¹ And there is a famine in the land, besides the first famine which was in the days of Abraham, and Isaac goeth unto Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar.

² And Jehovah appeareth unto him, and saith, `Go not down towards Egypt, tabernacle in the land concerning which I speak unto thee,

³ sojourn in this land, and I am with thee, and bless thee, for to thee and to thy seed I give all these lands, and I have established the oath which I have sworn to Abraham thy father;

⁴ and I have multiplied thy seed as stars of the heavens, and I have given to thy seed all these lands; and blessed themselves in thy seed have all nations of the earth;

⁵ because that Abraham hath hearkened to My voice, and keepeth My charge, My commands, My statutes, and My laws.'

⁶ And Isaac dwelleth in Gerar;

⁷ and men of the place ask him of his wife, and he saith, `She [is] my sister:' for he hath been afraid to say, `My wife -- lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, for she [is] of good appearance.'

⁸ And it cometh to pass, when the days have been prolonged to him there, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looketh through the window, and seeth, and lo, Isaac is playing with Rebekah his wife.

⁹ And Abimelech calleth for Isaac, and saith, `Lo, she [is] surely thy wife; and how hast thou said, She [is] my sister?' and Isaac saith unto him, `Because I said, Lest I die for her.'

¹⁰ And Abimelech saith, `What [is] this thou hast done to us? as a little thing one of the people had lain with thy wife, and thou hadst brought upon us guilt;'

¹¹ and Abimelech commandeth all the people, saying, `He who cometh against this man or against his wife, dying doth die.'

¹² And Isaac soweth in that land, and findeth in that year a hundredfold, and Jehovah blesseth him;

¹³ and the man is great, and goeth on, going on and becoming great, till that he hath been very great,

¹⁴ and he hath possession of a flock, and possession of a herd, and an abundant service; and the Philistines envy him,

¹⁵ and all the wells which his father's servants digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines have stopped them, and fill them with dust.

¹⁶ And Abimelech saith unto Isaac, `Go from us; for thou hast become much mightier than we;'

¹⁷ and Isaac goeth from thence, and encampeth in the valley of Gerar, and dwelleth there;

¹⁸ and Isaac turneth back, and diggeth the wells of water which they digged in the days of Abraham his father, which the Philistines do stop after the death of Abraham, and he calleth to them names according to the names which his father called them.

¹⁹ And Isaac's servants dig in the valley, and find there a well of living water,

²⁰ and shepherds of Gerar strive with shepherds of Isaac, saying, `The water [is] ours;' and he calleth the name of the well `Strife,' because they have striven habitually with him;

²¹ and they dig another well, and they strive also for it, and he calleth its name `Hatred.'

²² And he removeth from thence, and diggeth another well, and they have not striven for it, and he calleth its name Enlargements, and saith, `For -- now hath Jehovah given enlargement to us, and we have been fruitful in the land.'

²³ And he goeth up from thence [to] Beer-Sheba,

²⁴ and Jehovah appeareth unto him during that night, and saith, `I [am] the God of Abraham thy father, fear not, for I [am] with thee, and have blessed thee, and have multiplied thy seed, because of Abraham My servant;'

²⁵ and he buildeth there an altar, and preacheth in the name of Jehovah, and stretcheth out there his tent, and there Isaac's servants dig a well.

²⁶ And Abimelech hath gone unto him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath his friend, and Phichol head of his host;

²⁷ and Isaac saith unto them, `Wherefore have ye come unto me, and ye have hated me, and ye send me away from you?'

²⁸ And they say, `We have certainly seen that Jehovah hath been with thee, and we say, `Let there be, we pray thee, an oath between us, between us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee;

²⁹ do not evil with us, as we have not touched thee, and as we have only done good with thee, and send thee away in peace; thou [art] now blessed of Jehovah.'

³⁰ And he maketh for them a banquet, and they eat and drink,

³¹ and rise early in the morning, and swear one to another, and Isaac sendeth them away, and they go from him in peace.

³² And it cometh to pass during that day that Isaac's servants come and declare to him concerning the circumstances of the well which they have digged, and say to him, `We have found water;'

³³ and he calleth it Shebah, [oath,] therefore the name of the city [is] Beer-Sheba, [well of the oath,] unto this day.

³⁴ And Esau is a son of forty years, and he taketh a wife, Judith, daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath, daughter of Elon the Hittite,

³⁵ and they are a bitterness of spirit to Isaac and to Rebekah.

¹ And Jethro priest of Midian, father-in-law of Moses, heareth all that God hath done for Moses, and for Israel his people, that Jehovah hath brought out Israel from Egypt,

² and Jethro, father-in-law of Moses, taketh Zipporah, wife of Moses, besides her parents,

³ and her two sons, of whom the name of the one [is] Gershom, for he said, `a sojourner I have been in a strange land:'

⁴ and the name of the other [is] Eliezer, for, `the God of my father [is] for my help, and doth deliver me from the sword of Pharaoh.'

⁵ And Jethro, father-in-law of Moses, cometh, and his sons, and his wife, unto Moses, unto the wilderness where he is encamping -- the mount of God;

⁶ and he saith unto Moses, `I, thy father-in-law, Jethro, am coming unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.'

⁷ And Moses goeth out to meet his father-in-law, and boweth himself, and kisseth him, and they ask one at another of welfare, and come into the tent;

⁸ and Moses recounteth to his father-in-law all that Jehovah hath done to Pharaoh, and to the Egyptians, on account of Israel, all the travail which hath found them in the way, and Jehovah doth deliver them.

⁹ And Jethro rejoiceth for all the good which Jehovah hath done to Israel, whom He hath delivered from the hand of the Egyptians;

¹⁰ and Jethro saith, `Blessed [is] Jehovah, who hath delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians, and from the hand of Pharaoh -- who hath delivered this people from under the hand of the Egyptians;

¹¹ now I have known that Jehovah [is] greater than all the gods, for in the thing they have acted proudly -- [He is] above them!'

¹² And Jethro, father-in-law of Moses, taketh a burnt-offering and sacrifices for God; and Aaron cometh in, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with the father-in-law of Moses, before God.

¹³ And it cometh to pass on the morrow, that Moses sitteth to judge the people, and the people stand before Moses, from the morning unto the evening;

¹⁴ and the father-in-law of Moses seeth all that he is doing to the people, and saith, `What [is] this thing which thou art doing to the people? wherefore art thou sitting by thyself, and all the people standing by thee from morning till evening?'

¹⁵ And Moses saith to his father-in-law, `Because the people come unto me to seek God;

¹⁶ when they have a matter, it hath come unto me, and I have judged between a man and his neighbour, and made known the statutes of God, and His laws.'

¹⁷ And the father-in-law of Moses saith unto him, `The thing which thou art doing [is] not good;

¹⁸ thou dost surely wear away, both thou, and this people which [is] with thee, for the thing is too heavy for thee, thou art not able to do it by thyself.

¹⁹ `Now, hearken to my voice, I counsel thee, and God is with thee: be thou for the people over-against God, and thou hast brought in the things unto God;

²⁰ and thou hast warned them [concerning] the statutes and the laws, and hast made known to them the way in which they go, and the work which they do.

²¹ `And thou -- thou dost provide out of all the people men of ability, fearing God, men of truth, hating dishonest gain, and hast placed [these] over them, heads of thousands, heads of hundreds, heads of fifties, and heads of tens,

²² and they have judged the people at all times; and it hath come to pass, every great matter they bring in unto thee, and every small matter they judge themselves; and lighten it from off thyself, and they have borne with thee.

²³ If thou dost this thing, and God hath commanded thee, then thou hast been able to stand, and all this people also goeth in unto its place in peace.'

²⁴ And Moses hearkeneth to the voice of his father-in-law, and doth all that he said,

²⁵ and Moses chooseth men of ability out of all Israel, and maketh them chiefs over the people, heads of thousands, heads of hundreds, heads of fifties, and heads of tens,

²⁶ and they have judged the people at all times; the hard matter they bring in unto Moses, and every small matter they judge themselves.

²⁷ And Moses sendeth his father-in-law away, and he goeth away unto his own land.