Commentary
Skeptic's Annotated Bible
26:1 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.
Probably not the same Abimelech as before, since so much time has passed (around 90 years). Though with people living hundreds of years, it could be.
26:2 And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:
26:3 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;
I wonder if this is an animal killing oath or a ball-holding oath. I guess since you can't hold God's balls, this will involve killing animals.
26:4 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;
26:5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
26:6 And Isaac dwelt in Gerar:
26:7 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.
Are you serious? Isaac commits the same lie that worked so well for Abraham? At least with Abraham, he could kinda sorta claim that he was telling the truth, because Sarah was his half-sister (and again, ew! "I wasn't lying, really! Saved by incest!"). But Rebekah really isn't Isaac's sister; she's his cousin. And his wife. Ew! (It's still incest, just without the advantage of making Isaac not be a liar.)
26:8 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.
26:9 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.
I'd rather you or your men take my beautiful wife to themselves, so my God can punish you and force you to give me lots of gold! Hey, it worked for my father...
26:10 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.
Even though we wouldn't have really done anything wrong, and you were the liar. But we know how your God works.
26:11 And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.
I can understand how Abimelech would be pissed at Isaac, but threatening to kill anyone (his own people!) who touches Isaac or Rebekah is a gross over-reaction. The appropriate thing to do would be to exile Isaac. (Or not let him live there in the first place.) These people are nothing but trouble.
26:12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold: and the LORD blessed him.
26:13 And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great:
26:14 For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants: and the Philistines envied him.
He's so great, he has so many slaves! Only a great man who is blessed by the LORD could own so many human beings.
26:15 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.
A symbolic gesture to remove the claim to the territory laid by Abraham? Or to harass Isaac to get him to leave? Probably to leave, because:
26:16 And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we.
And a dishonorable liar who carelessly risks my people.
26:17 And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.
See, this is what Abimelech should have done in the first place!
26:18 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.
26:19 And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.
26:20 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; because they strove with him.
Water rights in a desert are pretty important, yes. Esek means "argument." So the herdmen who live in Gerar raise a fuss because this guy Isaac and his large household come into their land and start digging wells and taking their water. Yup, I have to side with the herdmen of Gerar on this one.
26:21 And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah.
"Opposition."
26:22 And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth;
"Enlarged space."
and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.
26:23 And he went up from thence to Beersheba.
He goes to a place named Beersheba ("well oath"), which was named by Abraham and Abimelech the last time Abimelech got screwed by this family.
26:24 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.
This is a strange introduction for God to make; it's as if Isaac doesn't know who he is. But God appeared before Isaac in 26:2, just a few verses ago (and didn't introduce himself like this).
26:25 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.
Ah, it's a well-digging oath.
26:26 Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol the chief captain of his army.
26:27 And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you?
Hey Isaac, can you blame them?
26:28 And they said, We saw 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;
26:29 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.
26:30 And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink.
26:31 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.
26:32 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.
26:33 And he called it Shebah:
"Oath"
therefore the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day.
No, actually, this place already had this name. So this oath between Isaac and Abimelech is simply that Isaac would do no harm to Abimelech or his people. Let's see if Isaac keeps to this oath.
26:34 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:
Not much for segues, eh? Okay, fine, now let's touch base with Esau. Poor Esau, who Isaac tricked into giving up his inheritance for some stew. Now he's married, to two wives (more polygamy! Yeah!), Judith and Bashemath.
26:35 Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.
Is Isaac upset because Esau got married; because he got married to two wives; or that his wives were Hittites? (Or perhaps that they weren't his sisters or cousins; you know how this family loves incest.)
Inexplicably, Jamieson indicates that the problem is that they're idolators: "we may easily imagine how much his pious heart was wounded, and the family peace destroyed, when his favorite but wayward son brought no less than two idolatrous wives among them." Of all the possible reasons for Isaac to be upset, this one is not supported by the text; this is just bigotry.
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