1There was a famine in the land, just like the earlier famine that happened during Abraham's time. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech, king of the Philistines.
2Yahweh appeared to him and said, "Don't go down to Egypt. Stay in the land I tell you about.
3Live in this land, and I will be with you and bless you. I will give all these lands to you and your descendants, and I will keep the promise I made to your father Abraham.
4I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and give all these lands to your descendants. Through your descendants, all the nations on Earth will be blessed,
5because Abraham obeyed me and followed my instructions, my commands, my laws, and my rules."
6So Isaac lived in Gerar.
7When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, "She is my sister." He was afraid to say, "She is my wife," thinking, "The men here might kill me for Rebekah, because she is so beautiful."
8After Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech, the king of the Philistines, looked out of his window. He saw Isaac tenderly caressing Rebekah, his wife.
9Abimelech called Isaac and said, "She is clearly your wife! Why did you tell us she was your sister?" Isaac replied, "Because I thought I might be killed because of her."
10Abimelech said, "What have you done to us? One of the men could easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought great guilt upon us!"
11Abimelech then commanded all the people, saying, "Anyone who touches this man or his wife will be put to death."
12Isaac planted crops in that land, and that very year he harvested a hundred times more than he planted. Yahweh blessed him.
13The man became very wealthy and continued to grow wealthier until he was exceptionally rich.
14He owned many flocks, herds, and had a large household. The Philistines became jealous of him.
15The Philistines had stopped up all the wells that his father Abraham's servants had dug during Abraham's lifetime, filling them with earth.
16Abimelech said to Isaac, "Leave our land, for you have become much too powerful for us."
17So Isaac left that place, camped in the valley of Gerar, and lived there.
18Isaac again dug the water wells that had been dug during his father Abraham's time, but which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham's death. He gave them the same names his father had given them.
19Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found a well of fresh, flowing water there.
20The herdsmen of Gerar argued with Isaac's herdsmen, claiming, "The water is ours." So Isaac named the well Esek (which means 'contention') because they argued with him.
21They dug another well, and they argued over that one too. So he named it Sitnah (which means 'hostility').
22He moved from there and dug another well. They did not argue over that one. So he named it Rehoboth (which means 'broad places'), saying, "Now Yahweh has given us room to flourish, and we will be fruitful in this land."
23From there he went up to Beersheba.
24Yahweh appeared to him that same night and said, "I am the God of your father Abraham. Don't be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham."
25He built an altar there and called on the name of Yahweh. He pitched his tent there, and Isaac's servants dug a well.
26Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar, along with Ahuzzath, his friend, and Phicol, the commander of his army.
27Isaac asked them, "Why have you come to me, since you hate me and sent me away from you?"
28They said, “We clearly saw that Yahweh was with you. So we said, ‘Let’s make a solemn promise to each other, a covenant between us and you.’
29We ask that you do us no harm, just as we haven’t harmed you. We have only done good to you and sent you away in peace. You are now blessed by Yahweh.”
30Isaac prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank.
31They woke up early the next morning and made promises to each other. Isaac sent them away, and they left him in peace.
32That same day, Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug. They said to him, “We found water!”
33He named the well Shibah. That’s why the city is still called Beersheba today.
34When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite.
35These marriages brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.