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[This chapter begins with a strange ‘deja vu’ except the first two times, the experience was related to Abraham . . . now almost exactly the same experience happens to 2nd generation Yitschaq. It is this kind of repetition that sometimes makes you wonder if the copyists of the Hebrew Scriptures might have made mistakes, except when you read about how scrupulous those copyists were at handling the ‘very words of YHWH’, you have to rethink and conclude: ‘well, maybe in those days, this was a common experience for men with beautiful wives who catch the eye of powerful rulers like Pharaoh.’ Then again there are the skeptics and scholars who attribute these strange repetitions to human authors who penned the sacred scriptures of Israel, etc. The point in these ‘deja vus’ is the disobedience of father and son to the command of YHWH for them not to go down into Egypt. Both times however, despite the patriarchs disobedience, it is demonstrated that their God is with them which becomes evident to those ‘with eyes to see’ the workings of the Divine in a person’s life. There are those with eyes to see but are blind to such obvious connections or unbelievable coincidence, you know?
Another ‘deja vu’, a repetition of the promise to Abraham now continues to his second generation, the promised son. It is clear that Isaac/Yischak gets blessed:
Genesis 26: 4 I will make your seed many, like the stars of the heavens, and to your seed I will give all theselands; all the nations of the earth shall enjoy blessing through your seed— 5 in consequence of Avraham’s hearkening to my voice and keeping my charge: my
commandments, my laws, and my instructions
Lesson for us: Is it that simple to be blessed? Hear, obey, heed the teachings and instructions or the Torah? Well, according to these instructional narratives— yes! It worked for the patriarchs, it worked for Israel for the times they were obedient, surely it would work for us Gentiles, since Torah is intended for all humankind, not just the custodians of YHWH’s revelation. There is blessing for obedience and . . . well, obviously none for disobedience; worse, it might even transmutate to ‘curse’ as the Rabbis surmise, see: Is YHWH the source of evil?
One other ‘deja vu’ here is the redigging of Abraham’s wells by Yitschak. It is said that there will come a time when wars will be fought over drinking water or the lack of it; that sounds pretty strange when you consider that all the water in this world are just constantly recycled or transform into any of the three states that H2O exists: solid, liquid, gas. Of course, potable water could be threatened by the growing toxicity of the natural environment of planet earth. And so perhaps we can understand the importance of wells during the times of Israel’s Patriarchs. Following the logic of — in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, in times of drought and in the absence of potable water, the well-owner is is a well-thy man indeed!
Commentary is from Pentateuch and Haftorahs, ed. Dr. J.H.Hertz; translation and additional commentary by “EF” – Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses; “RA’ commentary is Robert Alter, all listed in our MUST READ/MUST OWN resources.—Admin1.]
Genesis/Bereshith 26
ISAAC AND THE PHILISTINES
[RA] This chapter is the only one in which Isaac figures as an active protagonist. Before, he was a bound victim; after, he will be seen as a bamboozled blind old man. His only other initiated act is his brief moment as intercessor on behalf of his wife in 25:21. Textual critics disagree about whether this chapter is a mosaic” of Isaac traditions or an integral literary unit, and about whether it is early or late. What is clear is that the architectonics of the larger story require a buffer of material on Isaac between Jacob’s purchase of the birthright and his stealing of the blessing—a buffer that focuses attention on Isaac’s right to the land and on his success in flourishing in the land. All of the actions reported here, however, merely delineate him as a typological heir to Abraham. Like Abraham he goes through the sister-wife experience, is vouchsafed a covenantal promise by God, prospers in flock and field, and is involved in a quarrel over wells. He remains the pale and schematic patriarch among the three forefathers, preceded by the exemplary founder, followed by the vivid struggler.
1 Now there was a famine in the land, aside from the former famine which there had been in thedays of Avraham, so Yitzhak went to Avimelekh, king of the Philistines, to Gerar.
the first famine. Mentioned in XII,10.
Abimelech. See XX,2. Possibly the dynastic name of the Philistine rulers.
Gerar. See XX,1.
[EF] a famine . . . Yitzhak went to Avimelekh: Parallel to the story in Chap. 20.
[RA] besides the former famine. The writer (some would say, the editor) signals at the outset that this story comes after, and explicitly reenacts, what happened before to Abraham.
king of the Philistines. In this version, the anachronistic identification of Gerar as a Philistine city, not strictly intrinsic to the Abimelech story in chapter 20, is insisted on. There is no obvious literary purpose for this difference; one suspects it simply reflects the historical context in which this version was formulated, in which the western Negeb would have been naturally thought of as Philistine country.
2 And YHVH was seen by him and said: Do not go down to Egypt; continue to dwell in the land that I tell you of,go not down into Egypt. Isaac would naturally resolve to do what his father had done in similar circumstances, as described in XII,10.
[RA] Do not go down to Egypt. That is, emulate the pattern of Abraham’s second-sister-wife episode, not the first. Following a coastal route, Isaac could well have used Gerar as a way station to Egypt, and Abraham;s pact with Abimelech (chapter 21) would have provided some assurance that the Gerarites would grant him safe transit.
3 sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will give you blessing— for to you and to yourseed I give all these lands and will fulfill the sworn-oath that I swore to Avraham your father:
sojourn. Stay for the time being; see XII,10.
4 I will make your seed many, like the stars of the heavens, and to your seed I will give all these lands; all the nations of the earth shall enjoy blessing through your seed—as the stars of heaven. V,5.
bless themselves. See on XII,3.
[RA] all these lands. “lands” occurs in the plural in this version of the promise because Isaac is in the land of the Philistines.
5 in consequence of Avraham’s hearkening to my voice and keeping my charge: my commandments, my laws and my instructions.because that Abraham. Emphasizing the unity and continuity of Abraham and his descendants.
commandments. Laws dictated by the moral sense, e.g. against the crimes of robbery, bloodshed, etc.
statutes. Laws ordained by God which we are to observe although reason cannot assign an explanation, e.g. the prohibition of swine’s flesh. [Admin1: When this commentary was written in 1936, genetic science had not yet progressed to where it is now; please go to the posts under Waiqrah/Leviticus 11 [ Biblical Diet 2—UNclean Meat] and be illuminated as to why medically and healthwise, pig meat and its processed foods (bacon, ham, pork sausages, pork rinds) are the first to be listed on the NONO menu of sufferers of arthritis, rheumatism, gout, and a host of others. It might save you some big medical bills to simply adjust the menu on your plate and your palate.
laws. Customs and traditional ordinances orally transmitted from generation to generation. These definitions are given in the Midrash.
[EF] in consequence of Avraham’s hearkening . . . : The blessing mirrors 22:17. my commandments . . .: These are not specified; this is probably a poetic phrase describing a general idea.
6 So Yitzhak stayed in Gerar.[EF] The Wife—III (26:7-11): Here is the final “Yitzhak version” of the tale, constructed around the same king whom Avraham had encountered in Chap. 20. Its individual coloring is supplied by the “laughing-and-loving” of v. 8, playing on Yitzhak’s name. Otherwise, just as in the following episode, he is merely repeating his father’s experience.
7 Now when the men of the place asked about his wife, he said: She is my sister, for he was afraid to say: my wife— (thinking): Otherwise the people of the place will kill me on account of Rivka, for she is beautiful to look at.Isaac meets with the same experience as his father (XII,13; XX,5), and unwisely adopts the same plan for safeguarding his person.
[RA] the men of the place. The sexual threat against the matriarch is displaced in this final version from the monarch to the local male populace. The likely reference of “one of the people” in verse 10 is what it seems to say, any male Gerarite, despite an exegetical tradition (influenced by the earlier Abimelech story) that construes it as an epithet for the king.
she is comely to look at. Isaac’s interior monologue uses the identical epithet invoked by the narrator in introducing Rebekah in chapter 24.
8 But it was, when he had been there a long time, that Avimelekh, king of the Philistines, lookedout through a window and saw: there was Yitzhak laughing-and-loving with Rivka his wife!
Abimelech has not taken Rebekah into his household as had been done with Srah.
at a window. Or, ‘through the window.’
sporting. The same word as used in XXI,9, but having here a different meaning. Their conduct was such that Abimelech suspected they were husband and wife.
[RA] as his time there drew on. Rashi, with his characteristic acuteness of response to nuances of phrasing, construes this as a suggestion that Isaac became complacent with the passage of time (“From now on I don’t have to worry since they haven’t raped her so far”) and so allowed himself to be publicly demonstrative with Rebekah.
looked out the window. This is the most naturalistic of the three versions of the story. The matriarch’s marital status is conveyed not by a dream-vision from God, but by ocular evidence.
playing. The meaning of the verb is clearly sexual, implying either fondling or actual sexual “play.” It immediately follows the name “Isaac,” in which the same verbal root is transparently inscribed. Thus Isaac-the-laugher’s birth is preceded by the incredulous laughter of each of his parents; Sarah laughs after his birth; Ishmael laugh-smocks at the child Isaac; and now Isaac laughs-plays with the wife he loves. Perhaps there is some suggestion that the generally passive Isaac is a man of strong physical appetites; he loves Esau because of his own fondness for venison; here he rather recklessly disports himself in public with the woman he has proclaimed to be his sister.
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10 Avimelekh said: What is this that you have done to us! One of the people might well have lain with your wife, and then you would have brought guilt upon us!
[RA] One of the people might well have lain with your wife. Though Abimelech’s words approximately mirror those of the indignant king in chapter 20, this version is pointedly devised to put the woman first announced as Isaac’s beautiful, strictly virgin bride in less danger than Sarah was in Chapters 12 and 20: Rebekah is never taken into the harem’ it is merely a supposition that one of the local men might seize her for sexual exploitation.
11 Avimelekh commanded the entire people, saying: Whoever touches this man or his wife mustbe put to death, yes, death!
[EF] touches: Or “harms.”
12 Yitzhak sowed in that land, and reaped in that year a hundred measures; thus did YHVH bless him.in the same year, i.e. in the year of famine. That is why his prosperity was regarded as not a natural thing but a Divine blessing.
a hundredfold. ‘In the rich lava-soil of Hauran, wheat is said to yield on an average 80 fold, and barley, 100 fold (Wetzstein).
[EF] reaped: Lit. “attained.”
Blessing (26:12-33): Confirmation of Yitzhak’ status as heir comes in vv.12-14, in the form of material blessings (already referred to immediately after Avrham’s death, 25:11). It will be Yaakov’s task to reclaim and continue the spiritual side of the tradition.
The first episode is centered around not Yitzhak but Avraham. The phrase “his father” reverberates; and Avimelekh returns. In the second episode; Avraham’s treaty with that king (Chap. 21) is replayed, with the same result as before: an explanation of the name Be’er-Sheva.
[RA] And Isaac sowed. In keeping with the emphasis of this version on human action, the bounty that comes to the patriarch after the deflection of the sexual danger to his wife is not a gift from the monarch but the fruit of his own industry as agriculturalist and pastoralist. There is a continuity between his sojourning in the western Negeb near Gerar and his movement somewhat to the east, to Beersheba, where his father had long encamped. All this creates a direct connection between the sister-wife episode and the theme of Isaac inheriting and growing prosperous in the land.
13 The man became great, and went on, went on becoming greater, until he was exceedinglygreat:
14 he had herds of sheep and herds of oxen and a large retinue-of-servants, and the Philistines envied him.
[RA] and the Philistines envied him. The jealousy over Isaac’s spectacular prosperity and the contention over precious water resources that follows lay the ground for the story of the two brothers struggling over the blessing of land and inheritance in the next episode. Isaac’s being “sent away” by the Philistines adumbrates Jacob’s banishment to the east after having procured the blessing by stealth.
15 And all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Avraham his father, thePhilistines stopped up and filled with earth.
16 Avimelekh said to Yitzhak: Go away from us, for you have become exceedingly more mighty
(in number) than we!
The prosperity of the Patriarch creates envy among his neighbours. Modern anti-Semitism is, likewise, largely dictated by envy, thus illustrating the Rabbinic saying, ‘What happened to the Patriarchs, repeats itself in the life of their descendants.’
17 So Yitzhak went from there, he encamped in the wadi of Gerar and settled there.valley. The Heb. word nahal means a wady or river-bed, which in the winter, or even after a storm, is a rushing stream, but in summer is usually reduced to a mere thread of water, or may even be entirely dry. In the bed of such wadys, water may often be found by digging (Driver).
[EF] there: The word occurs seven times through v. 25. It may be a counterpoint to Chap. 24’s usage, or to stress that Yitzhak stays in the land.
[RA] wadi. The Arabic term, current in modern English and Hebrew usage, designates, as does the biblical naal, a dry riverbed that would be filled with water only during the flash floods of the rainy season. But the floor of a wadi might conceal, as here, an underground source of water.
18 Yitzhak again dug up the wells of water which had been dug in the days of Avraham his father, the Philistines having stopped them up after Avraham’s death, and he called them by the names, the same names, by which his father had called them. 19 Yitzhak’s servants also dug in the wadi, and found there a well of living water.living water. Or, ‘springing water’; the opposite of stagnant water.
[EF] wadi: An often-dry riverbed. living water; fresh-water.
20 Now the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with the shepherds of Yitzhak, saying: The water is ours! So he called the name of the well: Esek/Bickering, because they had bickered with him.[RA] Esek. Roughly, “contention,” as in the verb that follows in the etiological explanation of the name.
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[RA] Sitnah. The transparent meaning is “accusation” or “hostility,” though the sentence lacks an etiological clause.
22 He moved on from there and dug another well, but they did not quarrel over it, so he called its name: Rehovot/Space, and said: Indeed, now YHVH has made space for us, so that we may bear fruit in the land!Rehoboth. i.e. ‘Room’, latitude; lit. ‘broad palces’. In Heb. the word denoting ‘spaciousness’ is used to express comfort and security. Twenty miles S.W. of Beersheba there is a well known as Ruhaibeh.
[RA] another well. The struggle over wells, which replays an episode in the Abraham stories but is given more elaborate emphasis, works nicely as part of the preparation for the next round of the Jacob-Esau conflict: a water source is not easily divisible; the spiteful act of the Philistines in blocking up the wells expresses a feeling that if we can’t have the water, nobody should; at the end, Isaac’s workers discover a new, undisputed well and call it Rehoboth, which means “open spaces.” We are being prepared for the story in which only one of the two brothers can get the real blessing, in which there will be bitter jealousy and resentment; and which in the long run will end with room enough for the two brothers to live peaceably in the same land.
23 He went up from there to Be’er-sheva. 24 Now YHVH was seen by him on that night and said: I am the God of Avraham your father. Do not be afraid, for I am with you, I will bless you and will make your seed many, for the sake of Avraham my servant.fear not. In view of the hostility recently shown him.
25 He built a slaughter-site there and called out the name of YHVH. He spread his tent there, and Yitzhak’s servants excavated a well there.called upon the name of the LORD. See XII,8.
26 Now Avimelekh went to him from Gerar, along with Ahuzzat his aide and Pikhol the commander of his army.his friend. i.e. his intimate counsellor.
Phicol. The same as in XXI,22. If the Abimelech and Phicol are identical with those mentioned in Chap. I, they must have been old men in the time of Isaac.
[EF] aide: Lit. “friend.”
27 Yitzhak said to them: Why have you come to me? For you hate me and have sent me away from you![RA] sent me away from you. It is a mistake to render the verb, as several modern translations do, as “drive away.” The verb Isaac chooses is a neutral one, even though the context of the sentence strongly indicates hostile intention. Abimelech in his response (verse 29) uses exactly the same word, adding the qualifier “in peace” in order to put a different face on the action: this was no banishment, we sent you off as a reasonable act of good will. The narrator then uses the same verb and qualifier—which might conceivably be a formula for parting after the completion of a treaty—in verse 31, “and Isaac sent them away, and they went from him in peace.” (Compare David and Abner in 2 Samuel 3.)
28 They said: We have seen, yes, seen that YHVH has been with you, so we say: Pray let there be an oath-curse between us, between us and you, we want to cut a covenant with you:the LORD was with thee. The same motive for seeking friendship as in XXI,22.
oath. A compact sealed by an oath.
29 If ever you should deal badly with us . . . ! Just as we have not harmed you and just as we have only dealt well with you and have sent you away in peace— you are now blessed by YHVH!we have not touched thee. v. 11.
30 He made them a drinking-feast, and they ate and drank.[EF] they ate and drank: The cutting of a covenant is often accompanied by a meal in biblical and other societies.
31 Early in the morning they swore (an oath) to one another; then Yitzhak sent them off, and they went from him in peace. 32 Now it was on that same day that Yitzhak’s servants came and told him about the well that they had been digging, they said to him: We have found water! 33 So he called it: Shiv’a/Swearing-seven; therefore the name of the city is Be’er-sheva until this day.Shibah. Better, Good Fortune. The Semitic root— in addition to its other meanings—denotes ‘to be fortunate’.
Beer-sheba. i.e. Fortune’s Well.
[RA] Shibah. Though the word in this form means “seven,” the etiology of the name intimated by the narrative context obviously relates it to “shevu’ah, “oath,” whereas the earlier story about Beersheba (Chapter 21) appears to link the name with both “seven” and “oath.”
Judith. It is not found again in the Bible, but is the name of the heroine of one of the books of the Apocrypha.
Basemath. In XXXVI,2, we are given the names of more wives of Esau.
[EF] forty years old: The same age that his father was at the time of his marriage.
[RA] And Esau . . . took as wife. This brief notice about Esau’s exogamous unions obviously is distinct from the preceding stories about Isaac. It is probably placed here to remind us of his unworthiness to be the true heir (thus forming a kind of envelope structure with the spurning of the birthright int he last verse of chapter 25), and in this way serves to offer some sort of justification in advance for Jacob’s stealing the blessing in the next episode. It also lays the ground for the end of the next episode in which Rebekah will invoke the need for Jacob to find a wife from his own kin as an excuse for his hasty departure for Mesopotamia.
35 And they were a bitterness of spirit to Yitzhak and Rivka.
a bitterness of spirit. Or, ‘a grief of mind.’ It was against the family tradition to intermarry with these races; see XXIV,3; XXVII,46. The mention of Esau’s wives is introduced here to show how faithless he was to the teachings and example of Abraham and Isaac, and therefore unworthy to be regarded as their spiritual heir and to receive his father’s blessing.
[RA] provocation. Some commentators construe the first component of the compound noun morat-rua as a derivative of the root m-r-r, “bitter”—hence the term “bitterness” favored by many translations. But the morphology of the word points to a more likely derivation from m-r-h, “to rebel” or “to defy,” and thus an equivalent such as “provocation” is more precise.