Genesis 26:23-33

FOURTH SECTION

Isaac in Beer-sheba. Treaty of Peace with Abimelech

Genesis 26:23-33

23And he went up from thence to Beer-sheba. 24And the Lord appeared unto him the same [first] night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father; fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham’s sake. 25And he builded an altar there, and called upon [witnessed to] the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac’s servants digged a well.

26Then [and] Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath [possession, occupant] one of his friends, and Phichol the chief captain [see Genesis 21:22, commander] of his army. 27And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me [have treated me with hatred], and have sent me away from you? 28And they said, We saw certainly that the Lord was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us [on both sides], 29 even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee; That thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou art [thus art thou] now the blessed of the Lord. 30And he made, them a feast, and they did eat and drink. 31And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. 32And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac’s servants came and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water. 33And he called it Shebah [seven; here in its signification: oath]: therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba unto this day.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

To Beer-sheba.—The former residence of Abraham (Genesis 21:33), and Isaac’s former station for his flocks. The appearance of Jehovah. A night vision; a form which now enters more definitely into the history of the patriarchs. The God of Abraham, thy father.—In this way Jehovah reminds him of the consistency of his covenant faithfulness, but especially of his covenant with Abraham. Fear not.—This encouraging exhortation no doubt refers to the disposition of Isaac. Abraham needed such an encouragement, after having exposed himself to the revenge of the Eastern kings on account of his victory over them. Isaac needs it because of his modest, timid disposition, and on account of the enmity of the Philistines, by whom he was driven from place to place. Perhaps his heart foreboded that Abimelech would yet follow him. He consecrates his prolonged sojourn at Beer-sheba by the erection of an altar, the establishment of a regulated worship, and by a fixed settlement. Then Abimelech went to him.—By comparing this covenant act with that between Abraham and Abimelech of Gerar, the difference appears more strikingly. Abimelech, in the present chapter, is accompanied not only by the chief captain of his army, but also by his friend, i.e., Ahuzzath, his private counsellor. Isaac animadverts on his hatred, but not like Abraham, on the wells that had been taken away from him (see Genesis 21:25). Even in the boasting assertion of Abimelech respecting his conduct toward Isaac—which the facts will not sustain—we recognize, apparently, another Abimelech, less noble than the former. This appears also in his demand of the imprecatory oath (אלה). It is also peculiar to Isaac that he permits a banquet, a feast of peace as it were, to precede the making of the covenant. The same day, after the departure of Abimelech, the servants, who had commenced some time before to dig a new well, found water. Their message seems to be a new reward of blessing, immediately following the peaceable conduct of Isaac. Isaac names this well as Abraham had done the one before (Genesis 21:31); thus the name Beer-sheba is given to it also. [It is not said that this name was here given for the first time; but as the covenant concluded was the renewal and confirmation of the covenant of Abraham with the previous Abimelech, so the name is the renewal and confirmation of that given by Abraham. The same name is appropriate to both occasions. A. G.] The existence of both these wells bears witness to the credibility of this fact. Keil. Knobel, of course, regards this as an entirely different tradition. But Delitzsch remarks: To all appearance, Isaac, in the naming of this well, followed the example of his father in naming the well situated near it; since in other cases he renewed the old names of the wells. Bunsen: To swear, to the Hebrew, signifies, “to take sevenfold,” or, “to bind oneself to seven holy things, referring to the Aramaic idea of God as Lord of Seven; i.e., of the seven planets (Sun, Moon, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn).” The remembrance of the seven sacrifices or pledges of the covenant, is far more probable, unless the expression is to be regarded as signifying a seven-fold degree of ordinary certainty.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Isaac’s holy elevation of soul at his return from the country of the Philistines to his old home, Beer-sheba, crowned by a promise and a glorious appearance of God.
2. The divine promise renewed; see above.
3. Isaac at Beer-sheba. He builds an altar to the Lord before a tent for himself. In the establishment of the worship of Jehovah, in this testimony to him, as he calls upon his name, and in his preaching, he is a worthy heir of his father.
4. Human covenants are well established, if a divine covenant precedes and constitutes their basis.
5. Isaac in his yielding, his patient endurance and concessions, a terror to the king.
6. Isaac’s feast of peace with Abimelech, a sign of his great inoffensiveness.
7. The solemnity of the well, and on the same day with the feast of peace, or, the blessing of noble conduct.
8. Abraham prefers to dwell in the plains (Moreh, Mamre), and he planted trees. Isaac prefers to reside at wells, and he is fond of digging wells.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

See the Doctrinal and Ethical paragraphs. The rich contents of the term: God of Abraham. It declares: 1. That the eternal God has made a covenant with us imperishable beings (Luke 20:37-38); 2. the continuity, the unity, the unchangeableness, of the revelation of Jehovah through all times and developments; 3. the transmission of the hereditary blessing from the believing father to the believing children. How the expression, in the history of the patriarchs, fear not (Genesis 15:1; Genesis 26:24; Genesis 28:15), goes through the whole scriptures until it reaches its full development in the angelic message of the birth of Christ (Luke 2:10), and at the morning of his resurrection.

Starke: Cramer: God always supports his church, and builds it everywhere (Isaiah 51:6). Whatever a Christian undertakes, he ought to undertake in the name of the Lord (Colossians 3:17). When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him (Proverbs 16:7; Genesis 33:4). Lawful alliances and oaths are permitted (Deuteronomy 6:13). Gerlach: At this place, remarkable, already, during the life of Abraham, the Lord renews the assurance of his grace, as afterwards to Jacob (Genesis 46:1); whilst, in the consecration of individual places, he connected himself with the child-like faith of the patriarchs, and satisfied the want to which it gave rise.

Schröder: The least thing we sacrifice for the sake of God, he repays, by giving us himself (Berl. Bib.). Whenever Jehovah calls himself God of Ahraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he shows, thereby, in each day’s revelation of himself to Israel, the ground and occasion of the same in the revelation that is past—thus connecting the new with the old, while presenting the grace shown to the posterity, as a necessary consequence of that which he had covenanted to their fathers’ fathers. True religion is essentially historical; history (not fanciful myths) is its foundation and limits. God is our God, because he has made himself our God by repeated acts in history. In the kingdom of God everything develops and progresses; there is no past without a future, nor a future without a past. Abraham received the promise respecting the Messiah in the name of all the faithful; if, now, Isaac and every believer be blessed for the sake of Abraham, he is blessed merely for the sake of the promise that was given to Abraham, and, therefore, for the sake of Christ (Roos). Isaac is mindful of his sacerdotal office, as soon as he takes up his abode (Berl. Bib.). The Abimelech mentioned here is more cunning than his father, for he pretends to know nothing about the taking away of Isaac’s wells by his servants (Luther). Such is the course of the world. Now insolent, then mean. He who wishes to live in peace with it (which is true of all believers) must be able to bear and suffer (Roos). The Abimelech of Genesis 1:21 uses Elohim, a word proper to him; the one in the present chapter, not caring much about the affair, says Jehovah, because he constantly heard Isaac make use of this divine name. He accommodates himself to the feast of Isaac, as Laban in Genesis 1:24 (Romans 12:20; Joshua 9:14; 2 Samuel 3:20; Isaiah 25:6; Luke 14:17.)—The divine blessing of this conciliatory and humble love, did not exhaust itself in temporal things. Isaac contended and suffered for the sake of wells; as to the wells which he digged soon after his arrival at Beer-sheba, it happened on the very day he made the covenant and swore, etc. The relation, of which the name Beer-sheba was the memorial, had ceased to exist. But by the repetition of the fact, the name regained its significance and power, and was the same as if now given for the first time (Hengstenberg).

Footnotes:

[3][Genesis 26:24. אָנֹכִי The pronoun is emphatic—I the God, etc. A. G.]

[4][Genesis 26:25. ‏‏יַיֶט. Not the usual word for the pitching a tent, see verse.17. The term may be chosen with reference to the permanence of his abode, or the increase of his family and retinue. A. G.]

[5][Genesis 26:28. Lit., Seeing we have seen. A. G.]

[6][Genesis 26:29. Lit., If thou shalt. The usual Hebrew form of an imprecation or oath. A. G.]