Genesis 25:19-26:33

Genesis 25:19-26:33

This is the history of the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son. Abraham became the father of Isaac.
Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian, to be his wife.
Isaac entreated Yahweh for his wife, because she was barren. Yahweh was entreated by him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
The children struggled together within her. She said, “If it is so, why do I live?” She went to inquire of Yahweh.
Yahweh said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb.
Two peoples will be separated from your body.
The one people will be stronger than the other people.
The elder will serve the younger.”
When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
The first came out red all over, like a hairy garment. They named him Esau.
After that, his brother came out, and his hand had hold on Esau’s heel. He was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.
The boys grew. Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.
Now Isaac loved Esau, because he ate his venison. Rebekah loved Jacob.
Jacob boiled stew. Esau came in from the field, and he was famished.
Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am famished.” Therefore his name was called Edom.
Jacob said, “First, sell me your birthright.”
Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die. What good is the birthright to me?”
Jacob said, “Swear to me first.”
He swore to him. He sold his birthright to Jacob.
Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils. He ate and drank, rose up, and went his way. So Esau despised his birthright.
There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar.
Yahweh appeared to him, and said, “Don’t go down into Egypt. Live in the land I will tell you about.
Live in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For I will give to you, and to your offspring, all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and will give all these lands to your offspring. In your offspring will all the nations of the earth be blessed,
because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”
Isaac lived in Gerar.
The men of the place asked him about his wife. He said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say, “My wife”, lest, he thought, “the men of the place might kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to look at.”
When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was caressing Rebekah, his wife.
Abimelech called Isaac, and said, “Behold, surely she is your wife. Why did you say, ‘She is my sister?’”
Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die because of her.’”
Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!”
Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death.”
Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh blessed him.
The man grew great, and grew more and more until he became very great.
He had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great household. The Philistines envied him.
Now all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped, and filled with earth.
Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”
Isaac departed from there, encamped in the valley of Gerar, and lived there.
Isaac dug again the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father. For the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham. He called their names after the names by which his father had called them.
Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.
The herdsmen of Gerar argued with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” He called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him.
They dug another well, and they argued over that, also. He called its name Sitnah.
He left that place, and dug another well. They didn’t argue over that one. He called it Rehoboth. He said, “For now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”
He went up from there to Beersheba.
Yahweh appeared to him the same night, and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Don’t be afraid, for I am with you, and will bless you, and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake.”
He built an altar there, and called on Yahweh’s name, and pitched his tent there. There Isaac’s servants dug a well.
Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath his friend, and Phicol the captain of his army.
Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me, and have sent me away from you?”
They said, “We saw plainly that Yahweh was with you. We said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, even between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you,
that you will do us no harm, as we have not touched you, and as we have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace.’ You are now the blessed of Yahweh.”
He made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
They rose up some time in the morning, and swore an oath to one another. Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
The same day, Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”
He called it Shibah. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.