Listening A1: Genesis Chapter 1 - Genesis 26

There was no food in the land again after the first time when Abraham lived.

Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines in Gerar.

God came to him and said, Do not go to Egypt; stay in the land I will show you.

Stay here, and I will be with you and give you good things.

I will give this land to you and your children and keep my promise to Abraham, your father.

I will make your children like the stars, and all people will get good things because of them.

This is because Abraham listened to me and kept my rules.

Isaac lived in Gerar.

The people there asked him about his wife.

He said, She is my sister because he was afraid they would kill him for Rebekah.

She was very beautiful.

After he was there a long time, Abimelech looked from a window and saw Isaac playing with Rebekah.

Abimelech called Isaac and said, She is your wife, not your sister. Why did you say she was your sister?

Isaac said, I was afraid I might die because of her.

Abimelech said, What you did could hurt us.

Someone could have been with your wife, and you would make us guilty.

Abimelech told all the people, If anyone touches this man or his wife, we will kill him.

Isaac planted seeds in the land.

That year he got one hundred times more than he planted.

God blessed him.

He became very rich.

He had many sheep, cows, and many helpers.

The Philistines were jealous.

All the wells that Abraham's men had dug were filled with dirt by the Philistines.

Abimelech said to Isaac, Go away.

You are stronger than we are.

Isaac left and camped in the valley of Gerar and lived there.

Isaac dug the old wells again.

The Philistines had filled them after Abraham died.

He gave them the same names his father gave.

Isaac's men dug in the valley and found a well with fresh water.

The Gerar herdsmen fought with Isaac's herdsmen.

They said, The water is ours.

He called the well Esek because they argued.

They dug another well and fought again.

He called it Sitnah.

He moved and dug another well.

They did not fight over this one.

He called it Rehoboth.

He said, Now God has made room for us, and we will grow in this land.

He went up to Beer-sheba.

God came to him that night and said, I am the God of Abraham, your father.

Do not be afraid.

I am with you.

I will bless you and make your children many for Abraham's sake.

Isaac built an altar there, prayed to God, and made his tent there.

His servants dug a well.

Abimelech came to him from Gerar with his friend Ahuzzath and Phicol, the head of his army.

Isaac said to them, Why did you come to me?

You do not like me and made me leave you.

They said, We saw that God was with you.

We want to make an oath with you and make peace.

They said, You will not hurt us, and we have not hurt you.

We did good to you and sent you away in peace.

The Lord has blessed you.

Isaac made a feast for them.

They ate and drank.

In the morning they made an oath and then left in peace.

That same day Isaac's men told him about the well and said, We found water.

He called it Shibah, and that is why the city is called Beer-sheba to this day.

When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith the daughter of Beeri from the Hittite people and Basemath the daughter of Elon from the Hittite people.

These wives made Isaac and Rebekah very sad.