Genesis Chapter 26
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Chief People:
Choice Verses:
Genesis 26:1 Now there was a famine in the land--besides the previous famine in Abraham's time--and Isaac went to Abimelek king of the Philistines in Gerar.
Genesis 26:2 The LORD appeared to Isaac and said, 'Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live.
Genesis 26:3 Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham.
Genesis 26:4 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed,
Genesis 26:5 because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.
Genesis 26:6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
Genesis 26:7 When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he said, 'She is my sister,' because he was afraid to say, 'She is my wife.' He thought, 'The men of this place might kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is beautiful.
Genesis 26:8 When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelek king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.
Genesis 26:9 So Abimelek summoned Isaac and said, 'She is really your wife! Why did you say, 'She is my sister'?' Isaac answered him, 'Because I thought I might lose my life on account of her.
Genesis 26:10 Then Abimelek said, 'What is this you have done to us? One of the men might well have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.
Genesis 26:11 So Abimelek gave orders to all the people: 'Anyone who harms this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.
Genesis 26:12 Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him.
Genesis 26:13 The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy.
Genesis 26:14 He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.
Genesis 26:15 So all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth.
Genesis 26:16 Then Abimelek said to Isaac, 'Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.
Genesis 26:17 So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar, where he settled.
Genesis 26:18 Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.
Genesis 26:19 Isaac's servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water there.
Genesis 26:20 But the herders of Gerar quarreled with those of Isaac and said, 'The water is ours!' So he named the well Esek, because they disputed with him.
Genesis 26:21 Then they dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah.
Genesis 26:22 He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth, saying, 'Now the LORD has given us room and we will flourish in the land.
Genesis 26:23 From there he went up to Beersheba.
Genesis 26:24 That night the LORD appeared to him and said, 'I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.
Genesis 26:25 Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD. There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well.
Genesis 26:26 Meanwhile, Abimelek had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his forces.
Genesis 26:27 Isaac asked them, 'Why have you come to me, since you were hostile to me and sent me away?
Genesis 26:28 They answered, 'We saw clearly that the LORD was with you; so we said, 'There ought to be a sworn agreement between us'--between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you
Genesis 26:29 that you will do us no harm, just as we did not harm you but always treated you well and sent you away peacefully. And now you are blessed by the LORD.
Genesis 26:30 Isaac then made a feast for them, and they ate and drank.
Genesis 26:31 Early the next morning the men swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they went away peacefully.
Genesis 26:32 That day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well they had dug. They said, 'We've found water!
Genesis 26:33 He called it Shibah, and to this day the name of the town has been Beersheba.
Genesis 26:34 When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.
Genesis 26:35 They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.
Crucial Words
Famine - Scarcity of food; dearth; a general want of provisions sufficient for the inhabitants of a country or besieged place. Famine was seen as both punishment and opportunity. Suffering opened the door for repentance and change.
Decree - Decrees issued by rulers, written commands having the effect of law, and the metaphor of God as King of the world.God's decree is his eternal purpose in governing the universe he made to unite all things in Christ.
Envy - Sin of jealousy over the blessings and achievements of others. A painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage
Quarreling - An angry disagreement between two or more people or groups. A “quarrel” is a verbal fight. Not all conflicts are quarrels, but a conflict becomes a quarrel when it's sinfully combative or contentious (Genesis 26:20-24).
Altar - The word altar comes from the Latin altārium, meaning "high," a raised structure on which gifts or sacrifices to a god are made
Oath - A solemn affirmation or declaration, made with an appeal to God for the truth of what is affirmed, in various forms, and taken in different ways