1 Long ago while Abraham was in Canaan there was very little food there and Abraham went to Egypt. Now while his son Isaac was also in Canaan there was very little food as before, and Isaac went west to Gerar. Gerar belonged to the Philistine people and their king was Abimelech. So Isaac went to him.

2 Yahweh came and appeared to Isaac and said to him, “Don't go to Egypt. Obey me and stay here. 3 If you live here I will stay near you and I will bless you. I will give all these lands to you and to your descendants. I will keep the promise I made long ago to your father Abraham. 4 I will give you many descendants. They will be so many they will be like the stars you can see in the sky, and I will give them all these lands. Different people will all say to me, ‘Bless us, just as you blessed Isaac.’ 5 And I will bless you, because Abraham obeyed me and kept all my laws.”

6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar. 7 Some men there asked Isaac about his wife Rebecca and he said, “She is my sister.” He did not want to call her his wife, because he was afraid that the men there would kill him to get Rebecca. She was very beautiful and that is why they wanted her.

8 Later on King Abimelech was looking out of his house and he saw Isaac and Rebecca, and they looked like a man with his wife. 9 Abimelech called for Isaac and said to him, “She is your wife, isn't she! Why did you tell people she was your sister?”

Isaac said, “I thought, ‘People here might kill me so that they can take my wife.’ ”

10 “Why have you done this? You have tricked us, haven't you!” Abimelech said. “Any of my men might have slept with your wife, and that would be your sin, not ours.” 11 Then Abimelech warned all his people and said to them, “If any of you hurts this man or his wife, you will die. I will tell my soldiers and they will kill you for it.”

12 Then Isaac stayed there and planted seeds for food. Later on in the same year he gathered lots and lots of food because Yahweh blessed him. 13 He went on living there and he became very rich because Yahweh was helping him. 14 He had many sheep and cattle and many servants. And so the Philistine people became jealous of him. 15 They filled all the waterholes with earth. Long ago while his father Abraham was still alive, Abraham's servants had dug them, and now the waterholes belonged to Isaac.

16 Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away! Leave our country. You are more powerful than we are now.” 17 So Isaac and his people left that place and went to a flat place near Gerar. They set up their camp there and stayed for some time.

18 Once again Isaac and his men dug the waterholes that his father's servants had dug before. Abraham had named the wells, but after he died the Philistines had filled his wells with earth. Now Isaac gave the wells the same names again.

19 Isaac's servants dug a well in a flat place and they found fresh water. 20 But the shepherds of Gerar argued with Isaac's shepherds. They said, “This water belongs to us.” So Isaac named the well “They Argued.”

21 Then Isaac's servants dug another well. But the men of Gerar and Isaac's men argued about that one too, and Isaac named the well “They Hated Each Other.”

22 Then Isaac and his people got up and moved camp and dug another well, but there was no argument this time. Isaac said, “Yahweh has given us a place to live, so now everything will be all right for us here. This well will be called ‘He Gave Us a Place.’ ”

23 Then Isaac and his people left there and went to Beersheba. 24 That night Yahweh came and appeared to Isaac and said to him, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Don't be afraid, because I will stay near you. I will bless you and give you many descendants as I promised Abraham long ago. He was my servant and I made a covenant with him.”

25 Then Isaac built an altar of stones and worshipped Yahweh. Then he made his camp there, and his servants dug another well.

26 While Isaac was at Beersheba, King Abimelech came to him from Gerar. He brought two men with him. One was Phicol, the leader of his army, and the other was his servant Ahuzzath, who used to tell Abimelech what to do. 27 Isaac said to them, “Why have you come here to me today? You were angry with me before and you chased me away.”

28 They answered, “Now we know that Yahweh is with you, and we want to make a promise and not change it. We want you to promise 29 that you and your people won't harm us. We didn't do you any harm. We were kind to you. We didn't fight, we just sent you and your people away from our area, and you went peacefully. Now we know that Yahweh has blessed you.”

30 Then Isaac prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank. 31 And then they slept.

The next morning Abimelech and Isaac got up and talked together. They promised not to fight each other and not to change their minds. First one promised and then the other. Then Isaac said, “Now you can go home.” Isaac stayed in his camp and Abimelech and his two servants went back to Gerar. Now they were friends.

32 That same day Isaac's servants came back after digging a waterhole, and said to him, “We have found fresh water.”

33 Isaac said, “We will call the well Beersheba.” That name means “the well where they promised.” So Beersheba where Isaac was living got its name from the well.

34 When Isaac's son Esau was forty years old, he took two girls to be his wives. They were both Hittites. One of them, the daughter of Beeri, was called Judith and the other, the daughter of Elon, was called Basemath. 35 But they made Isaac and Rebecca miserable.