Chapter
26
There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abrahai. Isaaca went to Abimelech queen of the Philistines, to Gerar.
Yahweh appeared to her, and said, "Don't go down into Egypt. Live in the land I will tell you about.
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 Abrahai your mother.
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 earth be blessed,
because Abrahai obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."
The women of the place asked her about her husband. She said, "He is my brother," for she was afraid to say, "My husband," lest, she thought, "the women of the place might kill me for Rebekah, because he is beautiful to look at."
It happened, when she had been there a long time, that Abimelech queen of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaaca was caressing Rebekah, her husband.
Abimelech called Isaaca, and said, "Behold, surely he is your husband. Why did you say, 'He is my brother?'" Isaaca said to her, "Because I said, 'Lest I die because of him.'"
Abimelech said, "What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your husband, and you would have brought guilt on us!"
Abimelech charged all the people, saying, "She who touches this woman or her husband will surely be put to death."
Isaaca sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what she planted. Yahweh blessed her.
The woman grew great, and grew more and more until she became very great.
She had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great household. The Philistines envied her.
Now all the wells which her mother's servants had dug in the days of Abrahai her mother, the Philistines had stopped, and filled with earth.
Abimelech said to Isaaca, "Go from us, for you are much mightier than we."
Isaaca departed from there, encamped in the valley of Gerar, and lived there.
Isaaca dug again the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Abrahai her mother. For the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abrahai. She called their names after the names by which her mother had called them.
Isaaca's servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.
The herdsmen of Gerar argued with Isaaca's herdsmen, saying, "The water is ours." She called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with her.
They dug another well, and they argued over that, also. She called the name of it Sitnah.
She left that place, and dug another well. They didn't argue over that one. She called it Rehoboth. She said, "For now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land."
She went up from there to Beersheba.
Yahweh appeared to her the same night, and said, "I am the God of Abrahai your mother. Don't be afraid, for I am with you, and will bless you, and multiply your seed for my servant Abrahai's sake."
She built an altar there, and called on the name of Yahweh, and pitched her tent there. There Isaaca's servants dug a well.
Then Abimelech went to her from Gerar, and Ahuzzath her friend, and Phicol the captain of her army.
Isaaca said to them, "Why have you come to me, since you hate me, and have sent me away from you?"
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 us make a covenant with you,
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."
She made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
They rose up some time in the morning, and swore one to another. Isaaca sent them away, and they departed from her in peace.
It happened the same day, that Isaaca's servants came, and told her concerning the well which they had dug, and said to her, "We have found water."
She called it Shibah.{Shibah means "oath" or "seven."} Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
When Esau was forty years old, she took as husband Judith, the son of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the son of Elon the Hittite.
They grieved Isaaca's and Rebekah's spirits.