Study Desk

There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar.

Yahweh appeared to him, and said, "Don't go down into Egypt. Dwell in the land which I will tell you of.

Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For to you, and to your seed, I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.

I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and will give to your seed all these lands. In your seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed,

because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."

Isaac lived in Gerar.

The men of the place asked him about his wife. He said, "She is my sister," for he was afraid to say, "My wife," lest, he thought, the men of the place might kill me for Rebekah, because she was beautiful to look on.

It happened, 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 caressing Rebekah, his wife.

Abimelech called Isaac, and said, "Behold, surely she is your wife. Why did you say, 'She is my sister?'" Isaac said to him, "Because I said, 'Lest I die because of her.'"

Abimelech said, "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 on us!"

Abimelech charged all the people, saying, "He who touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death."

Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh blessed him.

The man grew great, and grew more and more until he became very great.

He had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great household. The Philistines envied him.

Now all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped, and filled with earth.

Abimelech said to Isaac, "Go from us, for you are much mightier than we."

Isaac departed from there, encamped in the valley of Gerar, and lived there.

But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body, just as he desired.