1And there was a famine in the land (other than the first famine, which was in Abraham’s days), and Isaac went to Abimelek, king of the Philistines, at Gerar.
2And YHWH appeared to him and said, “Don’t go down to Egypt. Reside in the land that I say to you.
3Stay on in this land, and I’ll be with you and bless you, for I’ll give all these lands to you and your seed, and I’ll uphold the oath that I swore to Abraham your father,
4and I’ll multiply your seed like the stars of the skies and give to your seed all these lands, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through your seed
26:4. all the nations of the earth will be blessed through your seed. This prediction was made to Abraham in his first communication from God. It was repeated to him in Isaac’s presence at the Aqedah. Now God gives the same message to Isaac himself. Now that Isaac has grown up and had children himself, the renewal of the message confirms that it is through his descendants that this is to occur.
5because Abraham listened to my voice and kept my watch, my commandments, my laws, and my instructions.”
6And so Isaac lived in Gerar.
7And the people of the place asked about his wife, and he said, “She’s my sister,” because he was afraid to say, “My wife,” or else “the people of the place will kill me for Rebekah, because she’s good-looking.”
8And it was when his days extended there: and Abimelek, king of the Philistines, gazed through the window, and he saw: and here was Isaac “fooling around” with Rebekah his wife!
26:8. fooling around. Hebrew 
, a pun on the name Isaac.
9And Abimelek called Isaac and said, “But, here, she’s your wife! And how could you say, ‘She’s my sister’?”
And Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Or else I’ll die over her.’”
10And Abimelek said, “What is this you’ve done to us? One of the people nearly could have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.”
11And Abimelek commanded all the people saying, “He who touches this man or his wife will be put to death!”
12And Isaac planted seed in that land, and he harvested a hundredfold in that year. And YHWH blessed him,
26:12. blessed him, and the man became great. This should be read as one connected thought even though it has been broken into two verses. Compare Gen 24:34, where the servant says about Isaac’s father Abraham, “YHWH has blessed my lord very much, and he has become great.” The point appears to be that the becoming great is the expression of divine blessing.
13and the man became great, and he went on getting greater until he was very great
14and had livestock of flocks and livestock of herds and a large number of servants. And the Philistines envied him.
15And the Philistines stopped up all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in his father Abraham’s days, and they filled them with dirt.
16And Abimelek said to Isaac, “Go from among us, because you’ve become much mightier than we are.”
17And Isaac went from there and camped in the wadi of Gerar and lived there.
18And Isaac went back and dug the water wells that they had dug in the days of his father Abraham and that the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham’s death, and he called them by names, like the names that his father had called them.
19And Isaac’s servants dug in the wadi and found a well of fresh water there.
20And the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s shepherds, saying, “The water is ours.” And he called the name of the well Esek because they tangled with him.
21And they dug another well, and they quarreled over it also, and he called its name Sitnah.
22And he moved on from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it, and he called its name Rehovot and said, “Because now YHWH has widened for us, and we’ve been fruitful in the land.”
23And he went up from there to Beer-sheba.
24And YHWH appeared to him that night and said, “I’m your father Abraham’s God. Don’t be afraid, because I’m with you, and I’ll bless you and multiply your seed on account of Abraham, my servant.”
25And he built an altar there and invoked the name YHWH. And he pitched his tent there, and Isaac’s servants dug a well there.
26And Abimelek and Ahuzat, his companion, and Phicol, the commander of his army, went to him from Gerar.
27And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hated me and sent me away from you?”
28And they said, “We’ve seen that YHWH has been with you; and we say, ‘Let there be an oath between us, between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you
29that you won’t do bad toward us as we haven’t touched you and as we’ve done only good toward you and sent you away in peace. You are now blessed by YHWH.’”
30And he made a feast for them, and they ate and drank.
31And they got up early in the morning and swore, each man to his brother, and Isaac sent them away, and they went from him in peace.
32And it was in that day and Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well that they had dug and said to him, “We found water.”
33And he called it Seven. On account of this the name of the city is Beer-sheba to this day.
34And Esau was forty years old, and he took a wife: Judith, daughter of Beeri, the Hittite, and Basemath, daughter of Elon, the Hittite.
35And they were a bitterness of spirit to Isaac and to Re-bekah.
