1 Now there was a famine in the land, besides ^uthe former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to ^vAbimelech king of the ^wPhilistines. 2 And the Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; dwell ^xin the land of which I shall tell you. 3 ^ySojourn in this land, and ^zI will be with you and will bless you, for ^ato you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish ^bthe oath that I swore to Abraham your father. 4 ^cI will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And ^din your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, 5 because ^eAbraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

6 So Isaac settled in Gerar. 7 When the men of the place asked him about his wife, ^fhe said, “She is my sister,” for ^ghe feared to say, “My wife,” thinking, “lest the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah,” because ^hshe was attractive in appearance. 8 When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac laughing with¹ Rebekah his wife. 9 So Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she is your wife. How then could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘Lest I die because of her.’” 10 Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and ⁱyou would have brought guilt upon us.” 11 So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

12 And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The Lord ^jblessed him, 13 and the man became rich, and gained more and more until he became very wealthy. 14 He had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants, so that the Philistines ^kenvied him. 15 (Now the Philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells ^lthat his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father.) 16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”

17 So Isaac departed from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there. 18 And Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham. And ^mhe gave them the names that his father had given them. 19 But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of spring water, 20 the herdsmen of Gerar ⁿquarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek,² because they contended with him. 21 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that also, so he called its name Sitnah.³ 22 And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth,⁴ saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

23 From there he went up to Beersheba. 24 And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, ^o“I am the God of Abraham your father. ^pFear not, for ^qI am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake.” 25 So he ^rbuilt an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac’s servants dug a well.