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Gênesis 26

ARC · Chapter 26/50

1E havia fome na terra, além da primeira fome, que foi nos dias de Abrahão: por isso foi-se Isaac a Abimelech, rei dos philisteus, em Gerar.

2E appareceu-lhe o Senhor, e disse: Não desças ao Egypto; habita na terra que eu te disser:

3Peregrina n'esta terra, e serei comtigo, e te abençoarei; porque a ti e á tua semente darei todas estas terras, e confirmarei o juramento que tenho jurado a Abrahão teu pae;

4E multiplicarei a tua semente como as estrellas dos céus, e darei á tua semente todas estas terras; e em tua semente serão bemditas todas as nações da terra;

5Porquanto Abrahão obedeceu á minha voz, e guardou o meu mandado, os meus preceitos, os meus estatutos, e as minhas leis.

6Assim habitou Isaac em Gerar.

7E perguntando-lhe os varões d'aquelle logar ácerca de sua mulher, disse: É minha irmã; porque temia de dizer: É minha mulher; para que porventura (dizia elle) me não matem os varões d'aquelle logar por amor de Rebecca; porque era formosa á vista.

8E aconteceu que, como elle esteve ali muito tempo, Abimelech rei dos philisteus olhou por uma janella, e viu, e eis que Isaac estava brincando com Rebecca sua mulher.

9Então chamou Abimelech a Isaac, e disse: Eis que na verdade é tua mulher; como pois disseste: É minha irmã? E disse-lhe Isaac: Porque eu dizia: Para que eu porventura não morra por causa d'ella.

10E disse Abimelech: Que é isto que nos fizeste? Facilmente se teria deitado alguem d'este povo com a tua mulher, e tu terias trazido sobre nós um delicto.

11E mandou Abimelech a todo o povo, dizendo: Qualquer que tocar a este varão ou a sua mulher, certamente morrerá.

12E semeou Isaac n'aquella mesma terra, e achou n'aquelle mesmo anno cem medidas, porque o Senhor o abençoava.

13E engrandeceu-se o varão, e ia-se engrandecendo, até que se tornou mui grande;

14E tinha possessão d'ovelhas, e possessão de vaccas, e muita gente de serviço, de maneira que os philisteus o invejavam.

15E todos os poços, que os servos de seu pae tinham cavado nos dias de seu pae Abrahão, os philisteus entulharam e encheram de terra.

16Disse tambem Abimelech a Isaac: Aparta-te de nós; porque muito mais poderoso te tens feito do que nós.

17Então Isaac foi-se d'ali e fez o seu assento no valle de Gerar, e habitou lá.

18E tornou Isaac, e cavou os poços d'agua que cavaram nos dias de Abrahão seu pae, e que os philisteus taparam depois da morte de Abrahão, e chamou-*os pelos nomes que os chamara seu pae.

19Cavaram pois os servos de Isaac n'aquelle valle, e acharam ali um poço d'aguas vivas.

20E os pastores de Gerar porfiaram com os pastores de Isaac, dizendo. Esta agua é nossa. Por isso chamou o nome d'aquelle poço Esek, porque contenderam com elle.

21Então cavaram outro poço, e tambem porfiaram sobre elle: por isso chamou o seu nome Sitnah.

22E partiu d'ali, e cavou outro poço, e não porfiaram sobre elle: por isso chamou o seu nome Rehoboth, e disse: Porque agora nos alargou o Senhor, e crescemos n'esta terra.

23Depois subiu d'ali a Berseba,

24E appareceu-lhe o Senhor n'aquella mesma noite, e disse: Eu sou o Deus de Abrahão teu pae: não temas, porque eu sou comtigo, e abençoar-te-hei, e multiplicarei a tua semente por amor de Abrahão meu servo.

25Então edificou ali um altar, e invocou o nome do Senhor, e armou ali a sua tenda; e os servos de Isaac cavaram ali um poço.

26E Abimelech veiu a elle de Gerar, com Ahuzzath seu amigo, e Phichol, principe do seu exercito.

27E disse-lhes Isaac: Porque viestes a mim, pois que vós me aborreceis, e me enviastes de vós?

28E elles disseram: Havemos visto, na verdade, que o Senhor é comtigo, pelo que dissemos: Haja agora juramento entre nós, entre nós e ti; e façamos concerto comtigo,

29Que nos não faças mal, como nós te não temos tocado, e como te fizemos sómente bem, e te deixámos ir em paz. Agora tu és o bemdito do Senhor

30Então lhes fez um banquete, e comeram e beberam;

31E levantaram-se de madrugada, e juraram um ao outro; depois os despediu Isaac, e despediram-se d'elle em paz.

32E aconteceu n'aquelle mesmo dia que vieram os servos de Isaac, e annunciaram-lhe ácerca do negocio do peço, que tinham cavado; e disseram-lhe: Temos achado agua.

33E chamou-o Seba: por isso é o nome d'aquella cidade Berseba até o dia de hoje.

34Ora sendo Esaú da edade de quarenta annos, tomou por mulher a Judith, filha de Beeri, hetheo, e a Basmath filha de Elon, hetheo.

35E estas foram a Isaac e a Rebecca uma amargura de espirito.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

During a famine, Isaac receives the same promise made to Abraham; he also lies about Rebekah being his sister, prospers in Gerar, disputes wells of water with the Philistines, and finally makes a covenant of peace with Abimelech.

Explanation

This chapter shows how the same patterns — both of faith and weakness — repeat across generations: Isaac receives confirmation of the covenant God made with his father, but also repeats the same mistake of lying about his wife out of fear. His extraordinary agricultural prosperity ('a hundredfold,' v. 12) and the growth of his flocks stir envy among the Philistines, who stop up his wells — a symbolic and practical attack on his livelihood. Instead of fighting back, Isaac repeatedly chooses to yield and move on, patiently digging new wells, until he finally reaches a place of 'room' (Rehoboth) free of further disputes. This peaceable attitude of not insisting on fighting over resources, even when he was in the right, resulted in continued blessing and, in the end, public recognition that 'the LORD is with him' (v. 28).

Fun facts

  • Archaeological excavations in the region of Gerar (identified with the site of Tel Haror, in modern-day Israel) confirm the existence of ancient settlements in the area described, consistent with the pastoral and agricultural setting of the account.
  • This is the third of the 'wife posing as sister' episodes in Genesis (after two involving Abraham), reinforcing a thematic pattern in the book about how human fear tries to work around problems instead of trusting directly in God's promises of protection.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Gênesis 26:1This is a different famine from the one Abraham faced back in 12:10, but the text marks this on purpose, comparing the two — Isaac is about to go through a test similar to his father’s, in the same region of the Philistines.
  2. Gênesis 26:2God appears to tell Isaac not to go down to Egypt, unlike what Abraham had done during the earlier famine — here he must stay in the land God points out, in Gerar, Philistine territory.
  3. Gênesis 26:3God repeats to Isaac the same promise of land and multiplication He had made to Abraham, renewing the covenant with the family’s second generation.
  4. Gênesis 26:4The image of offspring “as the stars of heaven” repeats the same exaggerated promise of countless multitudes already made to Abraham in 15:5 — now extended to Isaac.
  5. Gênesis 26:5God ties Isaac’s blessing directly to Abraham’s obedience — it is the first time a patriarch’s faithfulness is cited as the reason for the blessing on his son.
  6. Gênesis 26:6Isaac obeys and settles in Gerar, carrying out the instruction he had just received.
  7. Gênesis 26:7Isaac says of Rebekah, “She is my sister,” to the men of Gerar, afraid of being killed because of her — almost the same lie his father, Abraham, told twice about Sarah in other chapters. The repetition is not by chance: the text shows the same fear repeating itself between father and son.
  8. Gênesis 26:8Abimelech discovers the lie on seeing Isaac “sporting with Rebekah his wife” through the window — “sporting” here is an old word for affection between husband and wife, not childish play. That single gesture of intimacy between them already gave away that they were not siblings.
  9. Gênesis 26:9The scene repeats almost exactly like Abraham’s: Abimelech discovers the lie and confronts Isaac, who gives the same excuse of fearing death because of his beautiful wife — a son repeating his father’s mistake.
  10. Gênesis 26:10Abimelech rebukes Isaac because, if someone from the people had lain with Rebekah thinking she was unmarried, that would have “brought guiltiness upon” them — that is, the blame would fall on the whole people, not only on whoever committed the act, because of Isaac’s lie. It is an idea of collective responsibility that sounds strange today, but made sense to the community of that time.
  11. Gênesis 26:11Abimelech protects the couple with a public decree, just as he had done before with Abraham and Sarah — showing that, despite Isaac’s deception, the Philistine king treats the family well.
  12. Gênesis 26:12Reaping “an hundredfold” would be an exceptional harvest in any era — the text credits this directly to the Lord’s blessing on Isaac, not to luck.
  13. Gênesis 26:13Isaac’s wealth keeps growing — the repetition (“waxed great... grew until he became very great”) reinforces that this was not a single stroke of luck, but steady growth.
  14. Gênesis 26:14Large flocks and many servants were signs of power in a herding society — and it is exactly this success that stirs the Philistines’ envy, setting up the conflict that follows.
  15. Gênesis 26:15The Philistines “had stopped them, and filled them with earth” — the wells that Isaac’s father had dug. Water wells were too valuable a resource in a dry land; sabotaging a neighbor’s well was a way to force him to leave without needing direct violence.
  16. Gênesis 26:16Abimelech asks Isaac to leave not out of malice, but because he had grown too powerful — a foreigner who was too wealthy was seen as a political threat in a land that was not his own.
  17. Gênesis 26:17Isaac moves to the valley of Gerar, still within the same Philistine territory, only farther from the main city.
  18. Gênesis 26:18Reopening his father’s wells and calling them by the same names is a gesture of continuity — Isaac restores what the Philistines had destroyed after Abraham’s death.
  19. Gênesis 26:19“Springing water” is the old way of describing a spring, running water, unlike a well that only collects rain — a valuable find in a dry land.
  20. Gênesis 26:20Isaac names the wells “Esek” (contention), then “Sitnah” (strife), and finally “Rehoboth” (room), according to whether or not a dispute broke out over them. Each name works as a record of what happened there — an old way of preserving the memory of a place without needing to write anything down.
  21. Gênesis 26:21The second well also becomes a cause for strife with the local shepherds, and the chosen name, Sitnah, means “accusation” in Hebrew — the name itself preserves the memory of the conflict.
  22. Gênesis 26:22There is no dispute over the third well — the name Rehoboth means “room” or “wide places,” and Isaac explains the reason: now God has made room for him to grow without conflict.
  23. Gênesis 26:23Beersheba was a place already tied to the family’s history — it was there that Abraham had made a similar agreement with an earlier Abimelech, in chapter 21.
  24. Gênesis 26:24God appears again, at night, and repeats the promise — this time explicitly “for my servant Abraham’s sake,” tying the blessing on Isaac to the covenant made with his father.
  25. Gênesis 26:25Building an altar, calling on the name of the Lord, and digging a well are the same actions that had marked Abraham’s passage through the land — Isaac repeats his father’s pattern as he settles there.
  26. Gênesis 26:26Abimelech arrives with two trusted men, his adviser and the commander of his army — a formal visit, the kind made to seal a political agreement.
  27. Gênesis 26:27Isaac does not hide his distrust: he asks directly why they come now, since they had driven him away out of envy before.
  28. Gênesis 26:28The Philistines admit they clearly saw that the Lord was with Isaac, and so they propose a formal oath — a way to secure peace with someone who was clearly prospering.
  29. Gênesis 26:29They ask that Isaac do them no harm, claiming they only treated him well and let him leave in peace — a fairly generous version of the facts, since it was their own envy that had driven him out shortly before.
  30. Gênesis 26:30Isaac prepares a feast to seal the agreement — eating and drinking together was part of the very ritual of sealing a pact in the ancient world, not just a courtesy.
  31. Gênesis 26:31After the formal oath, each side goes its own way in peace — the conflict that began over the wells ends in a diplomatic agreement.
  32. Gênesis 26:32On the very day of the agreement, the servants bring news that they have finally found water — a good omen right after peace was sealed with the Philistines.
  33. Gênesis 26:33Isaac calls the well Shebah, and that is where the name of the city Beersheba, “well of the oath,” comes from to this day — the same kind of name explanation that already appears in 21:31, tied to Abraham.
  34. Gênesis 26:34Esau, at forty — the same age at which Isaac married —, chooses two Hittite women, from outside the family’s own people.
  35. Gênesis 26:35Esau’s marriage to foreign women is described as a source of grief for his parents — this detail sets up the reason why, later on, Jacob will be sent to find a wife among Rebekah’s relatives.

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