thee; therefore we said, Let there be an oath between us and thee; and we will make a covenant with thee ²⁹ that thou wilt not do us an injury, as we have not hated thee but used thee well and sent thee away in peace, and thou art now blessed of the Lord. ³⁰ Then he made an entertainment for them and they ate and drank. ³¹ And early next morning they arose and swore one to the other. And Isaak dismissed them and they departed from him in peace. ³² And it happened that on that very day the servants of Isaak came and told him of the well which they had been digging and said, We have found water. ³³ So he called it, Oath. For this cause they call the name of the city, Well of Oath, even at this day. ³⁴ Now when Esau was forty years old he took to wife Judith, the daughter of Beoch the Chettite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Chettite, and they were at strife with Isaak and Rebekka.