Genesis 26

¹And when a famine was risen in the land, after that sterility that had chanced in the days of Abraham, Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Palestines into Gerara.

²And our Lord appeared to him, and said: Go not down into Ægypt, but rest in the land which I shall tell thee.

³And sojourn in it, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee: for to thee and to thy seed I will give all these countries, accomplishing the oath which I sware to Abraham thy father.

⁴And I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven: and I will give to thy posterity all these countries: and in thy seed Shall be Blessed All The Nations of The Earth,

⁵for because Abraham obeyed my voice, & kept my precepts and commandments, and observed my ceremonies and laws.

⁶Therefore Isaac abode in Gerara.

⁷Who when he was asked by the men of that place concerning his wife, answered: She is my sister; for he was afraid to confess that she was married to him, thinking lest peradventure they would kill him because of her beauty.

⁸And when very many days were passed, & he abode there, Abimelech the king of the Palestines looking forth through a window saw him sporting with Rebecca his wife.

⁹And calling for him, he said: it is evident that she is thy wife: why didst thou feign her to be thy sister? He answered: I feared lest I should die for her.

¹⁰And Abimelech said: Why hast thou deceived us? Some man of the people might have lien with thy wife, and thou hadst brought upon us a great sin. And he commanded all the people, saying:

¹¹He that shall touch this man's wife, dying shall die.

¹²And Isaac sowed in that land, and he found that same year an hundred fold: and our Lord blessed him.

¹³And the man was made rich, and he went prospering and increasing, till he was made exceeding great:

¹⁴and he had also possessions of sheep and of herds, and a very great family. For this the Palestines envying him,

¹⁵stopped at that time all the wells, that the servants of his father Abraham had digged, filling them up with earth:

¹⁶in so much that Abimelech himself said to Isaac: Depart from us, because thou art become mightier than we a great deal.

¹⁷And departing, to come to the Torrent of Gerara, and to dwell there,

¹⁸again he digged other wells, which the servants of his father Abraham had digged, and which after his death the Philistines had stopped up of old: & he called them by the same names which his father before had called them.

¹⁹And they digged in the Torrent, and found living water:

²⁰but there also the pastors of Gerara made a brawl against the pastors of Isaac, saying: it is our water. For which cause he called the name of the well, by occasion of that which had happened, Calumny.

²¹And they digged also another; and for that they brawled likewise, and he called the name of it, Enmity.

²²Going forward from thence he digged another well, for which they contended not: therefore he called the name thereof, Latitude, saying: Now hath our Lord dilated us, and made us to increase upon the earth.

²³And he went up from that place unto Bersabee,

²⁴Where our Lord appeared to him that same night, saying: I am the God of Abraham thy father, do not fear, because I am with thee: I will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake.

²⁵Therefore he builded there an altar: and having called upon the name of our Lord, he pitched his tent: & commanded his servants that they should dig a well.

²⁶To the which place when there were come from Gerara Abimelech, and Ocozath his friend, & Phicol chief Captain of his soldiers,

²⁷Isaac spake to them: Why are ye come to me a man whom you hated, and have thrust out from you?

²⁸Who answered: We saw that the Lord is with thee, and therefore we said: Let there be an oath between us, and let us make a league,

²⁹that thou do us no harm, as we also have touched nothing of thine, neither have we done that which might hurt thee: but with peace have we dismissed thee increased with the blessing of the Lord.

³⁰Therefore he made them a feast, and after they had eaten and drunken,

³¹A rising in the morning, they sware one to another: and Isaac dismissed them peaceably into their place.

³²And behold the same day came the servants of Isaac telling him of a well, which they had digged, and saying: We have found water.

³³Whereupon he called it Abundance: and the name of the city was given Bersabee, even unto this present day.

³⁴But Esau being forty years old married wives, Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hethite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon of the same place:

³⁵Both which had offended the mind of Isaac and Rebecca.