Genesischapter 26
35 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
But when the men of that place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister.” For he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” since he thought to himself, “The men of this place will kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is so beautiful.”
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Genesis Overview.
Moses, by tradition, Narrative, The Law, The Isaac and Jacob cycle, Genesis Overview. Genesis gives Isaac one chapter of his own, and this is it. The son who was born, bound and married in earlier chapters now carries the promise himself, and the chapter shows how much of his father's road he walks again. The first hearers were descended from herdsmen and knew what a famine and a stopped well meant. Listen for the promise spoken to Isaac in words first spoken to Abraham, for an old failure repeated, and for the names given to three wells. Read it as proof that the promise outlived the man who first received it.
Context
- Who
- Israel in the wilderness, learning that the promise passed intact to the second generation
- What
- A narrative of Isaac's years in Gerar and the Negev, where God renews the promise, Isaac repeats his father's deceit, and quarrels over wells end in a treaty.
- Where
- Gerar and its valley in the western Negev, then Beersheba.
- When
- The patriarchal age, in the 1980s BC on the traditional dating, with the last verses at Esau's fortieth year.
- Why
- To show that the covenant passed whole to the second generation and rested on God's word, whatever the strength of the man who carried it.
Historical context
The chapter belongs to Isaac, and it is the only one in Genesis given over to him alone. Rebekah is with him in Gerar and Esau appears in the last two verses.
Show the rest of the historical context, 6 more paragraphs
The date is the patriarchal age, placed in the 1980s BC on the traditional reckoning. The chapter dates itself only by comparison, calling this famine a second one after the famine in Abraham's time.
The places are Gerar, the valley of Gerar with its wadis, and Beersheba, all in the western Negev.
The occasion is a famine that would ordinarily have driven a herdsman to Egypt, and a command that stopped him going.
A first hearer knew that a hundredfold harvest in the Negev was remarkable and possible, since the marginal land there could be worked in a good season, and he knew that a man who grew that rich among neighbours who had not would be resented.
He also knew the weapon they used. Filling a rival's wells with earth was the standard way of pushing him out without a battle, and it struck at the labour of the man who had dug them as much as at the water. The names Isaac gave the three new wells record the quarrel itself.
The treaty at the end would have been familiar in form: a delegation, a shared meal, and mutual oaths sworn in the morning, which is how covenants of that kind were ratified.
Significance
Isaac repeated his father's failure over his wife and God repeated his father's promise anyway, and Israel heard from that how little the covenant depended on the man carrying it.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
A man who kept moving and kept digging rather than fighting for water was also a pointed example for a nation that quarrelled over water the whole way from Egypt to Kadesh.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
How it is read
Radak is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus holds under a licence permitting quotation, and he reads it as Isaac walking his father's road a second time. On the famine of the first verse he says only that it fell "in the land of Canaan" (Radak on Genesis 26:1:1, translated by Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY). On Abimelech's discovery at the ninth verse he takes the particle opening the king's speech as the ordinary word for but, and reads the king as arguing from what he had seen to what he now knew (Radak on Genesis 26:9:1). The king's order at the eleventh verse he reads as a public notice with two purposes, that no one touch Rebekah and that no one harm Isaac on her account (Radak on Genesis 26:11:1). On the wells he writes at length, and takes the digging as a claim of undisputed right inside the part of the land promised to Abraham, and the going up to Beersheba as a move onto ground his tradition ranked higher in holiness than the Philistine coast (Radak on Genesis 26:23:1 and 26:24:1). Rashi comments on sixteen verses here and Ibn Ezra on two, and the corpus holds no English of either under a licence permitting quotation, so they stand as citations: Rashi on Genesis 26:2:1, Ibn Ezra on Genesis 26:6:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus records forty rabbinic locators on this chapter, thirty-eight of them Midrash and two Talmud, and every one is a locator without text, so this site cites where the rabbis took the chapter up rather than what they said there. The famine of the first verse is taken up at Aggadat Bereshit 61:2 and Bereshit Rabbah 25:3, and the promise sworn to Isaac in the third and fourth verses at Aggadat Bereshit 82:2, Bamidbar Rabbah 23:8 and Bamidbar Rabbah 14:12. The hundredfold harvest of the twelfth verse draws Bamidbar Rabbah 12:11, and Abimelech's dismissal at the sixteenth Bamidbar Rabbah 18:21. The wells are the heaviest part of the chapter for the rabbis: Bereshit Rabbah 62:3, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 26:20:1, Bamidbar Rabbah 21:8, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Toldot 36 and 37, and the one Talmud locator on the well of living water at the nineteenth verse, Berakhot 56b:7. The oath cut with Abimelech at the twenty-eighth verse is taken up at Bereshit Rabbah 28:5, the second Talmud locator standing at the twenty-fourth verse as Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 43:18, and Esau's Hittite wives at the close of the chapter at Bereshit Rabbah 65:4.
Sources: Radak, Radak on Genesis 26:1:1, 26:9:1, 26:11:1, 26:16:1, 26:23:1 and 26:24:1, translated by Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY; Rashi, Rashi on Genesis 26:2:1 and fifteen further verses of this chapter, cited only, no English version in the corpus under a licence permitting quotation; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Genesis 26:6:1 and 26:19:1, cited only; Midrash, Bereshit Rabbah 25:3, 28:5, 62:3, 64:5, 64:6 and 65:4; Aggadat Bereshit 61:2, 82:2, 13:1, 33:1, 40:3 and 47:1; Bamidbar Rabbah 10:5, 12:11, 14:12, 18:21, 21:8 and 23:8; Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Toldot 36 and 37; Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 26:20:1; Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 56b:7; Avot DeRabbi Natan, Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 43:18.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Do Not Go Down to Egypt
Genesis 26:1-2
another famine in the land: A second famine comes, and Isaac turns toward Egypt as his father had done. The LORD stops him: do not go down to Egypt. Abraham had no such word in chapter 12, and the road he took is closed to the son. Isaac is the only one of the three patriarchs who never leaves the land of promise.
Genesis 26:1
“In case you might think he was talking about that previous famine, accordingly he added, "besides the famine in the patriarch's time," that is to say, another similar famine beset the land in Isaac's time as in his father's time. The scarcity of the necessities of life threw everyone into great apprehension, compelled them to leave their own home and travel to those places where it was possible to find an abundance of resources.Hence this good man too, on seeing the famine, "took the journey," the text says, "to visit Abimelech in Gerar."”
John Chrysostom · written before 407 · HOMILIES ON GENESIS 51.5-6patristic
4 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Genesis 26:1
“And there was a famine in the land . . . And Isaac went unto . . . Gerar--The pressure of famine in Canaan forced Isaac with his family and flocks to migrate into the land of the Philistines, where he was exposed to personal danger, as his father had been on account of his wife's beauty; but through the seasonable interposition of Providence, he was preserved (Ps 105:14, 15).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 26:1
“What shall he think of the promise when the promised land will not find him bread? Is such a grant worth accepting, upon such terms, and after so long a time? Yes, Isaac will still cleave to the covenant; and the less valuable Canaan in itself seems to be the better he is taught to value it, 1.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 26:1
“Moses relates that Isaac was tried by nearly the same kind of temptation as that through which his father Abraham had twice passed. I have before explained how severe and violent was this assault.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)Reformed
Genesis 26:1
“There was a famine - When this happened we cannot tell; it appears to have been after the death of Abraham. Concerning the first famine, see Gen 12:10. Abimelech - As we know not the time when the famine happened, so we cannot tell whether this was the same Abimelech, Phichol, etc., which are mentioned Gen 20:1, Gen 20:2, etc., or the sons or other descendants of these persons.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The command comes without a reason attached. John Calvin and John Wesley both judged Isaac weaker than his father, and read the order as sparing him a trial he could not bear. Adam Clarke thought God foresaw dangers in Egypt that might wreck his peace or his piety.
Genesis 26:2
“Go not down into Egypt - As Abraham had taken refuge in that country, it is probable that Isaac was preparing to go thither also; and God, foreseeing that he would there meet with trials, etc., which might prove fatal to his peace or to his piety, warns him not to fulfill his intention.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 26:2
“Abraham was a man of very intimate communion with God, and to him all places and conditions were alike; Isaac a very good man, but not cut out for hardship, therefore he is forbidden to go to Egypt; Jacob inured to difficulties, strong and patient, and therefore he must go down into Egypt, that the trial of his faith might be to praise, and honour, and glory.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Genesis 26:2
“Because, therefore, he knew that there was more infirmity in Isaac than there had been in Abraham, he was unwilling to expose him to danger; for he is faithful, and will not suffer his own people to be tempted beyond what they are able to bear.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Genesis 26:3-5
Stay in this land as a foreigner, and I will be with you: Every clause of Abraham's promise is said again to Isaac: the land, the descendants as the stars in the sky, and all nations blessed through his offspring. The reason given is his father's obedience, that Abraham listened to His voice and kept His charge. Isaac has earned none of it. The oath sworn to Abraham is confirmed to the son who inherits it.
Genesis 26:3
“Sojourn in this land - In Gerar, whither he had gone, Gen 26:1, and where we find he settled, Gen 26:6, though the land of Canaan in general might be here intended. That there were serious and important reasons why Isaac should not go to Egypt, we may be fully assured, though they be not assigned here; it is probable that even Isaac himself was not informed why he should not go down to Egypt. I have already supposed that God saw trials in his way which he might not have been able to bear.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
all nations of the earth will be blessed: The promise that all nations will be blessed through the offspring is given to Abraham at 22:18, here to Isaac, and to Jacob at 28:14. Justin Martyr marked the line it takes. It passes over Esau and Reuben and rests only on those from whom the Christ would come.
Genesis 26:4
“Observe, too, how the same promises are made to Isaac and to Jacob. For thus He speaks to Isaac: "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." And to Jacob: "And in thee and in thy seed shall all families of the earth be blessed." He says that neither to Esau nor to Reuben, nor to any other; only to those of whom the Christ should arise, according to the dispensation, through the Virgin Mary. But if you would consider the blessing of Judah, you would perceive what I say.”
Justin Martyr · written before 165 · Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter CXXpatristic
Abraham kept four things here, long before Sinai. John Gill, following Aben Ezra, took charge as the general term and commandments, statutes and laws as its parts. Gill tied the obedience above all to the offering of Isaac, and 22:18 gives the same reason.
Genesis 26:5
“Because that Abraham obeyed my voice,.... In all things, and particularly in offering up his son at his command: and kept my charge; whatever was given him in charge to observe; this, as Aben Ezra thinks, is the general, of which the particulars follow: my commandments, my statutes, and my laws; whether moral, ceremonial, or civil and judicial; all and everyone which God enjoined him, he was careful to observe.”
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 26:5
“Abraham obeyed my voice - מימרי meimeri, my Word. See Gen 15:1. My charge - משמרתי mishmarti, from שמר shamar, he kept, observed, etc., the ordinances or appointments of God. These were always of two kinds: 1. Such as tended to promote moral improvement, the increase of piety, the improvement of the age, etc. And 2. Such as were typical of the promised seed, and the salvation which was to come by him.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 26:6-7
So Isaac settled in Gerar: Isaac tells the men of that place that Rebekah is his sister, the third time this happens in Genesis. It is the second time in this town, and Isaac had not been born for either of the first two, at 12:13 and 20:2. Genesis never says how the son learned it.
Genesis 26:6
“And Isaac dwelt in Gerar. Continued there; in this he was obedient to the command and will of God.”
Isaac Repeats His Father's Lie
Isaac repeats the fear his father voiced at 12:12 and 20:11. Adam Clarke asked whether Abraham had ever told his son of his own lapse. He guessed that Abraham kept silent from shame, so Isaac met the same temptation unwarned.
Genesis 26:7
“He said, She is my sister - It is very strange that in the same place, and in similar circumstances, Isaac should have denied his wife, precisely as his father had done before him! It is natural to ask, Did Abraham never mention this circumstance to his son? Probably be did not, as he was justly ashamed of his weakness on the occasion - the only blot in his character; the son, therefore, not being forewarned, was not armed against the temptation.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 26:8-9
Abimelech king of the Philistines looked down from the window: Abimelech looks down from a window and sees Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah. The first two times the lie broke under a plague at 12:17 and a dream at 20:3. This time it breaks on a domestic moment seen by a man who happened to be looking. Isaac's answer is his father's reasoning again.
Genesis 26:8
“Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife - Whatever may be the precise meaning of the word, it evidently implies that there were liberties taken and freedom used on the occasion, which were not lawful but between man and wife.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 26:8
“This Abimelech was not the same that was in Abraham's days, chap. xx, 2-18, for this was near an hundred years after, but that was the common name of the Philistine kings, as Caesar of the Roman emperors.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
The king who confronts Isaac here bears the name of the king who rebuked Abraham in chapter 20. John Wesley held that he was a different man, since nearly a hundred years lay between the two events. He took Abimelech as a royal title, like Caesar at Rome.
Genesis 26:10-11
This is the third time a pagan king rebukes a patriarch, after Pharaoh in chapter 12 and this king's namesake in chapter 20. Each time the man outside the covenant states the moral case. Abimelech then puts the couple under a decree of death for anyone who harms them. The protection Isaac lied to secure is handed to him openly by the man he lied to.
Genesis 26:10
“Thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us - It is likely that Abimelech might have had some knowledge of God’s intentions concerning the family of Abraham, and that it must be kept free from all impure and alien mixtures; and that consequently, had he or any of his people taken Rebekah, the Divine judgment might have fallen upon the land. Abimelech was a good and holy man; and he appears to have considered adultery as a grievous and destructive crime.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The decree protects both Isaac and his wife. Adam Clarke notes that death was the penalty for adultery among Canaanites, Philistines and Hebrews alike, and points to Judah's sentence on Tamar at 38:24. The king holds the line on marriage that Israel's law later writes down.
Genesis 26:11
“He that toucheth - He who injures Isaac or defiles Rebekah shall certainly die for it. Death was the punishment for adultery among the Canaanites, Philistines, and Hebrews. See Gen 38:24.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Wells Dug and Wells Stopped
Genesis 26:12-14
Isaac sowed seed in the land: Isaac sows and reaps a hundredfold in a year of famine. He is the only patriarch Genesis shows farming a field. The text says the LORD blessed him, and then that he became richer until he was exceedingly wealthy. The verse reporting the blessing is followed at once by the verse reporting that the Philistines envied him.
Genesis 26:12
“Isaac sowed in that land - Being now perfectly free from the fear of evil, he betakes himself to agricultural and pastoral pursuits, in which he has the especial blessing of God, so that his property becomes greatly increased. A hundred-fold - מאה שערים, meah shearim, literally, “A hundred-fold of barley;” and so the Septuagint, ἑκατοστευουσαν κριθην. Perhaps such a crop of this grain was a rare occurrence in Gerar. The words, however, may be taken in a general way, as signifying a very great increase; so they are used by our Lord in the parable of the sower.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 26:12
“He reaped a hundred fold; and there seems to be an emphasis laid upon the time: it was that same year when there was a famine in the land; while others scarcely reaped at all, he reaped thus plentifully.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
he became richer and richer: The Hebrew repeats one word three times in this verse. Adam Clarke set it out literally: the man was great, went on growing great, until he was exceedingly great. The same root stands in God's promise at 12:2 to make Abram's name great.
Genesis 26:13
“The man waxed great - There is a strange and observable recurrence of the same term in the original: ויגדל האיש וילך הלוך וגדל עד כי גדל מאד vaiyigdal haish vaiyelech haloch vegadel ad ki gadal meod, And the man was Great; and he went, going on, and was Great, until that he was exceeding Great. How simple is this language, and yet how forcible!”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the Philistines envied him: Adam Clarke reads the servants as a sign of scale, since holdings this large needed many hands, some born in the house and some bought. The envy comes first and the act follows. The next verse shows what the envy did, when the Philistines stop his father's wells with dirt.
Genesis 26:14
“He had possession of flocks - He who blessed him in the increase of his fields blessed him also in the increase of his flocks; and as he had extensive possessions, so he must have many hands to manage such concerns: therefore it is added, he had great store of servants - he had many domestics, some born in his house, and others purchased by his money.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 26:15-18
all the wells that his father’s servants had dug: The Philistines filled his father's wells with dirt after Abraham died. Stopping a well strikes at a dead man's work as much as at a living neighbour's water. Isaac reopens them and gives them back the names his father had given them. He recovers an inheritance that had been buried.
Genesis 26:15
“This Isaac, therefore, our Savior, when he has come into that valley of Gerar, first of all wishes to dig those wells that the servants of his father had dug; he wishes to renew the wells of the law, of course, and the prophets, which Philistines had filled with earth.Who are those who fill the wells with earth? Those, doubtless, who put an earthly and fleshly interpretation on the law and close up the spiritual and mystical interpretation so that neither do they themselves drink nor do they permit others to drink.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON GENESIS 13.2patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 26:15
“For all the wells - the Philistines had stopped them - In such countries a good well was a great acquisition; and hence in predatory wars it was usual for either party to fill the wells with earth or sand, in order to distress the enemy. The filling up the wells in this case was a most unprincipled transaction, as they had pledged themselves to Abraham, by a solemn oath, not to injure each other in this or any other respect. See Gen 21:25-31.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Abimelech gives the reason: much too powerful for us. Adam Clarke called this the first recorded case of what the Greeks named ostracism, the banishing of a man whose power the people feared. He saw the same principle at work when Pharaoh oppressed the Israelites.
Genesis 26:16
“Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we - This is the first instance on record of what was termed among the Greeks ostracism; i.e., the banishment of a person from the state, of whose power, influence, or riches, the people were jealous. There is a remarkable saying of Bacon on this subject, which seems to intimate that he had this very circumstance under his eye: “Public envy is an ostracism that eclipseth men when they grow too great.” On this same principle Pharaoh oppressed the Israelites.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
encamped in the Valley of Gerar: Isaac moves off without a quarrel and camps in the Valley of Gerar. John Gill saw a calm and peaceable man in the move. Jerome notes that the Hebrew word for valley here also means a stream, so Isaac settled by water.
Genesis 26:17
“And Isaac departed thence,.... At once, peaceably and quietly, though to his loss and disadvantage, without taking himself either to argument or arms, in favour of himself; he departed immediately, as soon as he perceived his abode was disagreeable to the king and his people; which gives us a very agree, able idea of the calm and peaceable disposition of Isaac: and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there; at some distance from the city of Gerar, as Jarchi observes.”
Isaac reopened the wells: Adam Clarke records a question about the text of this verse. Houbigant proposed reading servants where the Hebrew has days, and Clarke found that reading in the Samaritan, the Septuagint, the Syriac and the Vulgate, and judged it probably the true one. Verse 15 already speaks of the wells his father's servants had dug.
Genesis 26:18
“In the days of Abraham - Instead of בימי bimey, in the days, Houbigant contends we should read עבדי abdey, servants. Isaac dug again the wells which the servants of Abraham his father had dug. This reading is supported by the Samaritan, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate; and it is probably the true one.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 26:19-22
found a well of fresh water there: Three wells carry three names that track the quarrel: Esek, where they contended with him, Sitnah, and Rehoboth. Isaac moves on each time and digs again, and the room he finally gets is given to him. At Rehoboth he says the LORD has made room for us. Jerome notes that the word behind Sitnah is the word behind the name Satan.
Genesis 26:19
“For Abraham dug wells and Isaac too—that is, the mighty patriarchs—and Jacob also, as we find in the Gospel, as if they were fountains of the human race, and specifically fountains of faith and devotion. For what is a well of living water but a depth of profound instruction? On this account Hagar saw the angel by a well and Jacob found his wife Rachel by a well; Moses too earned the first rewards of his future marriage beside a well.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Isaac and the Soul, Chapter 4, Sections 21-22patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 26:19
“A well of springing water - באר מים חיים beer mayim chaiyim, A well of living waters. This is the oriental phrase for a spring, and this is its meaning both in the Old and New Testaments: Lev 14:5, Lev 14:50; Lev 15:30; Num 19:17; Son 4:15. See also Joh 4:10-14; Joh 7:38; Rev 21:6; Rev 22:1. And by these scriptures we find that an unfailing spring was an emblem of the graces and influences of the Spirit of God.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The quarrel starts only after the servants strike a well of fresh water, which Adam Clarke reads from the Hebrew as a well of living waters, a spring. Clarke notes that in such country a good well was a great acquisition. Isaac's men dug it, and Gerar's herdsmen claim it.
Genesis 26:20
“In this sense, Jeremiah was a man of contention ( Jer. xv. 10 ), and Christ himself, though he is the prince of peace. [3.] What a mercy it is to have plenty of water, to have it without striving for it. The more common this mercy is the more reason we have to be thankful for it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
so he named it Sitnah: Esek named a dispute, and this second name is harsher. Jerome gives its sense as enmity and records that Aquila and Symmachus rendered it as opposing and contrary. Isaac gives up a second well, and the third, at verse 22, is left to him in peace.
Genesis 26:21
“They dug another well - Never did any man more implicitly follow the Divine command, Resist not evil, than Isaac; whenever he found that his work was likely to be a subject of strife and contention, he gave place, and rather chose to suffer wrong than to have his own peace of mind disturbed. Thus he overcame evil with good.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 26:21
“And they digged another well,.... That is, Isaac's servants: and strove for that also; the herdsmen of Gerar disputed their right to that also, and strove to get it from them: and he called the name of it Sitnah; which signifies "hatred", it being out of hatred and malice to him that they gave him so much trouble; from this word Satan has his name, and these men were of a diabolical spirit, envious, spiteful, and malicious.”
Isaac credits the LORD with the open well. Fruitful is the word of the first blessing at 1:28 and of the promise to Abraham at 17:6. Ambrose of Milan praised this pattern in Isaac, who went away from others to avoid strife.
Genesis 26:22
“So therefore the wells that Abraham dug, that is, the Scriptures of the Old Testament, have been filled with earth by the Philistines, or evil teachers, scribes and Pharisees, or even hostile powers; and their veins have been stopped up lest they provide a drink for these who are of Abraham. For that people cannot drink from the Scriptures but suffer a "thirst for the word of God" until Isaac should come and open them that his servants may drink.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON GENESIS 13.3patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 26:22
“And which of these would we be found the followers of? This well they called Rehoboth, enlargements, room enough: in the two former wells we may see what the earth is, straitness and strife; men cannot thrive, for the throng of their neighbours. This well shows us what heaven is; it is enlargement and peace, room enough there, for there are many mansions.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Genesis 26:22
Now Isaac reopened many wells that his father had dug, but strangers had filled them after the death of his father Abraham. Beyond the others he dug the following wells: one in the valley of Gerar, and he found there a well of living water; and the shepherds of Gerar disputed with Isaac's shepherds, because they claimed the water of this well as their own, and he called its name "Injustice." And he dug another well over which a quarrel arose, and he called it "Enmity."
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Isaac and the Soul, Chapter 4, Sections 20-21patristic
The Oath at Beersheba
Genesis 26:23-25
Isaac went up to Beersheba: God appears the night Isaac reaches Beersheba and names Himself the God of your father Abraham. That name is the ground the whole chapter stands on. Isaac builds an altar, calls on the name of the LORD, pitches his tent, and only then digs a well. Worship comes before shelter, and shelter before water.
Genesis 26:23
“And he went up from thence to Beersheba. From the place he last, removed unto Beersheba; the famine being over, he returns to the place where he and his rather formerly lived, Gen 21:33.”
John Gill · Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)Reformed Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 26:23
“Probably he was apprehensive that the Philistines would not let him rest there: Fear not, says God to him, I am with thee, and will bless thee. Those may remove with comfort that are sure of God's presence with them wherever they go.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Do not be afraid: is the word God first spoke to Abram at 15:1. Adam Clarke reads the timing as care for a son insulted by the Philistines and still grieving his father. Abraham is dead, and the promise still runs through him.
Genesis 26:24
“The Lord appeared unto him - He needed especial encouragement when insulted and outraged by the Philistines; for having returned to the place where his noble father had lately died, the remembrance of his wrongs, and the remembrance of his loss, could not fail to afflict his mind; and God immediately appears to comfort and support him in his trials, by a renewal of all his promises.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Isaac built an altar there: This is the one altar Genesis records Isaac building, at Beersheba, where his father also called on the name of the LORD at 21:33. Origen placed the altar and tent under the law. In the Gospels, he said, Isaac builds a house and lays a foundation, as Wisdom has built her house at Proverbs 9:1.
Genesis 26:25
Isaac builds indeed an altar even now in the law and pitches his tent, but in the Gospels he does not pitch a tent but builds a house and establishes a foundation. For hear Wisdom saying of the church: "Wisdom," Scripture says, "has built herself a house and has set up seven columns."
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · HOMILIES ON GENESIS 14.2patristic
Genesis 26:26-31
Abimelech came to Isaac from Gerar: The men who told him to go now come after him to swear a treaty. Their reason is that they can plainly see the LORD has been with him. Abraham swore the same kind of oath at this place in chapter 21, with a king of this name and a commander called Phicol. Isaac answers them with a feast.
Genesis 26:26
“Then Abimelech went to him--As there was a lapse of ninety years between the visit of Abraham and of Isaac, the Abimelech and Phichol spoken of must have been different persons' official titles. Here is another proof of the promise (Ge 12:2) being fulfilled, in an overture of peace being made to him by the king of Gerar.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Isaac names the injury plainly: You hated me and sent me away. Adam Clarke held the charge fair, because even if the king's men did no harm themselves, they allowed their servants to do it. Abimelech's reply in verse 29 claims they did only good.
Genesis 26:27
“Seeing ye hate me - He was justified in thinking thus, because if they did not injure him, they had connived at their servants doing it.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
there should now be an oath: God promised at verse 3 to be with Isaac, and here outsiders report it as a thing they can plainly see. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown took the overture of peace as proof of the promise at 12:2. The pagan king asks for both an oath and a covenant.
Genesis 26:28
“Let there be now an oath betwixt us - Let us make a covenant by which we shall be mutually bound, and let it be ratified in the most solemn manner.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Genesis 26:28
“The Lord is with thee, and thou art the blessed of the Lord, q.d. Be persuaded to overlook the injuries offered thee, for God has abundantly made up to thee the damage thou receivedst. Those whom God blesseth and favours, have reason enough to forgive those that hate them, since the worst enemy they have cannot do them any real hurt.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Genesis 26:28
“Or, "For this reason we desire thy friendship, because God is with thee. " Note, It is good to be in covenant and communion with those who are in covenant and communion with God, 1 John i.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
sending you on your way in peace: The king recasts the expulsion as kindness. Isaac lets the claim stand, and Ambrose of Milan praised him for yielding to those who drove him out and receiving them again when they were sorry. Their last words, you are blessed by the LORD, echo Laban's greeting at 24:31.
Genesis 26:29
“THESE words truly describe the position of many whom I address at this time. There are hundreds here upon whom my eyes can rest and to any one of whom I might point with this finger, or rather, to whom I might extend this hand, to give a hearty shake, and say, "You are now the blessed of the Lord." I need not say it in the same spirit, nor for the same reason that the Philistines did. They had behaved basely towards Isaac and now that he had prospered, they urged him to forget the past.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2238: “"You Are Now the Blessed of the Lord"” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Isaac prepared a feast for them: Adam Clarke took the feast to be eaten from a sacrifice offered as the covenant was made, which he called a common custom. Jacob and Laban seal their covenant the same way at 31:54, with a sacrifice and a meal. The meal comes first and the oath the next morning.
Genesis 26:30
“Let us imitate Isaac's goodness; let us imitate his purity. Isaac was certainly a good and virtuous man, devoted to God and faithful to his wife. He did not return evil for evil. He yielded to those who drove him out, but he received them again when they were sorry, being neither harsh to insolence nor obdurate to kindness. When he went away from others, he fled to avoid strife. When he received them again, he readily forgave them, and he was exceptionally kind when he pardoned. Men sought to associate with him, and he added a delightful feast.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus, Book 2, Section 99patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Genesis 26:30
“He made them a feast - Probably on the sacrifice that was offered on the occasion of making this covenant. This was a common custom.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
they left him in peace: They got up early, swore an oath to each other, and left him in peace, the words they had used of their own conduct at verse 29. Now the words are true. Ambrose of Milan praised Isaac for receiving again the men who had sent him away.
Genesis 26:31
“They rose up be times - Early rising was general among the primitive inhabitants of the world, and this was one cause which contributed greatly to their health and longevity.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Genesis 26:32-33
His servants come the same day with word that they have found water. The oath and the well arrive together. He calls it Shibah, and the city keeps the name Beersheba, which his father had fixed on it at 21:31 after his own oath. The place is sworn over twice by two generations.
Genesis 26:32
“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 grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah. Esau's foolish marriage--foolish, some think, in marrying two wives together, for which perhaps he is called a fornicator ( Heb. xii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
So he called it Shibah: Adam Clarke thought this was Abraham's own well of 21:31, stopped by the Philistines and now reopened, with one letter added to its old name. Jerome records that the Septuagint had the servants report finding no water. He asked why a dry well would be named Oath.
Genesis 26:33
“He called it Shebah - This was probably the same well which was called Beersheba in the time of Abraham, which the Philistines had filled up, and which the servants of Isaac had reopened. The same name is therefore given to it which it had before, with the addition of the emphatic letter ה he, by which its signification became extended, so that now it signified not merely an oath or full, but satisfaction and abundance.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Esau's Bitter Marriages
Genesis 26:34-35
Esau was forty years old, he took as his wives: Esau marries two Hittite women at forty, and they are daughters of the land his grandfather barred at 24:3. The chapter ends on one line about the cost: they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah. That grief is the hinge into chapter 27. Rebekah moves there to keep the blessing away from him.
Genesis 26:34
“He took to wife - the daughter, etc. - It is very likely that the wives taken by Esau were daughters of chiefs among the Hittites, and by this union he sought to increase and strengthen his secular power and influence.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah: The grief Isaac and Rebekah felt, Adam Clarke says, came from the wives themselves more than from the marriage. The Targums he cites say these Hittite women served idols and would not listen to Isaac or Rebekah. Rebekah raises the grief again at 27:46.
Genesis 26:35
“Which were a grief of mind - Not the marriage, though that was improper, but the persons; they, by their perverse and evil ways, brought bitterness into the hearts of Isaac and Rebekah. The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, and that of Jerusalem, say they were addicted to idol worship, and rebelled against and would not hearken to the instructions either of Isaac or Rebekah. From Canaanites a different conduct could not be reasonably expected. Esau was far from being spiritual, and his wives were wholly carnal.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: A chapter in which the son is tried by nearly the same trial his father had twice passed through, as Calvin classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The three wells, named for what happened at each | Esek, because they contended with him. Sitnah, from the word for hostility, which the exposition of this chapter notes is the word behind the name Satan. Rehoboth, because the LORD has made room for us. Adam Clarke reads the sequence as the plainest following of the command to resist no evil in the Old Testament, since Isaac moves on and digs again each time his work is taken from him.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 26:21. | Genesis 26:20, Genesis 26:21, Genesis 26:22 |
| His father's life, lived again | A famine, a move to Gerar, a king called Abimelech, a commander called Phicol, a wife called a sister, a quarrel over wells, an oath at Beersheba and a name fixed on the place: every one of these stands in the Abraham account already. John Calvin reads the trial as nearly the same, and Adam Clarke calls it very strange that in the same place and in similar circumstances Isaac should have denied his wife exactly as his father had. The chapter's shape is the repetition itself.John Calvin, Commentaries, 1554, on Genesis 26:1. | Genesis 26:1, Genesis 26:7, Genesis 26:15, Genesis 26:26, Genesis 26:33 |
| I am with you, said and then seen | God says it at verse 3 when He stops Isaac from going to Egypt, and again at verse 24 the night he reaches Beersheba. At verse 28 the men who had driven him out say the same thing back to him from the outside, that they can plainly see the LORD has been with him. The promise is spoken twice by God and once by his enemies as their reason for wanting a treaty. | Genesis 26:3, Genesis 26:24, Genesis 26:28 |
| Room, and the oath, and the name of the town | Rehoboth at verse 22 is built on the word Isaac uses in the same breath, that the LORD has made room for us. At verse 33 he names a well Shibah on the day an oath is sworn, and the town keeps the name Beersheba, which his father had fixed on the same place at Genesis 21:31 after his own oath. Adam Clarke holds that this was probably the same well Abraham had named, which the Philistines filled in and Isaac opened again.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 26:33. | Genesis 26:22, Genesis 26:33 |
The debated concept
8 more paragraphs on the patterns
The first question is why the wife and sister account happens a third time. Adam Clarke calls it very strange that in the same place and in similar circumstances Isaac should have denied his wife precisely as his father had. John Calvin takes it as the same trial applied to a weaker man, and holds that God kept Isaac out of Egypt because He knew there was more infirmity in him than in Abraham. John Wesley reads it as Isaac entering a temptation that had already overcome his father twice. Genesis never says how the son learned the arrangement, and it never excuses it.
The second is whether this Abimelech is the earlier one. John Wesley holds that he is a successor, since nearly a hundred years lie between the two accounts, and reads Abimelech as the standing name of the kings of that place. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown reckon the gap at ninety years and take both Abimelech and Phicol as official names rather than personal ones. The chapter gives no dates of its own, so the argument rests on the ages given elsewhere in the book.
The third is a textual one at verse 18. Adam Clarke reports that Charles Houbigant contended the Hebrew should be read as the servants of Abraham rather than in the days of Abraham. The Berean text in the store reads it as the days, and the difference changes who is being remembered in the sentence.
The fourth is what grieved Isaac and Rebekah at verse 35. Adam Clarke places the grief in the two women themselves and their ways rather than in the fact of the marriage, which he also calls improper. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the estrangement as overruled by God for keeping the chosen family apart from the people of the land. Either way the chapter ends by preparing the quarrel of Genesis 27.
The divine connection
The promise is restated to Isaac in full at verses 3 and 4 and the reason given is Abraham's obedience. Isaac has done nothing to earn it, and the chapter says so by putting the reason in the past tense and attaching it to his father. What he receives afterwards, the hundredfold harvest, the wells, the peace with his enemies, all follows a word he inherited.
The order of what he does at Beersheba is its own statement. He builds an altar and calls on the name of the LORD, then pitches his tent, then digs a well. Worship comes before shelter and shelter before water.
The treaty is the chapter's proof. The men who envied him and drove him out come back asking for an oath, and they give their reason in their own words, that they can plainly see the LORD has been with him. Matthew Henry and Adam Clarke both read the scene through Proverbs 16:7, that when a man's ways please the LORD He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The context
John Calvin, Commentary on Genesis and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
The form and classifications
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Genesis 26:16; John Calvin, Commentaries, 1554, on Genesis 26:1 and Matthew Henry.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Ambrose of Milan, On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus, Book 2, Section 99; Chuck Missler, Learn the Bible in 24 Hours; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Hebrew Questions on Genesis; John Calvin; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter CXX; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON GENESIS 14.2.