THE WORD OF ELOHIM
GENESIS
Chapter 26
There was a famine in the land—aside from the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham—and Yischaq went to Abimelek, king of the Pelishtin’s, in Gerar. Yehovah appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Mitzramah; stay in the land which I point out to you. Reside in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; I will assign all these lands to you and to your heirs, fulfilling the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your heirs as numerous as the stars of heaven, and assign to your heirs all these lands, so that all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your heirs—inasmuch as Abraham obeyed Me and kept my charge: my commandments, my laws, and my teachings.”
So Yischaq stayed in Gerar. When the men of the place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say “my wife,” thinking, “The men of the place might kill me on account of Rivqah, for she is beautiful.” When some time had passed, Abimelek, king of the Pelishtin’s; looking out of the window, saw Yischaq fondling his wife Rivqah. Abimelek sent for Yischaq and said, “So she is our wife! Why then did you say: ‘She is my sister?’” Yischaq said to him, “Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.” Abimelek said, “What have you done to us! One of the people might have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” Abimelek then charged all the people, saying, “Anyone who molests this man or his wife shall be put to death.”
Yischaq sowed in that land and reaped a hundredfold the same year. Yehovah blessed him, and the man grew richer and richer until he was very wealthy: He acquired flocks and herds, and a large household, so that the Pelishtin’s envied him. And the Pelishtin’s stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham, filling them with earth. And Abimelek said to Yischaq, “Go away from us, for you have become far too big for us.”
So Yischaq departed from there and encamped in the wadi of Gerar, where he settled. Yischaq dug anew the wells which had been dug in the days of his father Abraham and which the Pelishtin’s had stopped up after Abraham’s death; and he gave them the same names that his father had given them; but when Yischaq’s servants, digging in the wadi, found there a well of spring water; the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Yischaq’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” He named that well Eseq, because they contended with him. And when they dug another well, they disputed over that one also; so he named it Sitnah. He moved from there and dug yet another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he called it Rechoboth; saying, “Now at last, Yehovah has granted us ample space to increase in the land.”
From there he went up to Beer shava. That night, Yehovah appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Fear not, for I am with you, and I will bless you and increase your offspring, for the sake of my servant Abraham.” So he built an altar there and invoked Yehovah by name. Yischaq pitched his tent there and his servants started digging a well. And Abimelek came to him from Gerar, with Achuzzath his councilor, and Pikol chief of his troops. Yischaq said to them, “Why have you come to me, seeing that you have been hostile to me and have driven me away from you?” And they said, “We now see plainly that Yehovah has been with you, and we thought: Let there be a sworn treaty between our two parties, between you and us. Let us make a pact with you that you will not do us harm, just as we have not molested you but have always dealt kindly with you and sent you away in peace. From now on, be you blessed of Yehovah!” Then he made for them a feast, and they ate and drank.
Early in the morning, they exchanged oaths. Yischaq then bade them farewell, and they departed from him in peace. That same day Yischaq’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water!” He named it Shibah; therefore, the name of the city is Beer shavah to this day.
When Esav was forty years old, he took to wife Yehudith, daughter of Beeri the Chitti, and Basmat daughter of Elon the Chitti; and they were a source of bitterness to Yischaq and Rivqah.