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Version

Summary

Genesis 26:1–5 – God appears to Isaac

What happens: A famine comes, and the Lord tells Isaac to stay in Gerar, not Egypt. God renews Abraham’s promises to Isaac because of Abraham’s obedience.

What it means: God guides in crisis and repeats His faithful word. Covenant grace extends through generations. Obedience matters for those who come after us.


Genesis 26:6–11 – Deception about Rebekah

What happens: Isaac says Rebekah is his sister out of fear. Abimelech discovers the truth and rebukes Isaac, placing protection over the couple.

What it means: Fear leads to compromise and risk to others. God can use unbelievers to correct His people. Integrity guards God’s name and human dignity.


Genesis 26:12–22 – Prosperity and strife over wells

What happens: Isaac prospers, and the Philistines envy him, stopping up wells. He reopens his father’s wells and digs new ones, moving from strife to a broad place he names Rehoboth.

What it means: God can bless amid opposition. Peaceable perseverance often wins more than fights. Provision belongs to God, not to human envy.


Genesis 26:23–25 – Promise and altar at Beersheba

What happens: The Lord appears, repeats the promise, and Isaac builds an altar and calls on the Lord. His servants dig a well.

What it means: Encounters with God lead to worship and work. Faith plants roots where God speaks. God’s word and daily labor belong together.


Genesis 26:26–33 – Covenant with Abimelech

What happens: Abimelech seeks peace, and they make a treaty. Isaac’s servants find water that same day.

What it means: Making peace honors God and stabilizes community. God often confirms reconciliation with fresh provision. Harmony and blessing go hand in hand.


Genesis 26:34–35 – Esau’s marriages

What happens: Esau marries Hittite women, which grieves Isaac and Rebekah.

What it means: Marriage choices affect families and faith. Unequal values bring sorrow. Wisdom looks ahead to spiritual unity.


Application

  • Seek God’s direction in famine and fear.
  • Choose integrity over protective lies.
  • Pursue peace while working diligently.
  • Make marriage decisions that honor God and bless family.

Bible

1And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.

2And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:

3Sojourn 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 sware unto Abraham thy father;

4And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;

5Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

6And Isaac dwelt in Gerar:

7And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon.

8And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.

9And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife: and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her.

10And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.

11And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.

12Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him.

13And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great:

14For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him.

15For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.

16And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we.

17And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.

18And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.

19And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.

20And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him.

21And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah.

22And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.

23And he went up from thence to Beersheba.

24And 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.

25And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac's servants digged a well.

26Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol the chief captain of his army.

27And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you?

28And they said, We saw certainly that the LORD was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee;

29That thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou art now the blessed of the LORD.

30And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink.

31And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

32And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water.

33And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day.

34And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite:

35Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.

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