Genesis 26:14–33

¹⁴He owned so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him. ¹⁵So the Philistines took dirt and stopped up all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham.

¹⁶Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Depart from us, for you are much too powerful for us.”

¹⁷So Isaac left that place and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there. ¹⁸Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. And he gave these wells the same names his father had given them.

¹⁹Then Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found a well of fresh water^a there. ²⁰But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek,^b because they contended with him.

²¹Then they dug another well and quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah.^c

²²He moved on from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. He named it Rehoboth^d and said, “At last the LORD has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

²³From there Isaac went up to Beersheba, ²⁴and 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 multiply your descendants for the sake of My servant Abraham.”

²⁵So Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, and he pitched his tent there. His servants also dug a well there.

²⁶Later, Abimelech came to Isaac from Gerar, with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army.

²⁷“Why have you come to me?” Isaac asked them. “You hated me and sent me away.”

²⁸“We can plainly see that the LORD has been with you,” they replied. “We recommend that there should now be an oath between us and you. Let us make a covenant with you ²⁹that you will not harm us, just as we have not harmed you but have done only good to you, sending you on your way in peace. And now you are blessed by the LORD.”

³⁰So Isaac prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank. ³¹And they got up early the next morning and swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they left him in peace.

³²On that same day, Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug. “We have found water!” they told him. ³³So he called it Shibah,^e and to this day the name of the city is Beersheba.^f