GENESIS 26

Isaac deceived King Abimelech

1 Some time later there was a severe ◄famine/scarcity of food► there. That was different from the famine that occurred when Abraham was alive. So Isaac went southeast to Gerar town, to talk to Abimelech, the king of the Philistine people-group. What happened was this: Isaac considered going to Egypt, 2 but Yahweh appeared to him and said, "Do not go down to Egypt! Live in the land where I will tell you to go! 3 Stay in this land for a while, and I will help you and bless you, because it is to you and your descendants that I will give all these lands, and I will do what I solemnly promised to your father. 4 I will cause your descendants to be as numerous as the stars in the sky. I will give to your descendants all these lands, and I will cause your descendants to be a blessing to the people of [MTY] all nations on the earth. 5 I will do that because your father Abraham obeyed me. He obeyed everything that I told him to do, everything that I declared and all the laws that I gave him."

So Isaac went and asked King Abimelech if he would permit him to live in the Gerar area. The king said, "Okay," 6 so Isaac stayed there along with his wife and sons.

7 When the men in Gerar town asked who Rebekah was, Isaac said, "She is my sister." He said that because he was afraid to say, "She is my wife." He thought, "Rebekah is very beautiful, so they will want her. If I say that she is my sister, they know they will have to negotiate about a bride price because I am her older brother; but if I say that she is my wife, no negotiation will be possible. They will just kill me to get her." 8 When Isaac had been there a long time, one day Abimelech, the king of the Philistine people-group, looked down from a window in his palace and was surprised to see Isaac caressing his wife Rebekah.