Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary
Genesis 26 · World English Bible
1There was a famine in the land, in addition to the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar.
2The LORD appeared to him, and said, “Don’t go down into Egypt. Live in the land I will tell you about.
3Live in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For I will give to you, and to your offspring, all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
4I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and will give all these lands to your offspring. In your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed,
5because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”
6Isaac lived in Gerar.
7The men of the place asked him about his wife. He said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say, “My wife”, lest, he thought, “the men of the place might kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to look at.”
8When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was caressing Rebekah, his wife.
9Abimelech called Isaac, and said, “Behold, surely she is your wife. Why did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die because of her.’”
10Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!”
11Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death.”
12Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. The LORD blessed him.
13The man grew great, and grew more and more until he became very great.
14He had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great household. The Philistines envied him.
15Now all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped, and filled with earth.
16Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”
17Isaac departed from there, encamped in the valley of Gerar, and lived there.
18Isaac dug again the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham. He called their names after the names by which his father had called them.
19Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of flowing water.
20The herdsmen of Gerar argued with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him.
21They dug another well, and they argued over that, also. So he called its name Sitnah.
22He left that place, and dug another well. They didn’t argue over that one. So he called it Rehoboth. He said, “For now the LORD has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”
23He went up from there to Beersheba.
24The LORD appeared to him the same night, and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Don’t be afraid, for I am with you, and will bless you, and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake.”
25He built an altar there, and called on the LORD’s name, and pitched his tent there. There Isaac’s servants dug a well.
26Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his friend, and Phicol the captain of his army.
27Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me, and have sent me away from you?”
28They said, “We saw plainly that the LORD was with you. We said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, even between us and you, and let’s make a covenant with you,
29that you will do us no harm, as we have not touched you, and as we have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace.’ You are now the blessed of the LORD.”
30He made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
31They rose up some time in the morning, and swore an oath to one another. Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
32The same day, Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”
33He called it “Shibah”. Therefore the name of the city is “Beersheba” to this day.
34When Esau was forty years old, he took as wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite.
35They grieved Isaac’s and Rebekah’s spirits.
World English Bible · World English Bible; source eBible.org.
Notes on Genesis 26
1867 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Gen. xxvi. 8.
Editorial footnote · The Instructor, THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / THE INSTRUCTOR. / BOOK I. / CHAPTER V. ALL WHO WALK ACCORDING TO TRUTH ARE CHILDREN OF GOD., editorial note Footnote_200 · Original source
1871 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Gen. xxvi. 1-5.
Editorial footnote · The City of God, THE CITY OF GOD. / BOOK SIXTEENTH. / ARGUMENT., editorial note Footnote_318_318 · Original source
1871 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Gen. xxvi. 24.
Editorial footnote · The City of God, THE CITY OF GOD. / BOOK SIXTEENTH. / ARGUMENT., editorial note Footnote_319_319 · Original source
1872 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Gen. xxvi. 4.
Editorial footnote · On the Correction of the Donatists (Letter 185), WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY. / A TREATISE CONCERNING THE CORRECTION OF THE DONATISTS; FORMING EPISTLE 185 IN MIGNE'S EDITION OF AUGUSTINE'S WORKS., editorial note Footnote_1180_1180 · Original source
1872 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Gen. xxvi. 11.
Editorial footnote · Answer to the Letters of Petilianus, WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY. / BOOK SECOND., editorial note Footnote_952_952 · Original source
1872 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Cf. Gen. xxvi. 15.
Editorial footnote · Against Celsus, The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2 / BOOK IV. / Chapter XLIV., editorial note f676 · Original source
1887 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Gen. xxvi. 7, and xxiv
Editorial footnote · Against Lying, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Section 23, editorial note cite_note-3 · Original source
1889 (historical edition copyright; physical printing year uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
The common texts substitute Jacob for Isaac here, omitting the following clause where Jacob is mentioned (as they also in the preceding sentence have “temptations” instead of “families”); to correct the apparent inaccuracies of the text. But Mr. Field shows from other passages of St. Chrys. that he really means Isaac, having in view Gen. xxvi. 18–22, 27
Editorial footnote · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 29, editorial note cite_note-8 · Original source
1893 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
See Gen. xxvi. 15, sqq.
Editorial footnote · On the Baptism of Christ, Chapter uncertain; original source section: On the Baptism of Christ, editorial note cite_note-17 · Original source
1897 (latest original copyright year; printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Gen. xxvi. 13.
Editorial footnote · Commentary on Matthew (surviving edition contents), Book 13, Chapter 15, editorial note cite_note-4 · Original source
Date uncertain | Augustine of Hippo
Isaac also received such an oracle as his father had often received. Of this oracle it is thus written: "And there was a famine over the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar. And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; but dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of. And abide in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee: unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all this land; and I will establish mine oath, which I sware unto Abraham thy father: and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all this land: and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because that Abraham thy father obeyed my voice, and kept my precepts, my commandments, my righteousness, and my laws." This patriarch neither had another wife, nor any concubine, but was content with the twin-children begotten by one act of generation. He also was afraid, when he lived among strangers, of being brought into danger owing to the beauty of his wife, and did like his father in calling her his sister, and not telling that she was his wife; for she was his near blood-relation by the father's and mother's side. She also remained untouched by the strangers, when it was known she was his wife. Yet we ought not to prefer him to his father because he knew no woman besides his one wife. For beyond doubt the merits of his father's faith and obedience were greater, inasmuch as God says it is for his sake He does Isaac good: "In thy seed," He says, "shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because that Abraham thy father obeyed my voice, and kept my precepts, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." And again in another oracle He says, "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." So that we must understand how chastely Abraham acted, because imprudent men, who seek some support for their own wickedness in the Holy Scriptures, think he acted through lust. We may also learn this, not to compare men by single good things, but to consider everything in each; for it may happen that one man has something in his life and character in which he excels another, and it may be far more excellent than that in which the other excels him. And thus, according to sound and true judgment, while continence is preferable to marriage, yet a believing married man is better than a continent unbeliever; for the unbeliever is not only less praiseworthy, but is even highly detestable. We must conclude, then, that both are good; yet so as to hold that the married man who is most faithful and most obedient is certainly better than the continent man whose faith and obedience are less. But if equal in other things, who would hesitate to prefer the continent man to the married?
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · The City of God, THE CITY OF GOD. / BOOK SIXTEENTH. / ARGUMENT., source paragraph 262 · Original source
Date uncertain | Augustine of Hippo
204. "What," say you, "have you to do with the kings of this world, in whom Christianity has never found anything save envy towards her?" Having said this, you endeavoured to reckon up what kings the righteous had found to be their enemies, and did not consider how many more might be enumerated who have proved their friends. The patriarch Abraham was both most friendly treated, and presented with a token of friendship, by a king who had been warned from heaven not to defile his wife. Isaac his son likewise found a king most friendly to him. Jacob, being received with honour by a king in Egypt, went so far as to bless him. What shall I say of his son Joseph, who, after the tribulation of a prison, in which his chastity was tried as gold is tried in the fire, being raised by Pharaoh to great honours, even swore by the life of Pharaoh,—not as though puffed up with vain conceit, but being not unmindful of his kindness. The daughter of a king adopted Moses. David took refuge with a king of another race, compelled thereto by the unrighteousness of the king of Israel. Elijah ran before the chariot of a most wicked king,—not by the king's command, but from his own loyalty. Elisha thought it good to offer of his own accord to the woman who had sheltered him anything that she might wish to have obtained from the king through his intercession. But I will come to the actual times when the people of God were in captivity, in which, to use a mild expression, a strange forgetfulness came over you. For, wishing to prove that Christianity has never found anything in kings saving envy towards her, you made mention of the three children and Daniel, who suffered at the hands of persecuting kings, and you could not derive instruction from circumstances not occurring near, but in the very same passages, viz. from the conduct of the king himself after the miracle of the flames which did no hurt, whether as shown in praising and setting forth the name of God, or in honouring the three children themselves, or from the esteem in which the king held Daniel, and the gifts with which he honoured him, nothing loth to receive them, when he, rendering the honour that was due to the king's power, as sufficiently appears from his own words, did not hesitate to use the gift with which he was endowed by God, in interpreting the king's dream. And when, in consequence, the king was compelled by the men who envied the holy prophet, and heaped calumnies upon him with sacrilegious madness, most unwillingly to cast him into the den of lions, sadly though he did it, yet he had the conviction that he would be safe through the help and protection of his God. Accordingly, when Daniel, by the miraculous repression of the lions' rage, had been preserved unhurt, when the friendly voice of the king spoke first to him in accents of anxiety, he himself replied with benediction from the den, "O king, live for ever!" How came it that, when your argument was turning on the very same subject, when you were yourself quoting the examples of the servants of God in whose case these things were done, you either failed to see, or were unwilling to see, or seeing and knowing, were silent, in a manner which I know not how you will defend, about those instances of friendship felt by kings for the saints? But if it were not that, as a defender of the basest cause, you are hindered by the desire of building up falsehood, and thereby turned away either as unwilling or as ignorant from the light of truth, there can be no doubt that you could, without any difficulty, recall some good kings as well as some bad ones, and some friendly to the saints as well as some unfriendly. And we cannot but wonder that your Circumcelliones thus throw themselves from precipices. Who was running after you, I pray? What Macarius, what soldier was pursuing you? Certainly none of our party thrust you into this abyss of falsehood. Why then did you thus run headlong with your eyes shut, so that when you said, "What have you to do with the kings of this world?" you did not add, In whom Christianity has often found envy towards herself, instead of boldly venturing to say, "In whom Christianity has never found anything save envy towards her?" Was it really true that you neither thought yourself, nor considered that those who read your writings would think, how many instances of kings there were that went against your views? Does he not know what he says?
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · Answer to the Letters of Petilianus, WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY. / BOOK SECOND., source paragraph 633 · Original source
Date uncertain | John Chrysostom
Let us consider the righteous, from what cause they all shone brightly forth. Was it not from affliction? And, if you will, let us enumerate them from the first and from the very beginning: Abel, Noah himself; for it is not possible that he, being the only one in that so great multitude of the wicked, should not have been afflicted; for it is said, “Noah being” alone “perfect in his generation, pleased God.” ( Gen. vi. 9.) For consider, I beseech you, if now, when we have innumerable persons whose virtue we may emulate, fathers, and children, and teachers, we are thus distressed, what must we suppose he suffered, alone among so many? But should I speak of the circumstances of that strange and wonderful rain? Or should I speak of Abraham, his wanderings one upon another, the carrying away of his wife, the dangers, the wars, the famines? Should I speak of Isaac, what fearful things he underwent, driven from every place, and laboring in vain, and toiling for others? Or of Jacob? for indeed to enumerate all his [afflictions] is not necessary, but it is reasonable to bring forward the testimony, which he himself [gave] when speaking with Pharaoh; “Few and evil are my days, and they have not attained to the days of my fathers.” ( Gen. xlvii. 9.) Or should I speak of Joseph himself? Or of Moses? Or of Joshua? Or of David? Or of Elijah? Or of Samuel? Or wouldest thou [that I speak] of all the prophets? Wilt thou not find that all these were made illustrious from their afflictions? Tell me then, dost thou desire to become illustrious from ease and luxury? But thou canst not.
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Homily 29, source paragraph 17 · Original source