Genesis 26

Chapter context

What is happening in Genesis 26?

creationfallcovenantpromise

Genesis 26 belongs to the middle movement of the book, especially the section often described as the family line through Isaac and Jacob. Genesis opens the whole Bible with creation, fall, flood, Babel, and the long patriarchal story that carries the reader from Eden to Egypt. Read this chapter with the wider themes of creation, fall, and covenant in view so the individual verses keep their proper weight.

¹ And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar. ² And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: ³ Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; ⁴ And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; ⁵ Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. ⁶ And Isaac dwelt in Gerar: ⁷ And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon. ⁸ And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife. ⁹ And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife: and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her. ¹⁰ And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us. ¹¹ And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. ¹² Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him. ¹³ And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great: ¹⁴ For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him. ¹⁵ For all the wells which his father’s servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth. ¹⁶ And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we. ¹⁷ And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. ¹⁸ And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them. ¹⁹ And Isaac’s servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water. ²⁰ And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac’s herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him. ²¹ And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah. ²² And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land. ²³ And he went up from thence to Beersheba. ²⁴ And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham’s sake. ²⁵ And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac’s servants digged a well. ²⁶ Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol the chief captain of his army. ²⁷ And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you? ²⁸ And they said, We saw certainly that the LORD was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee; ²⁹ That thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou art now the blessed of the LORD. ³⁰ And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink. ³¹ And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. ³² And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water. ³³ And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day. ³⁴ And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: ³⁵ Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.

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Glossary

Abimelech Person v. 1, 8-11, 16, 26: My father a king, or father of a king, a common name of the Philistine kings, as “Pharaoh” was of the Egyptian kings. (1. ) The Philistine king of Gerar in the time of Abraham ( Gen. 20:1-18 ).
Abraham Person v. 1, 3, 5, 15, 18, 24: Father of a multitude, son of Terah, named ( Gen. 11:27 ) before his older brothers Nahor and Haran, because he was the heir of the promises.
Gerar Place v. 1, 6, 20, 26: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Tel Haror.
Isaac Person v. 1, 6, 8-9, 12, 16-18, 27, 31, 35: Laughter. (1) Israel, or the kingdom of the ten tribes ( Amos 7:9 , 16). (2. ) The only son of Abraham by Sarah. He was the longest lived of the three patriarchs ( Gen. 21:1-3 ).
Egypt Place v. 2: The land of the Nile and the pyramids, the oldest kingdom of which we have any record, holds a place of great significance in Scripture. Modern identification: Ain Shams.
Rebekah Person v. 7-8, 35: A noose, the daughter of Bethuel, and the wife of Isaac ( Gen. 22:23 ; 24:67 ). The circumstances under which Abraham’s “steward” found her at the “city of Nahor,” in Padan-aram, are narrated in Gen. 24-27.
Valley of Gerar Place v. 17, 19: Biblical valley. Modern identification: Tel Haror.
Esek Place v. 20: Quarrel, a well which Isaac’s herdsmen dug in the valley of Gerar, and so called because the herdsmen of Gerar quarrelled with them for its possession ( Gen. 26:20 ). Modern identification: between Gerar and Beersheba.
Sitnah Place v. 21: Biblical well. Modern identification: Sutnet er Ruheibeh.
Rehoboth Place v. 22: Broad places. (1. ) A well in Gerar dug by Isaac ( Gen. 26:22 ), supposed to be in Wady er-Ruheibeh, about 20 miles south of Beersheba. (2. ) An ancient city on the Euphrates.
Beersheba Place v. 23, 33: Well of the oath, or well of seven, a well dug by Abraham, and so named because he and Abimelech here entered into a compact ( Gen. 21:31 ). On re-opening it, Isaac gave it the same name ( Gen. 26:31-33 ). Modern identification: Tel Beer Sheva.
City People v. 33: The earliest mention of city-building is that of Enoch, which was built by Cain ( Gen. 4:17 ). After the confusion of tongues, the descendants of Nimrod founded several cities (10:10-12).
Bashemath Person v. 34: Sweet-smelling. (1. ) The daughter of Ishmael, the last of Esau’s three wives ( Gen. 36:3 , 4, 13), from whose son Reuel four tribes of the Edomites sprung. She is also called Mahalath ( Gen. 28:9 ).
Beeri Person v. 34: Illustrious, or the well-man. (1. ) The father of Judith, one of the wives of Esau ( Gen. 26:34 ), the same as Adah ( Gen. 36:2 ). (2. ) The father of the prophet Hosea (1:1).
Judith Person v. 34: Jewess, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and one of Esau’s wives ( Gen. 26:34 ), elsewhere called Aholibamah (36:2-14).