¹ Orta autem fame super terram post eam sterilitatem, quæ acciderat in diebus Abraham, abiit Isaac ad Abimelech regem Palæstinorum in Gerara.

² Apparuitque ei Dominus, et ait : Ne descendas in Ægyptum, sed quiesce in terra quam dixero tibi,

³ et peregrinare in ea : eroque tecum, et benedicam tibi : tibi enim et semini tuo dabo universas regiones has, complens juramentum quod spopondi Abraham patri tuo.

⁴ Et multiplicabo semen tuum sicut stellas cæli : daboque posteris tuis universas regiones has : et benedicentur in semine tuo omnes gentes terræ,

⁵ eo quod obedierit Abraham voci meæ, et custodierit præcepta et mandata mea, et cæremonias legesque servaverit.

⁶ Mansit itaque Isaac in Geraris.

⁷ Qui cum interrogaretur a viris loci illius super uxore sua, respondit : Soror mea est : timuerat enim confiteri quod sibi esset sociata conjugio, reputans ne forte interficerent eum propter illius pulchritudinem.

⁸ Cumque pertransissent dies plurimi, et ibidem moraretur, prospiciens Abimelech rex Palæstinorum per fenestram, vidit eum jocantem cum Rebecca uxore sua.

⁹ Et accersito eo, ait : Perspicuum est quod uxor tua sit : cur mentitus es eam sororem tuam esse ? Respondit : Timui ne morerer propter eam.

¹⁰ Dixitque Abimelech : Quare imposuisti nobis ? potuit coire quispiam de populo cum uxore tua, et induxeras super nos grande peccatum. Præcepitque omni populo, dicens :

¹¹ Qui tetigerit hominis hujus uxorem, morte morietur.

¹² Sevit autem Isaac in terra illa, et invenit in ipso anno centuplum : benedixitque ei Dominus.

¹³ Et locupletatus est homo, et ibat proficiens atque succrescens, donec magnus vehementer effectus est :

¹⁴ habuit quoque possessiones ovium et armentorum, et familiæ plurimum. Ob hoc invidentes ei Palæstini,

¹⁵ omnes puteos, quos foderant servi patris illius Abraham, illo tempore obstruxerunt, implentes humo :

¹⁶ in tantum, ut ipse Abimelech diceret ad Isaac : Recede a nobis, quoniam potentior nobis factus es valde.

¹⁷ Et ille discedens, ut veniret ad torrentem Geraræ, habitaretque ibi,

¹⁸ rursum fodit alios puteos, quos foderant servi patris sui Abraham, et quos, illo mortuo, olim obstruxerant Philisthiim : appellavitque eos eisdem nominibus quibus ante pater vocaverat.

¹⁹ Foderuntque in torrente, et repererunt aquam vivam.

²⁰ Sed et ibi jurgium fuit pastorum Geraræ adversus pastores Isaac, dicentium : Nostra est aqua, quam ob rem nomen putei ex eo, quod acciderat, vocavit Calumniam.

²¹ Foderunt autem et alium : et pro illo quoque rixati sunt, appellavitque eum Inimicitias.

²² Profectus inde fodit alium puteum, pro quo non contenderunt : itaque vocavit nomen ejus Latitudo, dicens : Nunc dilatavit nos Dominus, et fecit crescere super terram.

²³ Ascendit autem ex illo loco in Bersabee,

²⁴ ubi apparuit ei Dominus in ipsa nocte, dicens : Ego sum Deus Abraham patris tui : noli timere, quia ego tecum sum : benedicam tibi, et multiplicabo semen tuum propter servum meum Abraham.

²⁵ Itaque ædificavit ibi altare : et invocato nomine Domini, extendit tabernaculum, præcepitque servis suis ut foderunt puteum.

²⁶ Ad quem locum cum venissent de Geraris Abimelech, et Ochozath amicus illius, et Phico, dux militum,

²⁷ locutus est eis Isaac : Quid venistis ad me, hominem quem odistis, et expulistis a vobis ?

²⁸ Qui responderunt : Vidimus tecum esse Dominum, et idcirco nos diximus : Sit juramentum inter nos, et ineamus fœdus,

²⁹ ut non facias nobis quidquam mali, sicut et nos nihil tuorum attigimus, nec fecimus quod te læderet : sed cum pace dimisimus auctum benedictione Domini.

³⁰ Fecit ergo eis convivium, et post cibum et potum

³¹ surgentes mane, juraverunt sibi mutuo : dimisitque eos Isaac pacifice in locum suum.

³² Ecce autem venerunt in ipso die servi Isaac annuntiantes ei de puteo, quem foderant, atque dicentes : Invenimus aquam.

³³ Unde appellavit eum Abundantiam : et nomen urbi impositum est Bersabee, usque in præsentem diem.

³⁴ Esau vero quadragenarius duxit uxores, Judith filiam Beeri Hethæi, et Basemath filiam Elon ejusdem loci :

³⁵ quæ ambæ offenderant animum Isaac et Rebeccæ.

¹ 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.

² Yahweh appeared to him, and said, "Don't go down into Egypt. Live in the land I will tell you about.

³ Live 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.

⁴ 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,

⁵ because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."

⁶ Isaac lived in Gerar.

⁷ 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 is beautiful to look at."

⁸ 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.

⁹ 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.'"

¹⁰ 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!"

¹¹ Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, "He who touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death."

¹² Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh blessed him.

¹³ The man grew great, and grew more and more until he became very great.

¹⁴ He had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great household. The Philistines envied him.

¹⁵ 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.

¹⁶ Abimelech said to Isaac, "Go from us, for you are much mightier than we."

¹⁷ Isaac departed from there, encamped in the valley of Gerar, and lived there.

¹⁸ Isaac dug again the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father. For the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham. He called their names after the names by which his father had called them.

¹⁹ Isaac's servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.

²⁰ The herdsmen of Gerar argued with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, "The water is ours." He called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him.

²¹ They dug another well, and they argued over that, also. He called its name Sitnah.

²² He left that place, and dug another well. They didn't argue over that one. He called it Rehoboth. He said, "For now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land."

²³ He went up from there to Beersheba.

²⁴ Yahweh appeared to him the same night, and said, "I am the God of Abraham your father. Don't be afraid, for I am with you, and will bless you, and multiply your seed for my servant Abraham's sake."

²⁵ He built an altar there, and called on the name of Yahweh, and pitched his tent there. There Isaac's servants dug a well.

²⁶ Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath his friend, and Phicol the captain of his army.

²⁷ Isaac said to them, "Why have you come to me, since you hate me, and have sent me away from you?"

²⁸ They said, "We saw plainly that Yahweh was with you. We said, 'Let there now be an oath between us, even between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you,

²⁹ that you will do us no harm, as we have not touched you, and as we have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace.' You are now the blessed of Yahweh."

³⁰ He made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

³¹ They rose up some time in the morning, and swore one to another. Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

³² It happened the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had dug, and said to him, "We have found water."

³³ He called it Shibah. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

³⁴ When Esau was forty years old, he took as wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

³⁵ They grieved Isaac's and Rebekah's spirits.