Genesis 26 · Parashat Toldot

And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Avraham. And Yiżĥaq went to Avimelekh, king of the Pelishtim to Gerar.

And the Lord appeared to him, and said, Go not down into Miżrayim; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:

sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for to thee, and to thy seed, I will give all these countries and I will perform the oath which I swore to Avraham thy father;

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

because Avraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.

And Yiżĥaq dwelt in Gerar:

and 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 on account of Rivqa; because she was fair to look upon.

And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Avimelekh king of the Pelishtim looked out at a window, and saw, and behold, Yiżĥaq was sporting with Rivqa his wife.

And Avimelekh called Yiżĥaq, and said, Behold, surely she is thy wife: and how didst thou say, She is my sister? And Yiżĥaq said to him, Because I said, Lest I die for her.

And Avimelekh said, What is this thou hast done to us? one of the people might easily have lain with thy wife, and thou shouldst have brought guiltiness upon us.

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

Then Yiżĥaq sowed in that land, and received in the same year a hundredfold: for the Lord blessed him.

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

for he had possessions of flocks, and possessions of herds, and a great store of servants: and the Pelishtim envied him.

For all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Avraham his father, the Pelishtim had stopped them up, and filled them with earth.

And Avimelekh said to Yiżĥaq, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we.

And Yiżĥaq departed from there, and pitched in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.

And Yiżĥaq dug again the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Avraham his father; for the Pelishtim had stopped them up after the death of Avraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.

And Yiżĥaq’s servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.

And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Yiżĥaq’s herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well ῾Eseq; because they strove with him.

And they dug another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitna.

And he removed from there, and dug another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Reĥovot; and he said, For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.

And he went up from there to Be᾽er-sheva.

And the Lord appeared to him the same night, and said, I am the God of Avraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for My servant Avraham’s sake.

And he built an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there: and there Yiżĥaq’s servants dug a well.

Then Avimelekh went to him from Gerar, and Aĥuzzat his friend, and Pikhol the captain of his army.

And Yiżĥaq said to them, Why do you come to me, seeing you hate me, and have sent me away from you?

And they said, We saw indeed that the Lord was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath between us, between us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee;

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

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

And they rose up early in the morning, and swore one to another: and Yiżĥaq sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

And it came to pass the same day, that Yiżĥaq’s servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had dug, and said to him, We have found water.

And he called it Shiv῾a: therefore the name of the city is Be᾽er-sheva to this day.

And ῾Esav was forty years old when he took to wife Yehudit the daughter of Be᾽eri the Ḥittite, and Basemat the daughter of Elon the Ḥittite:

and they were a grief of mind to Yiżĥaq and to Rivqa.