Genesis 26 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Now a famine hit the land — not the earlier one that happened during Abraham's time — so Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, in Gerar.

Yahweh appeared to him and said, "Don't go down to Egypt. Settle in the land I tell you about.

Stay in this land as an outsider, and I will be with you and take care of you. Because I'm giving all these lands to you and your descendants. I'm keeping the promise I made to your father Abraham.

I will make your descendants as countless as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands. Every nation on earth will find good things through your descendants —

because Abraham listened to my voice and kept my requirements — my commands, my rules, and my instructions."

So Isaac settled in Gerar.

When the men of that place asked about his wife, he said, "She's my sister." He was afraid to say "my wife" because he thought, "The men here might kill me to get Rebekah, since she's so beautiful."

After Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from his window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.

Abimelech summoned Isaac and said, "She's clearly your wife! Why did you say, 'She's my sister'?" Isaac told him, "Because I thought someone might kill me to get her."

Abimelech said, "What have you done to us? One of my people could have easily slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt down on all of us!"

So Abimelech issued an order to all his people: "Anyone who touches this man or his wife will be put to death."

Isaac planted crops in that land and harvested a hundred times what he sowed that same year. Yahweh was taking care of him.

The man became rich and kept getting richer and richer until he was extremely wealthy.

He owned flocks of sheep, herds of cattle, and a large household of servants. The Philistines became jealous of him.

All the wells that his father's servants had dug back in Abraham's day — the Philistines had stopped them up and filled them with dirt.

Then Abimelech told Isaac, "Leave us. You've become way too powerful for us."

So Isaac left and camped in the Gerar valley, and settled there.

Isaac re-dug the wells that had been dug during his father Abraham's lifetime — the ones the Philistines had filled in after Abraham died. He gave them the same names his father had given them.

Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found a well of fresh, flowing water there.

But the herders of Gerar argued with Isaac's herders, saying, "That water belongs to us!" So he named the well Esek, because they fought with him over it.

Then they dug another well, and there was a dispute over that one too. So he named it Sitnah.

He moved on from there and dug yet another well. This time nobody fought over it, so he named it Rehoboth and said, "Now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will thrive in this land."

From there he went up to Beer-sheba.

That night Yahweh appeared to him and said, "I am the God of your father Abraham. Don't be afraid, because I am with you. I will take care of you and multiply your descendants because of my servant Abraham."

So Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of Yahweh. He pitched his tent there, and his servants dug a well.

Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar, along with Ahuzzath his personal advisor and Phicol his military commander.

Isaac said to them, "Why are you coming to me? You hate me — you threw me out!"

They answered, "We can clearly see that Yahweh is with you. So we said, 'Let's make a sworn agreement between us — between us and you. Let's make a deal.'

Promise that you won't harm us, just as we haven't touched you and have only done good to you and sent you away in peace. You are now someone Yahweh has taken care of."

So Isaac prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank.

They got up early the next morning and swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them off, and they left on good terms.

That same day, Isaac's servants came and told him about the well they had been digging. They said, "We found water!"

He named it Shibah. That's why the city has been called Beer-sheba to this day.

When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.

They made life miserable for Isaac and Rebekah.