Genesis chapter .xxvi.
¶ And there fell a dearth in the land, passing the first dearth that fell in the days of Abraham. Wherefore Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.
Then the LORD appeared unto him and said: go not down into Egypt, but bide in the land which I say unto thee:
Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee: for unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries. And I will perform the oath which I swore unto Abraham thy father,
and will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries. And thorow thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,
because that Abraham hearkened unto my voice and kept mine ordinances, commandments, statutes and laws.
¶ And Isaac dwelled in Gerar.
And the men of the place asked him of his wife, and he said that she was his sister: for he feared to call her his wife lest the men of the place should have killed him for her sake, because she was beautiful to the eye.
And it happened after he had been there long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw Isaac sporting with Rebecca his wife.
And Abimelech sent for Isaac and said: see, she is of a surety thy wife, and why saidest thou that she was thy sister? And Isaac said unto him: I thought that I might peradventure have died for her sake.
Then said Abimelech: why hast thou done this unto us? one of the people might lightly have lain by thy wife and so shouldest thou have brought sin upon us.
Then Abimelech charged all his people saying: he that toucheth this man or his wife, shall surely die for it.
¶ And Isaac sowed in the land, and found in the same year an hundred bushels: for the LORD blessed him,
and the man waxed mighty, and went forth and grew till he was exceeding great,
that he had possession of sheep, of oxen and a mighty household: so that the Philistines had envy at him:
Insomuch that they stopped and filled up with earth, all the wells which his father's servants digged in his father Abraham's time.
Then said Abimelech unto Isaac: get thee from me, for thou art mightier than we a great deal.
Then Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley Gerar and dwelt there.
And Isaac digged again, the wells of water which they digged in the days of Abraham his father which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham, and gave them the same names which his father gave them.
As Isaac's servants digged in the valley, they found a well of springing water.
And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen saying: the water is ours. Then called he the well Eseck because they strove with him.
Then digged they another well, and they strove for that also. Therefore called he it Sitena.
And then he departed thence, and digged another well for the which they strove not: therefore called he it Rehoboth, saying: the LORD hath now made us room, and we are increased upon the earth.
Afterward departed he thence and came to Berseba.
And the LORD appeared unto him the same night and said: I am the God of Abraham thy father, fear not for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake.
And then he builded an altar there and called upon the name of the LORD, and there pitched his tent. And there Isaac's servants digged a well.
¶ Then came Abimelech to him from Gerar and Ahusath his friend and Phicoll his chief captain.
And Isaac said unto them: wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me and have put me away from you?
Then said they: we saw that the LORD was with thee, and therefore we said that there should be an oath betwixt us and thee, and that we would make a bond with thee:
that thou shouldest do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and have done unto thee nothing but good, and send thee away in peace: for thou art now the blessed of the LORD.
And he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
And they rose up by times in the morning and sware one to another. And Isaac sent them away. And they departed from him in peace.
And the same day came Isaac's servants, and told him of a well which they had digged: and said unto him, that they had found water.
And he called it Seba, wherefore the name of the city is called Berseba unto this day.
¶ When Esau was forty years old, he took to wife Iudith the daughter of Bery an Hethite, and Basmath the daughter of Elon an Hethite
also, which were disobedient unto Isaac and Rebecca.
Praise the Everlasting Lord for His Faithful Word.