Chapter Twenty-Six

The Sojourn of Isaac in Gerar and a New Revelation of God to Isaac

Chapter 26 is the only chapter in the Book of Genesis devoted exclusively to the history of Isaac, whereas from verse 20 of chapter 25 (Gen 25:20), and in chapter 27 and until (Gen 28:16), the history of Isaac is joined with the history of his sons, and before that it was part of the history of Abraham. This chapter relates the external circumstances of Isaac’s life, which took place at least seventy-five years after a similar, according to the circumstances of the case, visit to Gerar and Beersheba by Abraham (Gen 20-21). Despite the obvious similarity of the two biblical accounts they present many differences, have clearly different plots, so that nothing justifies the opinion of some biblical critics (for instance, H. Gunkel, in Handkommentar z. Alt. Test. hrsg. v. W. Nowack, Genesis, Gottingen 1901), that in the mentioned episodes of chapter 26 we have only unsuccessful duplicates of similar accounts in chapters 20 and 21.

Genesis 26:1–2. Now there was a famine in the land, other than the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar. And the Lord appeared to him and said: Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you, Abimelech—“my father is king” or “king my father”—is a customary title of the kings of the Philistines, like “Pharaoh” of the Egyptian kings: the name Abimelech is borne by kings of the Philistines in the times of Abraham (Gen 20-21), Isaac (Gen 26), and David (Ps 33:1, 2 Sam 11:21). Probably Isaac is dealing with a successor of Abimelech—a contemporary of Abraham: the Abimelech contemporary with Abraham appears with greater nobility of character than the contemporary of Isaac. It is possible, however, that in both cases one and the same person is acting (let us remember the longevity of that time). The same can be supposed about Phichol, the military commander of Abimelech, who also appears in the history of Abraham and in the history of Isaac, though some are inclined to see in the name “Phichol” (from the Hebrew—“the mouth of all”) a common noun, the name of the reporter of requests or complaints to the Philistine king. Gerar, according to Delitzsch, is now Kir-bet-El-Gerar, in the southern part of Palestine. The history of Isaac in chapter 26 begins with the same calamity of famine that visited Abraham at first when he settled in Canaan (Gen 12:10). Following his father’s example, Isaac was about to move to Egypt. But God leads each of his chosen ones according to their needs, and above all—according to his wise plans. Therefore he did not allow Isaac to travel to Egypt, which was permitted to Abraham. “The Lord God,” says the blessed Theodoret (questions on Genesis, 78), “displays his wisdom and care in everything. For he permitted Abraham to go to Egypt not because he was troubled to feed him in Palestine, but to show the Egyptians the virtue of this man and urge them to emulate the patriarch’s virtue. But he commanded Isaac to remain in Palestine and provided him abundantly with all necessities... For in the midst of scarcity and lack of necessary things, when the land became barren, Isaac, having sown, gathered an abundant harvest (Gen 26:12).” According to the opinion of Jewish commentators, Isaac could not leave the holy land, as one consecrated in sacrifice (L. Philippson, Die israelitische Bibel. Th. 1, 1859, s. 124). Perhaps the brevity of the famine also had significance here.

Genesis 26:3–5. Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father; and I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and will give to your offspring all these lands; and in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham your father obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. To encourage Isaac, the Lord repeats to him the promises given to Abraham (cf. Gen 12:7), but in part abbreviated, and in part with intentional indication that God’s mercies are granted to Isaac precisely for the sake of Abraham—his faithfulness to all that God commanded: commandments (Hebrew: mitzvoth), statutes (chukkoth), and laws (toroth). These latter terms bear the specific character of Mosaic terminology and are most often encountered in Deuteronomy. The distinction between these terms, pointed out by Jewish commentators (Rashi, Abarbanel), is very indefinite (see Philippson, s. 125–126); in any case with respect to Abraham they have a completely general meaning, without special reference to individual cases of his life (according to Abarbanel: mitzva—the circumcision of Isaac and the expulsion of Ishmael; chukka—the sacrifice of Isaac; torah—the marriage of Isaac to a kinswoman); yet with separate reference to these terms “the wisdom of God, according to the words of St. John Chrysostom, stirs the spirit of the righteous (Isaac), encourages him, and directs him to become an imitator of his father” (Works of St. John Chrysostom in Russian translation, St. Petersburg 1898, vol. IV, book 2, Homily 41, p. 552).

The Incident with Rebekah

Genesis 26:7–11. The men of the place asked him about his wife, and he said: She is my sister; for he was afraid to say: My wife; lest, he thought, the men of the place should kill me because of Rebekah, because she was beautiful to behold. And when he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window and saw Isaac playing with Rebekah his wife. And Abimelech called Isaac and said: Behold, she is surely your wife; how then did you say: She is my sister? Isaac said to him: Because I thought, If I say: She is my wife, I might die on account of her. And Abimelech said to him: What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us. So Abimelech charged all the people, saying: Whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. Slavonic: “the king of Gerar,” according to the Septuagint (in some manuscripts, however, of the Septuagint) Φιλιστείμ (57, 130, 15, 72, 82, 135 in Holmes), Russian: “Philistine,” Hebrew: pelischtim, Vulgate: Palestinorum. This incident, entirely analogous to the twofold case with Abraham and Sarah in Egypt (Gen 12:13-20) and in Gerar (Gen 20:2-18), differs from the latter in some details. Isaac’s fainthearted action appears less excusable and plausible, since he apparently faced less danger than Abraham. Isaac’s marital relationship to Rebekah is revealed to the king in this case not through a dread divine visitation (as with Abraham) but by chance—through Isaac’s affectionate behavior (such is the meaning of “playing” with her, v. 8) with his wife. Abimelech does not take Rebekah into his house as the Pharaoh and afterward the king of the Philistines did with Sarah, but only fears the possibility of transgression “asham” (Gen 26:10-11, cf. Gen 20:9) toward her on the part of someone from his people (Kurtz and Delitzsch see here an indication of Abimelech’s advanced age). In any case, the dread admonition to the king and people in Abraham’s time lived in the memory of the inhabitants of Gerar.

The Enrichment of Isaac and His Removal from Gerar at Abimelech’s Demand

Genesis 26:12. And Isaac sowed in that land and received in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him. If Abraham was a simple nomad and only occasionally planted trees (Gen 21:33), then Isaac begins, alongside pastoralism, to engage in agriculture as well, and Jacob develops this branch of industry, apparently on a larger scale (cf. the dream of Joseph about sheaves) (Gen 37:7). Thus too do the present-day Bedouins of Arabia, Syria, and Palestine. The beginning of regular agriculture among the ancient Hebrews dates to the time of their sojourn in Egypt. According to the Syriac text (Peshitta), the Septuagint, Slavonic, and Russian, Isaac sowed barley. The Septuagint and others read in the Hebrew text: seorim, barley (ἑκατοστεύουσαν κριθήν); in the Masoretic text: schearim, “shearim”—a measure of unknown magnitude; Vulgate: centuplum. It seems we should prefer the latter reading, that is, to see here the thought of grain in general, not barley alone, which was valued very low even in biblical antiquity (cf. Judg 7:13; 1 Sam 4:28). A hundredfold harvest, very rare in Palestine and in antiquity (Matt 13:8), and even now (the usual harvest is about 25–30 times the seed), was a gift of God’s special favor to Isaac for his obedience.

Genesis 26:13. And the man became great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great. Locupletatus est homo (Vulg.). Metropolitan Philaret: he became rich.

Genesis 26:14–16. And he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great household. And the Philistines envied him. Hebrew: abbuddah rabbah, Slavonic: “much agriculture,” Russian: “a great household.” The same Hebrew expression is used in (Job 1:3), where in Russian: “a great retinue.” Thus probably here too, since the context in both cases is the same. And all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up and filled with earth. And Abimelech said to Isaac: Go away from us, for you have become much mightier than us. The wealth and strength of Isaac arouse the envy of the Philistines, which is manifested first indirectly, though very painfully for him, in the stopping up of his wells, without which he with his herds could not move about in the vicinity of Gerar (the stopping up of wells in the East is a great crime, expressing and arousing strong enmity, and was customary during war). Then Abimelech directly demands Isaac’s removal from Gerar, from fear for himself on account of the powerful sheik. Unjust and merciless, though politically natural (cf. the Pharaoh’s fear) (Exod 1:8-10), this demand appeared as a kind of punishment for Isaac’s lie about Rebekah.

The Struggle of the Philistines with Isaac Over the Wells

Genesis 26:17. Gen. 26:17, 20-22. And Isaac departed from there, and encamped in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. And the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s shepherds, saying: The water is ours. And he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him. [And Isaac moved away from there,] and they dug another well; and they also quarreled over it; and he called its name Sitnah. And he moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. And he called the name of it Rehoboth, saying: For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land. The mild Isaac yields to violence and leaves the residence of Abimelech (cf. v. 8) and settles in the valley near Gerar. But the conflicts over water continue, and Isaac, continuing to yield to the Philistines, perpetuates his right to the wells being taken from him and their unjust claims—in the names of the wells: “Esek” (dispute, quarrel), according to the Septuagint (reading escheq) ἀδικία, Slavonic “wrong,” v. 20, and “Sitnah” (bitter, satanic enmity), according to the Septuagint Εχθρία, in Aquila: ἀντικειμένη, v. 21. But then God grants the mild Isaac freedom from enemies, and he calls the well “Rehoboth” (spacious places), according to the Septuagint: Εὐρυχωρία. During these disputes Isaac probably changed his camp location many times (therefore, the addition in the Septuagint in v. 21 has significance: “Isaac moved away from there”). An allusion to the names of the last two wells can be found in the wells Schutein and Ruhaibeh, lying to the northeast of Gaza.

The Sojourn of Isaac at Beersheba and the Covenant with Abimelech

Genesis 26:23–25. And he went up from there to Beersheba. And the Lord appeared to him that same night and said: I am the God of Abraham your father; fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for the sake of Abraham my servant. So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there. And the servants of Isaac dug a well there, [in the valley of Gerar]. A new manifestation of God to Isaac reassures him concerning the danger from the Philistines (cf. Gen 15:1), confirming the promises given to Abraham, where God for the first time is called “the God of Abraham,” of course, “not in the sense as if he limited his dominion to one patriarch, but to show his great favor to him” (St. John Chrysostom, p. 561). The building (v. 25) of an altar by Isaac before his tent is an act of his piety, and it is entirely unjustly recognized as proof of the passage’s inauthenticity (Gunkel, p. 276).

Genesis 26:26–30. And Abimelech came to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his friend and Phichol his army commander. And Isaac said to them: Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you? And they said: We see plainly that the Lord is with you. So we said: Let there now be an oath between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace; you are now blessed by the Lord. And he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. Hebrew: Achusath merehu, the Septuagint transmits as: Οχοζαθ ὁ νυμφαγωγὸς αὐτοῦ, understanding the first word as a proper name (so Russian, Slavonic; Vulgate: Ochosath amicus). The Targum of Onkelos, Arab translators, and the blessed Jerome understand the first word in a common sense: collegium amicorum. But the first understanding, apart from its greater logical naturalness, should be preferred also in view of the analogy of the name Ahuzzath with Goliath (1 Sam 17:4), Genivaph (1 Sam 11:20). Phichol is mentioned also in the history of Abraham (Gen 21:22-32), perhaps the same person. With the similarity of the account (Gen 26:26-31) of Isaac’s covenant with Abimelech and (Gen 21:22-32), all the more striking is the greater compliance and meekness of Isaac compared with Abraham, and the lesser nobility of Abimelech, whose words (v. 29) represent a clear distortion of the truth.

Genesis 26:31. And they rose up early in the morning and swore an oath with one another. Then Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. Isaac magnanimously forgives his former enemies, makes a covenant with them, and arranges a feast.

Genesis 26:32–33. And on that same day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug, saying to him: We have found water. And he called it Sheba. Therefore the name of that city is Beersheba to this day. Upon the departure of Abimelech, Isaac finds a manifestation of God’s mercy in the finding of water by his shepherds. The Septuagint reading: οὐχ εὕρομεν (Slavonic “we did not find water”) is due to an erroneous reading of Hebrew lo (to him) as l’o (not); some Septuagint codices (in Holmes) omit οὐχ. The context refutes the authenticity of this particle: in the following verse we read that Isaac gives the name to this well “Sheba,”—what kind of well is it without water? “Sheba” (v. 33) literally “sevenfold,” then “oath,” in the Septuagint ὅρκος (Slavonic: “oath”); Aquila and Symmachus read the Hebrew sabeah, satiety, and rendered: πλησμονη; similarly in the Vulgate—abundantia, and in the blessed Jerome—saturitas. But the Septuagint reading and understanding deserves preference, since here (v. 33) is also given the name of the city Beersheba from the Hebrew schibea or schebuah, oath,—as directly explained in (Gen 21:31); the mention of an oath for Isaac is quite natural both through imitation of his father (see the indicated passage and cf. v. 18 of this chapter), and through the conclusion of a covenant with Abimelech—(Gen 26:26-31).

The Marriage of Esau

Genesis 26:34–35. When Esau was forty years old, he took as a wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite; and they were a grief to Isaac and Rebekah. In speaking of Esau’s marriage (following the example of Isaac at forty years old, Gen 25:20), at the same time to two wives, they show his unbridled sensuality and disregard for the purity of his line—both wives were Canaanites (their names differ somewhat in the given passage and in (Gen 36:2-3), after which he took a third wife, the daughter of Ishmael (Gen 28:9). The remark about their disobedience to Isaac and Rebekah, according to the thought of St. John Chrysostom (p. 566), shows the reason why Rebekah and Isaac, in chapter 27, deprive Esau of the blessing of the birthright.