Genesis 26

Ge 26:1-35.

SOJOURN IN

GERAR.

1. And there was a famine in the land . . . And Isaac went

unto . . . Gerar--The pressure of famine in Canaan

forced Isaac with his family and flocks to migrate into the land of the

Philistines, where he was exposed to personal danger, as his father had

been on account of his wife's beauty; but through the seasonable

interposition of Providence, he was preserved

(Ps 105:14, 15).

12. Then Isaac sowed in that land--During his sojourn in that

district he farmed a piece of land, which, by the blessing of God on

his skill and industry, was very productive

(Isa 65:13;

Ps 37:19);

and by his plentiful returns he increased so rapidly in wealth and

influence that the Philistines, afraid or envious of his prosperity,

obliged him to leave the place

(Pr 27:4;

Ec 4:4).

This may receive illustration from the fact that many Syrian shepherds

at this day settle for a year or two in a place, rent some ground, in

the produce of which they trade with the neighboring market, till the

owners, through jealousy of their growing substance, refuse to renew

their lease and compel them to remove elsewhere.

15. all the wells which his father's servants had digged

. . . the Philistines had stopped, &c.--The same base

stratagem for annoying those against whom they have taken an umbrage is

practiced still by choking the wells with sand or stones, or defiling

them with putrid carcases.

17. valley of Gerar--torrent-bed or wady, a vast undulating

plain, unoccupied and affording good pasture.

18-22. Isaac digged again the wells of water--The naming of

wells by Abraham, and the hereditary right of his family to the

property, the change of the names by the Philistines to obliterate the

traces of their origin, the restoration of the names by Isaac, and the

contests between the respective shepherds to the exclusive possession

of the water, are circumstances that occur among the natives in those

regions as frequently in the present day as in the time of Isaac.

26-33. Then Abimelech went to him--As there was a lapse of

ninety years between the visit of Abraham and of Isaac, the Abimelech

and Phichol spoken of must have been different persons' official

titles. Here is another proof of the promise

(Ge 12:2)

being fulfilled, in an overture of peace being made to him by the king

of Gerar. By whatever motive the proposal was dictated--whether fear of

his growing power, or regret for the bad usage they had given him, the

king and two of his courtiers paid a visit to the tent of Isaac

(Pr 16:7).

His timid and passive temper had submitted to the annoyances of his

rude neighbors; but now that they wish to renew the covenant, he

evinces deep feeling at their conduct, and astonishment at their

assurance, or artifice, in coming near him. Being, however, of a

pacific disposition, Isaac forgave their offense, accepted their

proposals, and treated them to the banquet by which the ratification of

a covenant was usually crowned.

34. Esau . . . took to wife--If the pious feelings of

Abraham recoiled from the idea of Isaac forming a matrimonial

connection with a Canaanitish woman

[Ge 24:3],

that devout patriarch himself would be equally opposed to such a union

on the part of his children; and we may easily imagine how much his

pious heart was wounded, and the family peace destroyed, when his

favorite but wayward son brought no less than two idolatrous wives

among them--an additional proof that Esau neither desired the blessing

nor dreaded the curse of God. These wives never gained the affections

of his parents, and this estrangement was overruled by God for keeping

the chosen family aloof from the dangers of heathen influence.