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Genesis 26

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Part of Isaac and Jacob📖 Genesis introduction

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1Now there was a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines. ✦ 2And the Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you. ✦ 3Live for a time in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. ✦ 4I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, ✦ 5because Abraham obeyed Me and fulfilled his duty to Me, and kept My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.” ✦ 6So Isaac lived in Gerar. ✦ 7When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say, “my wife,” thinking, “the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, since she is beautiful.” ✦ 8Now it came about, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down through a window, and saw them, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah. ✦ 9Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, she certainly is your wife! So how is it that you said, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I thought, ‘otherwise I might be killed on account of her.’ ” 10And Abimelech said, “What is this that you have done to us? One of the people might easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” ✦ 11So Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife will certainly be put to death.” ✦ 12Now Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundred times as much. And the Lord blessed him, ✦ 13and the man became rich, and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy; ✦ 14for he had possessions of flocks and herds, and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. ✦ 15Now all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up by filling them with dirt. ✦ 16Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are too powerful for us.” ✦ 17So Isaac departed from there and camped in the Valley of Gerar, and settled there. 18Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he gave them the same names which his father had given them. ✦ 19But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of flowing water, ✦ 20the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they argued with him. ✦ 21Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over it too, so he named it Sitnah. ✦ 22Then he moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it Rehoboth, for he said, “At last the Lord has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.” ✦ 23And he went up from there to Beersheba. ✦ 24And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; Do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants, For the sake of My servant Abraham.” ✦ 25So 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. ✦ 26Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with his adviser Ahuzzath, and Phicol the commander of his army. ✦ 27Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?” ✦ 28They said, “We have seen plainly that the Lord has been with you; so we said, ‘An oath must now be taken by us,’ that is, by you and us. So let us make a covenant with you, ✦ 29that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.” ✦ 30Then he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. ✦ 31In the morning they got up early and exchanged oaths; then Isaac sent them away, and they left him in peace. ✦ 32Now it came about on the same day, that Isaac’s servants came in and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.” ✦ 33So he called it Shibah; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day. ✦ 34When Esau was forty years old he married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite; ✦ 35and they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah. ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Where this chapter connects

Gen 21 ·15Gen 12 ·12Gen 26 ·11Gen 20 ·9Gen 24 ·9Gen 22 ·8Gen 13 ·7Gen 17 ·6

Christ at the center

From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.

How Genesis 26 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

  • ★ Start hereDocumentaryExpedition BibleJoel Kramer · Free · evangelical

    On-location biblical archaeology from a credentialed archaeologist (M.A., excavated in Israel) — the best free place to start on "did it really happen?"

  • ★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical

    A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

  • ★ Start hereVideoOverview: Genesis 1–11BibleProject · 9 min · Free

    The single best free starting point for Genesis 1–11 — clear, visual, and faithful to the literary design.

  • VideoSpoken GospelSpoken Gospel · Free · evangelical

    Short, gospel-centered videos and spoken-word poems showing how each passage points to Jesus — especially strong on the Old Testament.

  • ReferenceBook of Genesis — Visual GuideBibleProject · Free

    A free structured guide to the whole book — outline, themes, and links to each video.

  • DocumentaryIs Genesis History?Del Tackett · Free · evangelical

    A young-earth-creationist case for a literal Genesis, free on YouTube. (YEC is one view held by faithful Christians; others read Genesis differently — see the genre guide on how to read it.)

Pastoral

  • SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical

    Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Seminary

  • ★ Start hereCommentaryGenesis (Word Biblical Commentary)Gordon J. Wenham · Paid · evangelical

    For decades the gold-standard commentary on Genesis — technical but rich. (See the ranked list for alternatives like Hamilton, NICOT.)

  • BookThe Pentateuch as NarrativeJohn H. Sailhamer · ~560 pp · Library · evangelical

    A literary-theological reading that makes Genesis's design visible.

Commentaries & study tools

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