1 And there was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar.
2 And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, “Do not go down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall show you;
3 sojourn in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for unto you and your seed I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father;
4 and I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and will give to your seed all these lands; and in your seed shall all the nations of the earth [a]be blessed;
5 because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”
6 And Isaac dwelt in Gerar;
7 and the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, “She is my sister,” for he feared to say, ‘My wife,’ he said, “lest the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah;” because she was fair to look upon.
8 And 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 Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.
9 And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, “Behold, surely she is your wife; why then do you say, ‘She is my sister?’” And Isaac said to him, “Because I said, Lest I die because of her.”
10 And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with thy wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”
11 And Abimelech charged all the people, saying, “He that touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
12 And Isaac sowed in that land, and found in the same year a hundredfold; and the LORD blessed him.
13 And he became successful, more and more until he became very great:
14 and he had possessions of flocks and herds, and a great household; and the Philistines envied him.
15 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.
16 And Abimelech said unto Isaac, “Go from us; for you have become much greater than we are.”
17 And Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.
18 And Isaac dug again 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; and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.
19 And Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of [b]springing water.
20 And the herdsmen of Gerar argued with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours;” and he called the name of the well [c]Esek[Calumny;Contention], because they contended with him.
21 And they dug another well, and they strove for that also: and he called the name of it [d]Sitnah[Enmity].
22 And he removed from there, and dug another well; and for that they did not strive; and he called the name of it [e]Rehoboth; and he said, “For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”
23 And he went up from thence to Beer-sheba.
24 And the LORD appeared unto him the same night, and said, “I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with you, and will bless you, and multiply your seed for my servant Abraham’s sake.”
25 And he built an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
26 Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath his friend, and Phicol the captain of his host.
27 And Isaac said unto them, “Why did you come here, seeing as you dislike me and have sent me away?”
28 And they said, “We saw plainly that the LORD was with you, and we said, “Let there now be an oath between us, between ourselves and you, and let us make a covenant,
29 that you shall do us no harm, as we have not harmed you, and as we have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace, such that you have become the blessed of the LORD.”
30 And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink.
31 And they rose up betimes in the morning, and swore an oath to one another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
32 And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had dug, and said unto him, “We have found water.”
33 And he called it Shibah: therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba unto this day.
34 And when Esau was forty years old he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite:
35 yet they were nothing but a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.
[3] The GNV headings often split passages such as this into out-of-context quotations. The heading now seen on (2) was moved from (3); in the GNV it omits ‘do not go down into Egypt’ as part of the conditions of the promise. Although minor in this case, I found this sort of splitting to be pervasive. I do not think it is directly malicious although it certainly provides a premise and a context for which a malicious quoting could occur.
[4] Or, bless themselves
[5] This passage is probably going to end a lot of arguments a missionary might raise over Abraham. Ultimately, the reason why Abraham was chosen for the covenant is because he followed God's commands – not because he had a particular kind of faith – but because his faith gave him license to perform works.
[19] Hebrew living.
[20] That is, Contention.
[21] That is, Enmity.
[22] That is, Broad places, or, Room.
[28] What became of this? As a result, the LORD commanded the Israelites not to make an oath with the inhabitants of the land?
[33] abundance
[34] The Hittites were the descendants of Heth (see: Genesis 27:46).
[35] Hebrew bitterness of spirit.