Isaac’s Prosperity
Isaac’s harvest and wealth increase sharply under the Lord’s blessing, and the Philistines grow envious. They stop up Abraham’s wells, and Abimelech sends Isaac away because he has become too strong.
N12ow Isaac sowed seed in the land, and that very year he reaped a hundredfold. And the LORD blessed him, 13and he became richer and richer, until he was exceedingly wealthy. 14He owned so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him. 15So the Philistines took dirt and stopped up all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham. 16Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Depart from us, for you are much too powerful for us.” 17So Isaac left that place and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there.
Isaac reopens Abraham’s wells and digs new ones, but quarrels keep breaking out over the water. Only at the third well does he find an undisputed place, which he names Rehoboth.
18Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. And he gave these wells the same names his father had given them. 19Then Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found a well of fresh water there. 20But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they contended with him. 21Then they dug another well and quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah. 22He moved on from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. He named it Rehoboth and said, “At last the LORD has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”
Isaac goes up to Beersheba, where the Lord appears by night and repeats His promise of presence, blessing, and descendants. Isaac answers by building an altar, calling on the Lord, pitching his tent, and digging a well.
23From there Isaac went up to Beersheba, 24and that night the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of My servant Abraham.” 25So Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, and he pitched his tent there. His servants also dug a well there.