Study Desk

Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, as well as his wife and female slaves so that they were able to have children.

So they made a treaty at Beer Sheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, returned to the land of the Philistines.

When they came to the place God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood on it. Next he tied up his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.

I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be as countless as the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the strongholds of their enemies.

Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set out together for Beer Sheba where Abraham stayed.

You will be free from your oath if you go to my relatives and they will not give her to you. Then you will be free from your oath.'

After this, he and the men who were with him ate a meal and stayed there overnight. When they got up in the morning, he said, "Let me leave now so I can return to my master."

Then they said, "We'll call the girl and find out what she wants to do."

So they called Rebekah and asked her, "Do you want to go with this man?" She replied, "I want to go."

So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, accompanied by her female attendant, with Abraham's servant and his men.

I will multiply your descendants so they will be as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands. All the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using the name of your descendants.

Then he moved away from there and dug another well. They did not quarrel over it, so Isaac named it Rehoboth, saying, "For now the Lord has made room for us, and we will prosper in the land."

They replied, "We could plainly see that the Lord is with you. So we decided there should be a pact between us—between us and you. Allow us to make a treaty with you

So Isaac held a feast for them and they celebrated.

That day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well they had dug. "We've found water," they reported.

They caused Isaac and Rebekah great anxiety.

When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone off the mouth of the well and water the sheep. Then they would put the stone back in its place over the well's mouth.

"We can't," they said, "until all the flocks are gathered and the stone is rolled off the mouth of the well. Then we water the sheep."

Then he set up the peeled branches in all the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. He set up the branches in front of the flocks when they were in heat and came to drink.

"What have you done?" Laban demanded of Jacob. "You've deceived me and carried away my daughters as if they were captives of war!