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    Genesis · 35 verses

    Genesis 26

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    Isaac’s account of Rebekah lasts until Abimelech happens to look out of a window and catches him caressing his wife. It is a remarkably informal way for a royal investigation to conclude.

    A famine, a family resemblance, and an awkward windowvv. 1–16

    Another famine sends Isaac to Gerar, though the LORD tells him not to continue on to Egypt but to remain where he is. Isaac then calls Rebekah his sister because he fears being killed on account of her beauty; the arrangement ends when Abimelech sees the unmistakable evidence from his window. Isaac prospers spectacularly in the famine, harvesting a hundredfold in the very year he sows, until the Philistines envy him and Abimelech asks him to leave because he has become too powerful.

    The wells acquire namesvv. 17–25

    Isaac moves into the Valley of Gerar and reopens Abraham’s wells, preserving their old names while his servants dig new ones. The first new well is claimed by quarrelling herdsmen and named Esek; the second receives the still less promising name Sitnah. The third is left alone, and Isaac calls it Rehoboth because at last there is room for him. At Beersheba, the LORD appears again; Isaac builds an altar, pitches his tent, and his servants dig yet another well.

    A peace treaty, a well, and two troublesome marriagesvv. 26–35

    Abimelech returns from Gerar with Ahuzzath and Phicol, having apparently reconsidered the advantages of sending Isaac away. Isaac points out the earlier hostility; Abimelech answers that they have done only good and asks for an oath. The matter is settled over a feast, an early-morning oath, and Isaac’s peaceful farewell. On that same day, news arrives that another well has water, and Isaac names it Shibah, giving the city the name Beersheba. The chapter ends with Esau marrying Judith and Basemath, whose presence brings grief to Isaac and Rebekah—a domestic coda with very little interest in the treaty’s careful peace.

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    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. Gen 26:1Now there was another famine in the land, subsequent to the one that had occurred in Abraham’s time. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar.

    2. Gen 26:2The LORD appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Settle in the land where I tell you.

    3. Gen 26:3Stay in this land as a foreigner, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Abraham.

    4. Gen 26:4I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed,

    5. Gen 26:5because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

    6. Gen 26:6So Isaac settled in Gerar.

    7. Gen 26:7But when the men of that place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister.” For he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” since he thought to himself, “The men of this place will kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is so beautiful.”

    8. Gen 26:8When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from the window and was surprised to see Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.

    9. Gen 26:9Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, “So she is really your wife! How could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac replied, “Because I thought I might die on account of her.”

    10. Gen 26:10“What is this you have done to us?” asked Abimelech. “One of the people could easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”

    11. Gen 26:11So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever harms this man or his wife will surely be put to death.”

    12. Gen 26:12Now Isaac sowed seed in the land, and that very year he reaped a hundredfold. And the LORD blessed him,

    13. Gen 26:13and he became richer and richer, until he was exceedingly wealthy.

    14. Gen 26:14He owned so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.

    15. Gen 26:15So the Philistines took dirt and stopped up all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham.

    16. Gen 26:16Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Depart from us, for you are much too powerful for us.”

    17. Gen 26:17So Isaac left that place and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there.

    18. Gen 26:18Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. And he gave these wells the same names his father had given them.

    19. Gen 26:19Then Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found a well of fresh water there.

    20. Gen 26:20But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they contended with him.

    21. Gen 26:21Then they dug another well and quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah.

    22. Gen 26:22He moved on from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. He named it Rehoboth and said, “At last the LORD has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

    23. Gen 26:23From there Isaac went up to Beersheba,

    24. Gen 26:24and that night the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of My servant Abraham.”

    25. Gen 26:25So Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, and he pitched his tent there. His servants also dug a well there.

    26. Gen 26:26Later, Abimelech came to Isaac from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army.

    27. Gen 26:27“Why have you come to me?” Isaac asked them. “You hated me and sent me away.”

    28. Gen 26:28“We can plainly see that the LORD has been with you,” they replied. “We recommend that there should now be an oath between us and you. Let us make a covenant with you

    29. Gen 26:29that you will not harm us, just as we have not harmed you but have done only good to you, sending you on your way in peace. And now you are blessed by the LORD.”

    30. Gen 26:30So Isaac prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank.

    31. Gen 26:31And they got up early the next morning and swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they left him in peace.

    32. Gen 26:32On that same day, Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug. “We have found water!” they told him.

    33. Gen 26:33So he called it Shibah, and to this day the name of the city is Beersheba.

    34. Gen 26:34When Esau was forty years old, he took as his wives Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.

    35. Gen 26:35And they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 240 passages were voted onto 33 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 12Mark 4:8Still other seed fell on good soil, where it sprouted, grew up, and produced a crop—one bearing thirtyfold, another sixtyfold, and another a hundredfold.”
    • 3Genesis 28:15Look, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
    • 12Genesis 24:1By now Abraham was old and well along in years, and the LORD had blessed him in every way.
    • 12Zechariah 8:12“For the seed will be prosperous, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will yield its produce, and the skies will give their dew. To the remnant of this people I will give all these things as an inheritance.
    • 122 Corinthians 9:10–11Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your store of seed and will increase the harvest of your righteousness.
    • 12Genesis 24:35“The LORD has greatly blessed my master, and he has become rich. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, camels and donkeys.
    • 5Matthew 7:24Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
    • 12Psalms 67:6The earth has yielded its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.
    • 12Ecclesiastes 11:6Sow your seed in the morning, and do not rest your hands in the evening, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or if both will equally prosper.
    • 12Job 42:12So the LORD blessed Job’s latter days more than his first. He owned 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys.
    • 12Galatians 6:7–8Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return.
    • 3Psalms 105:9the covenant He made with Abraham, and the oath He swore to Isaac.
    • 121 Corinthians 3:6I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.
    • 24Genesis 15:1After these events, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”
    • 5Genesis 22:18And through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
    • 5Genesis 22:16saying, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your only son,

    Onward

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