Genesis 26:1

beside the first famine Referring to the famine mentioned in Genesis 12:10. This clause is probably added by the Compiler (R).

Abimelech king of the Philistines This can hardly be the Abimelech mentioned in Genesis 20:2. Possibly we ought to regard Abimelech as the dynastic name of the Philistine rulers. Strictly speaking, this portion of Palestine having not yet been occupied by the Philistines, their name is here used by a not unnatural anachronism on the part of the Hebrew writer, to whom the Philistines were well known on the S.W. of the Israelite territory 1 [23]. See notes on Genesis 10:14; Genesis 21:32.

[23] See The Philistines, Their History and Civilization, The Schweich Lectures, 1911, p, 39, by Professor R. A. S. Macalister. (1913.)

Gerar On the road from Palestine into Egypt: evidently a town of some importance; see Genesis 10:19; Genesis 21:1.