Genesis 26:1-35 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Genesis 26. Isaac and the Philistines. Apart from Genesis 26:34 f. this chapter belongs to J. The original has been expanded in Genesis 26:1-6, and Genesis 26:15; Genesis 26:18 are harmonistic insertions. Apart from Genesis 26:12-17 the incidents are parallel to incidents recorded of Abraham. On the relation to the earlier adventures of Sarah in Egypt and Gerar, see Genesis 26:20 *. The incident is misplaced; obviously it is earlier than the birth of Esau and Jacob. The dispute about the wells and covenant with Abimelech are doublets of the similar events in Abraham's life.

Like Abraham, Isaac is forced to migrate by famine, but he goes to Gerar, not Egypt, whose king, like the king of Gerar in Genesis 26:20, is named Abimelech, but is styled king of the Philistines. Yahweh bids him remain in the land and not remove to Egypt as his father had done, renewing to him the promise made to Abraham (Genesis 26:1-5). He passes off Rebekah as his sister, till the king surprises them in their connubialities and rebukes him for the guilt of unconscious adultery that his people might have incurred through his poltroonery. Although a semi-nomad, Isaac practises agriculture, as is to-day done by the Bedouin (at Beersheba among other places), and so successfully that seed produces a hundredfold, an exceptional but not an impossible yield (cf. Mark 4:8). His flocks, herds, and slaves multiply, the Philistines envy him, and the king bids him depart. His slaves discover water but the herdmen of Gerar contest the well with them, and similarly with a second well, and only with the third (Rehoboth) do they leave him in possession. This was probably at Ruhaibeh, about 20 miles SW. of Beersheba. He went from there to Beersheba, where, Yahweh appeared to him and renewed his promise, whereupon Isaac built an altar and invoked Yahweh's name. Thus the origin of Beersheba as a sanctuary is traced back to Isaac as well as to Abraham (Genesis 21:33). Abimelech, recognising Yahweh's blessing on Isaac, proposes a covenant which he accepts, and which is made by a feast and an oath. Learning the same day from his slaves of a well they had sunk there (cf. Genesis 26:25), he gives it the name Shibah (swearing), from which the city derived its name Beersheba, a variant of the account in Genesis 21:31.

The chapter closes with two verses from P about Esau's two Hittite wives, which prepare the way for Jacob's dispatch to his mother's family to secure a wife, since his parents are grieved that by intermarriage with the natives Esau should have tainted the purity of the stock.

Related Commentaries of Genesis 26:1

Genesis 26:1-35

1 And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.

2 And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:

3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;

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

5 Because that 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, She is my wife; lest, said he, 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, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.

9 And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife: and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her.

10 And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.

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

12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and receiveda in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him.

13 And the man waxed great, and wentb forward, and grew until he became very great:

14 For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants:c and the Philistines envied him.

15 For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.

16 And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we.

17 And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.

18 And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged 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 digged in the valley, and found there a well of springingd water.

20 And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek;e because they strove with him.

21 And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah.f

22 And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth;g and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.

23 And he went up from thence to Beersheba.

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 thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake.

25 And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac's servants digged a well.

26 Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol the chief captain of his army.

27 And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you?

28 And they said, We sawh certainly that the LORD was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee;

29 That thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou art now 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 sware one to 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 digged, and said unto him, We have found water.

33 And he called it Shebah:i therefore the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day.

34 And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite:

35 Which were a griefj of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.