1 There was another famine in the land besides the earlier one during the time of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar.

2 Jehovah appeared to Isaac and said: »Isaac, stay away from Egypt! I will show you where I want you to go.

3 »You will live there as a foreigner. I will be with you and bless you. I will keep my promise to your father Abraham by giving this land to you and your descendants.

4 »I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky. I will give your descendants all of this land. They will be a blessing to every nation on earth.

5 »This is because Abraham did everything I told him to do.«

6 Isaac moved to Gerar.

7 His wife Rebekah was very beautiful. He was afraid that someone might kill him to get her. So he told everyone that Rebekah was his sister.

8 After Isaac had been there a long time, King Abimelech looked out a window and saw Isaac intimately laughing and caressing Rebekah.

9 Abimelech called him in and said: »Rebekah must be your wife! Why did you say she is your sister?« »I thought someone would kill me,« Isaac answered.

10 »Do you know what you have done?« Abimelech shouted. »If someone had slept with her, you would have made our whole nation guilty!«

11 So Abimelech charged all the people, saying: »He who touches this man or his wife will certainly be put to death.«

12 Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. Jehovah blessed him.

13 He became rich, and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy.

14 He possessed flocks and herds and a great household. The Philistines envied him.

15 The Philistines stopped up all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father. They filled them with dirt.

16 Abimelech said to Isaac: »Go away from us. You are too powerful for us.«

17 Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar where he settled.

18 Then Isaac dug the water wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham. The Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He gave them the same names his father had given them.

19 Isaac’s servants dug in the valley waditorrent-valley and found a well of running water.

20 The herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac. They said: »The water is ours!« So he named the well Esek, because they argued with him.

21 They dug another well. And they quarreled over that one too. So Isaac named it Sitnah Accusation.

22 He moved on from there and dug another well. They did not quarrel over this one. So he named it Rehoboth Roomy. He said: »Now Jehovah has made room for us. We will prosper in this land.«

23 He went from there to Beer-sheba.

24 That night Jehovah appeared to Isaac. Jehovah said: »I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, because I am with you. I will bless you and increase the number of your descendants for my servant Abraham’s sake.«

25 Isaac built an altar there and worshiped Jehovah. Then he set up his camp. His servants dug another well.

26 Abimelech came from Gerar with Ahuzzath, his friend companion, and Phicol, the commander of his army, to see Isaac.

27 Isaac asked: »Why have you now come to see me? You were so unfriendly to me before and made me leave your country.«

28 They answered: »Now we know that Jehovah is with you. We think that there should be a solemn agreement between us. We want you to promise

29 »that you will not harm us. We did not harm you. We were kind to you and let you go peacefully. Now it is clear that Jehovah has blessed you.«

30 Isaac prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank.

31 Early the next morning each man made his promise and sealed it with a vow. Isaac said good-bye to them. They parted as friends.

32 That day Isaac’s servants told him about the well they dug. They said: »We have found water.«

33 Isaac named the well Shibah. The town is still called Beer-sheba.

34 When Esau was forty he married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

35 These two women brought a lot of grief to his parents, Isaac and Rebekah.