Genesis 26 :: New King James Version (NKJV)

Isaac and Abimelech

Gen 26:1There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar.

Gen 26:2

Gen 26:2Then the LORD appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you.

Gen 26:3

Gen 26:3“Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.

Gen 26:4

Gen 26:4“And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;

Gen 26:5

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

Gen 26:6

Gen 26:6So Isaac dwelt in Gerar.

Gen 26:7

Gen 26:7And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, “She is my sister”; for he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” because he thought, “lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to behold.”

Gen 26:8

Gen 26:8Now it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked through a window, and saw, and there was Isaac, showing endearment to Rebekah his wife.

Gen 26:9

Gen 26:9Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Quite obviously she is your wife; so how could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’ ”

Gen 26:10

Gen 26:10And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might soon have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.”

Gen 26:11

Gen 26:11So Abimelech charged all his people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”

Gen 26:12

Gen 26:12Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the LORD blessed him.

Gen 26:13

Gen 26:13The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous;

Gen 26:14

Gen 26:14for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.

Gen 26:15

Gen 26:15Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with earth.

Gen 26:16

Gen 26:16And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”

Gen 26:17

Gen 26:17Then Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.

Gen 26:18

Gen 26:18And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He called them by the names which his father had called them.

Gen 26:19

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

Gen 26:20

Gen 26:20But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek,[fn] because they quarreled with him.

Gen 26:21

Gen 26:21Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also. So he called its name Sitnah.[fn]

Gen 26:22

Gen 26:22And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth,[fn] because he said, “For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

Gen 26:23

Gen 26:23Then he went up from there to Beersheba.

Gen 26:24

Gen 26:24And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.”

Gen 26:25

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

Gen 26:26

Gen 26:26Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol the commander of his army.

Gen 26:27

Gen 26:27And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?”

Gen 26:28

Gen 26:28But they said, “We have certainly seen that the LORD is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you,

Gen 26:29

Gen 26:29‘that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the LORD.’ ”

Gen 26:30

Gen 26:30So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

Gen 26:31

Gen 26:31Then they arose early in the morning and swore an oath with one another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

Gen 26:32

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

Gen 26:33

Gen 26:33So he called it Shebah.[fn] Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba[fn] to this day.

Gen 26:34

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

Gen 26:35

Gen 26:35And they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah.

See the NKJV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NKJV Footnotes

(26:20)

Literally Quarrel

(26:21)

Literally Enmity

(26:22)

Literally Spaciousness

(26:33)

Literally Oath or Seven

(26:33)

Literally Well of the Oath or Well of the Seven

The text of the New King James Version (NKJV) appearing on or deriving from this or any other web page is for personal use only. Any other use of the NKJV must be in conformity with the Quotation Policy for the New King James Version. For more information about the New King James Version, the Quotation Policy, and for inquiries about permission to use the New King James Version, go to Thomas Nelson, Inc..

For more information on this translation, see the NKJV Preface.