¹ And when a famine came in the land, after that barrenness which had happened in the days of Abraham, Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Palestines to Gerara.

² And the Lord appeared to him and said: Go not down into Egypt, but stay in the land that I shall tell thee.

³ And sojourn in it, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee: for to thee and to thy seed I will give all these countries, to fulfill the oath which I swore to Abraham thy father.

⁴ And I will multiply thy seed like the stars of heaven: and I will give to thy posterity all these countries: and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.

⁵ Because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my precepts and commandments, and observed my ceremonies and laws.

⁶ So Isaac abode in Gerara.

⁷ And when he was asked by the men of that place, concerning his wife, he answered: She is my sister; for he was afraid to confess that she was his wife, thinking lest perhaps they would like him because of her beauty.

⁸ And when very many days were passed, and he abode there, Abimelech king of the Palestines looking out through a window, saw him playing with Rebecca his wife.

⁹ And calling for him, he said: It is evident she is thy wife: why didst thou feign her to be thy sister? He answered: I feared lest I should die for her sake.

¹⁰ And Abimelech said: Why hadst thou deceived us? Some man of the people might have lain with thy wife, and thou hadst brought upon us a great sin. And he commanded all the people, saying:

¹¹ He that shall touch this man's wife, shall surely be put to death.

¹² And Isaac sowed in that land, and he found that same year a hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him.

¹³ And the man was enriched, and he went on prospering and increasing, till he became exceeding great:

¹⁴ And he had possessions of sheep and of herds, and a very great family. Wherefore the Palestines envying him,

¹⁵ Stopped up at that time all the wells, that the servants of his father Abraham had digged, filling them up with earth:

¹⁶ Insomuch that Abimelech himself said to Isaac: Depart from us, for thou art become much mightier than we.

¹⁷ So he departed and came to the torrent of Gerara, to dwell there:

¹⁸ And he digged again other wells, which the servants of his father Abraham had digged, and which, after his death, the Palestines had of old stopped up: and he called them by the same names by which his father before had called them.

¹⁹ And they digged in the torrent, and found living water.

²⁰ But there also the herdsmen of Gerara strove against the herdsmen of Isaac, saying: It is our water. Wherefore he called the name of the well, on occasion of that which had happened, Calumny.

²¹ And they digged also another; and for that they quarreled likewise, and he called the name of it, Enmity.

²² Going forward from thence, he digged another well, for which they contended not: therefore he called the name thereof, Latitude, saying: Now hath the Lord given us room, and made us to increase upon the earth.

²³ And he went up from that place to Bersabee,

²⁴ Where the Lord appeared to him that same might, saying: I am the God of Abraham thy father; do not fear, for I am with thee: I will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake.

²⁵ And he built there an altar: and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent: and commanded his servants to dig a well.

²⁶ To which place when Abimelech, and Ochozath his friend, and Phicol chief captain of his soldiers came from Gerara,

²⁷ Isaac said to them: Why are ye come to me, a man whom you hate, and have thrust out from you?

²⁸ And they answered: We saw that the Lord is with thee, and therefore we said: Let there be an oath between us, and let us make a covenant,

²⁹ That thou do us no harm, as we on our part have touched nothing of thine, nor have done any thing to hurt thee: but with peace have sent thee away increased with the blessing of the Lord.

³⁰ And he made them a feast, and after they had eaten and drunk:

³¹ Arising in the morning, they swore one to another: and Isaac sent them away peaceably to their own home.

³² And behold the same day the servants of Isaac came, telling him of a well which they had digged, and saying: We have found water.

³³ Whereupon he called it Abundance: and the name of the city was called Bersabee, even to this day.

³⁴ And Esau being forty years old, married wives, Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hethite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon of the same place.

³⁵ And they both offended the mind of Isaac and Rebecca.

¹ Abraham traveled from there toward the land of the South, and lived between Kadesh and Shur. He lived as a foreigner in Gerar.

² Abraham said about Sarah his wife, "She is my sister." Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

³ But God came to Abimelech in a dream of the night, and said to him, "Behold, you are a dead man, because of the woman whom you have taken. For she is a man's wife."

⁴ Now Abimelech had not come near her. He said, "Lord, will you kill even a righteous nation?

⁵ Didn't he tell me, 'She is my sister?' She, even she herself, said, 'He is my brother.' In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands have I done this."

⁶ God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also withheld you from sinning against me. Therefore I didn't allow you to touch her.

⁷ Now therefore, restore the man's wife. For he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. If you don't restore her, know for sure that you will die, you, and all who are yours."

⁸ Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ear. The men were very scared.

⁹ Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said to him, "What have you done to us? How have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done deeds to me that ought not to be done!"

¹⁰ Abimelech said to Abraham, "What did you see, that you have done this thing?"

¹¹ Abraham said, "Because I thought, 'Surely the fear of God is not in this place. They will kill me for my wife's sake.'

¹² Besides, she is indeed my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

¹³ It happened, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said to her, 'This is your kindness which you shall show to me. Everywhere that we go, say of me, "He is my brother."'"

¹⁴ Abimelech took sheep and cattle, male servants and female servants, and gave them to Abraham, and restored Sarah, his wife, to him.

¹⁵ Abimelech said, "Behold, my land is before you. Dwell where it pleases you."

¹⁶ To Sarah he said, "Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. Behold, it is for you a covering of the eyes to all that are with you. In front of all you are vindicated."

¹⁷ Abraham prayed to God. God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his female servants, and they bore children.

¹⁸ For Yahweh had closed up tight all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.