1 There was a famine in the land, apart from the earlier famine that had come in the days of Abraham, and Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, at Gerar.
2 The LORD appeared to him and said, "Do not go down to Egypt. Settle in the land that I will name to you.
3 Live as a sojourner in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and to your seed I will give all these lands, and I will carry out the oath I swore to your father Abraham.
4 I will make your seed as many as the stars of the heavens, and I will give your seed all these lands; and through your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed,
5 because Abraham listened to my voice and kept what I required of him: my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."
6 So Isaac stayed on in Gerar.
7 The men of the place asked about his wife, and he said, "She is my sister." He was afraid to say "my wife," for he thought, "The men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah," since she was lovely to look at.
8 After he had been there many days, Abimelech king of the Philistines happened to look down through the window, and there he saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.
9 Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, "So she is your wife after all! Why did you say, 'She is my sister'?" Isaac answered him, "Because I thought I might die on her account."
10 Abimelech said, "What have you done to us? One of the people could easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us."
11 Then Abimelech gave orders to all the people: "Anyone who touches this man or his wife will certainly be put to death."
12 Isaac sowed seed in that land, and that same year he gathered a hundred times as much, for the LORD blessed him.
13 The man grew great; he went on growing until he was exceedingly great.
14 He owned flocks and herds and a large household of servants, and the Philistines grew jealous of him.
15 So the Philistines stopped up all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham, filling them with earth.
16 Then Abimelech said to Isaac, "Leave us, for you have grown far too strong for us."
17 Isaac left that place, camped in the Valley of Gerar, and settled there.
18 Isaac opened up once more the wells of water that had been dug in his father Abraham's days, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he called them by the same names his father had called them.
19 Isaac's servants dug in the valley and came upon a well of fresh running water there.
20 But the herdsmen of Gerar argued with Isaac's herdsmen and said, "The water belongs to us." So he named the well Esek, because they had disputed with him.
21 They dug another well, and there was a quarrel over that one too, so he named it Sitnah.
22 He moved on from there and dug yet another well, and over this one there was no quarrel. He named it Rehoboth, saying, "Now at last the LORD has given us room, and we will be fruitful in the land."
23 From there he went up to Beersheba.
24 That night the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am the God of your father Abraham. Have no fear, for I am with you; I will bless you and multiply your seed for my servant Abraham's sake."
25 Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD. He pitched his tent there, and his servants dug a well there.
26 Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar, together with Ahuzzath his friend and Phicol the commander of his army.
27 Isaac asked them, "Why have you come to me? You hate me, and you sent me away from you."
28 They answered, "We have clearly seen that the LORD is with you, so we said, 'Let there be a sworn agreement between us, between us and you; let us make a covenant with you:
29 you will do us no harm, just as we did not touch you, and just as we did you only good and sent you off in peace. You are now blessed by the LORD.'"
30 Isaac prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank.
31 They got up early the next morning and swore to each other. Then Isaac sent them off, and they left him in peace.
32 On that very day Isaac's servants came and brought him news of the well they had been digging. "We have found water," they told him.
33 He named it Shibah, and that is why the city is called Beersheba to this day.
34 At forty years of age Esau married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.
35 They were a grief of spirit to Isaac and Rebekah.