3. Stay in this land, and I will be with you. I will bless you. I will give you and your family all these lands. I will do what I promised to Abraham your father.
4. I will make your family as many as the stars of heaven, and I will give all these lands to your family. Through your descendants every nation on earth will be blessed.
5. I will do this because your father Abraham obeyed my words and did what I said. He obeyed my commands, my laws, and my rules.”
6. So Isaac settled in Gerar.
7. His wife Rebekah was very beautiful. The men of that place asked Isaac about Rebekah. He said, “She is my sister.” He was afraid to tell them Rebekah was his wife. He was afraid the men would kill him so that they could have her.
8. After Isaac had lived there a long time, Abimelech looked out of his window and saw Isaac and his wife enjoying one another.
9. Abimelech called for Isaac and said, “This woman is your wife. Why did you tell us that she was your sister?” Isaac said to him, “I was afraid that you would kill me so that you could have her.”
10. Abimelech said, “You have done a bad thing to us. One of our men might have had sex with your wife. Then he would be guilty of a great sin.”
11. So Abimelech gave a warning to all the people. He said, “No one must hurt this man or this woman. If anyone hurts them, they will be killed.”
12. Isaac planted fields in that place, and that year he gathered a great harvest. The Lord blessed him very much.
13. Isaac became rich. He gathered more and more wealth until he became a very rich man.
14. He had many flocks and herds of animals. He also had many slaves. All the Philistines were jealous of him.
15. So they destroyed all the wells that Isaac’s father Abraham and his servants had dug many years before. They filled them with sand.
16. Abimelech said to Isaac, “Leave our country. You have become much more powerful than we are.”
17. So Isaac left that place and camped near the little river of Gerar. He stayed there and lived.
18. Long before this time, Abraham had dug many wells. After he died, the Philistines filled the wells with sand. So Isaac went back and dug those wells again. He gave them the same names his father had given them.
19. Isaac’s servants also dug a well near the little river and found fresh water.