NIV 2011
Isaac’s Journey: Famine, Faith, and Conflict with the Philistines
26 Now there was a famine in the land—besides the previous famine in Abraham’s time—and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar. 2 The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. 3 Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. 4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, 5 because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.” 6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “She is my wife.” He thought, “The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.”
8 When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelek king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. 9 So Abimelek summoned Isaac and said, “She is really your wife! Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?”
Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.”
10 Then Abimelek said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”
11 So Abimelek gave orders to all the people: “Anyone who harms this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
12 Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. 13 The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. 14 He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him. 15 So all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth.
16 Then Abimelek said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.”
17 So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar, where he settled. 18 Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.
19 Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water there. 20 But the herders of Gerar quarreled with those of Isaac and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they disputed with him. 21 Then they dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah. 22 He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth, saying, “Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish 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. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.”
25 Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well.
26 Meanwhile, Abimelek had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his forces. 27 Isaac asked them, “Why have you come to me, since you were hostile to me and sent me away?”
28 They answered, “We saw clearly that the Lord was with you; so we said, ‘There ought to be a sworn agreement between us’—between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you 29 that you will do us no harm, just as we did not harm you but always treated you well and sent you away peacefully. And now you are blessed by the Lord.”
30 Isaac then made a feast for them, and they ate and drank. 31 Early the next morning the men swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they went away peacefully.
32 That day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug. They said, “We’ve found water!” 33 He called it Shibah, and to this day the name of the town has been Beersheba.
34 When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35 They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.
WYC 1382
Isaac’s Journey: Famine, Faith, and Conflict with the Philistines
26 Forsooth for hunger rose on the land, after that barrenness that befelled in the days of Abraham, Isaac went forth to Abimelech, king of Palestines, in Gerar. 2 And the Lord appeared to him, and said, Go not down into Egypt, but rest thou in the land which I shall say to thee, 3 and be thou a pilgrim therein; and I shall be with thee, and I shall bless thee; for I shall give all these countries to thee, and to thy seed, and I shall [ful]fill the oath which I promised to Abraham, thy father. 4 And I shall multiply thy seed as the stars of (the) heaven(s), and I shall give all these countries to thine heirs, and all folks of the earth shall be blessed in thy seed, 5 for Abraham obeyed to my voice, and kept my behests, and my commandments, and my ceremonies, and my laws. 6 And so Isaac dwelled in Gerar.
7 And when he was asked of [the] men of that place of his wife, he answered, She is my sister; for he dreaded to acknowledge that she was fellowshipped to him in matrimony, and he guessed lest peradventure they would slay him for the fairness of her.
8 And when full many days were passed, and he (had) dwelled there, Abimelech, king of Palestines, beheld by a window, and saw him playing with Rebecca, his wife. 9 And when Isaac was called (to him), the king said, It is open, that she is thy wife; why saidest thou, that she was thy sister?
Isaac answered, For I dreaded, lest I should die for her.
10 And Abimelech said, Why hast thou deceived us? Some man of the people might do lechery with thy wife, and thou haddest brought in grievous sin on us.
11 And the king commanded to all the people, and said, He that toucheth the wife of this man shall die by death.
12 Forsooth Isaac sowed in that land, and he found an hundredfold increase in that year; and the Lord blessed him. 13 And the man was made rich, and he went profiting and increasing, till he was made full great.
14 Also he had possessions of sheep and of great beasts, and full much of menials. For this thing Palestines had envy to him,
15 and they stopped in that time and filled with earth all the wells which the servants of Abraham his father had digged,
16 in so much that Abimelech himself said to Isaac, Go thou away from us, for thou art made greatly mightier than we (be).
17 And he went away, that he should come to the strand of Gerar, and dwelled there.
18 And he digged again other wells, which the servants of Abraham his father had digged, and which the Philistines had stopped sometime, when Abraham was dead; and he called those wells by the same names, by which his father had called (them) before.
19 They digged in the strand, and they found quick, or welling up, water.
20 But also strife of [the] shepherds of Gerar was there against the shepherds of Isaac, and they said, The water is ours; wherefore of that strife that befelled, Isaac called the name of that well False Challenge. 21 And they digged another (well), and they strived also for that, and Isaac called that well Enmities. 22 And he went forth from thence, and digged another well, for which they strived not, [and] therefore he called the name of that well Breadth, either Largeness; and said, Now God hath alarged us, and hath made us to increase on [the] earth.
23 Isaac forsooth went up from that place into Beersheba, 24 where the Lord appeared to him in that night; and said, I am [the] God of Abraham, thy father; do not thou dread, for I am with thee, and I shall bless thee, and I shall multiply thy seed for (the sake of) my servant Abraham.
25 And so Isaac builded there an altar to the Lord; and when the name of the Lord was inwardly called, he stretched forth a tabernacle; and he commanded his servants that they should dig wells.
26 And when Abimelech, and Ahuzzath, (one of) his friends, and Phicol, [the] duke of knights, had come from Gerar to that place, 27 Isaac spake to them, (and said,) What came ye to me, a man whom ye have hated, and putted away from you?
28 Which answered, We saw that God is with thee, and therefore we said now, An oath be betwixt us, and make we a covenant of peace, 29 (so) that thou do not any[thing of] evil to us, as we (have) touched nothing of thine, neither did that that hurted thee, but with peace we let go thee, (and now thou art) increased by the blessing(s) of the Lord.
30 Therefore Isaac made them a feast; and after meat and drink, 31 they rose early, and swore each to (the) other; and Isaac let go them peaceably into their place.
32 Lo! forsooth in that day the servants of Isaac came, telling to him of the well which they had digged, and said, We have found water. 33 Wherefore Isaac called that well Abundance; and the name of the city was set Beersheba till into this present day.
34 Esau forsooth forty years eld wedded two wives, Judith, the daughter of Beeri (the) Hittite, and Bashemath, the daughter of Elon, of the same place; 35 which both offended the soul of Isaac and of Rebecca.
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