This document is about Abimelech (King of Gerar). For other homonyms, please refer to the Abimelech document. The word Abimelech itself means "king" in Hebrew. This document records the king who ruled the Gerar region for generations. ### Abimelech in the Time of Abraham This is the king who took Sarah, the wife of Abraham, when Abraham resided in the Gerar region. At that time, he was troubled because he had no descendants, and when he saw Sarah, Abraham, fearing Abimelech's power, said she was his sister, so Abimelech took her. However, God appeared to Abimelech in a dream and told him not to touch her. Abimelech asserted his innocence to Abraham, returned Sarah, and also gave him much wealth. See Genesis 20. Afterward, he sought out Abraham again and made a peace treaty.
Genesis 21:22Now, therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son’s son. But according to the kindness that I have done to you, you shall do to me, and to the land in which you have lived as a foreigner.”Genesis 21:23Abraham said, “I will swear.”Genesis 21:24Abraham) complained to Abimelech because of a water well, which Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away.Genesis 21:25Abimelech said, “I don’t know who has done this thing. You didn’t tell me, and I didn’t hear of it until today.”Genesis 21:26Abraham took sheep and cattle, and gave them to Abimelech. Those two made a covenant.Genesis 21:27Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.Genesis 21:28Abimelech said to Abraham, “What do these seven ewe lambs, which you have set by themselves, mean?”Genesis 21:29He said, “You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, that it may be a witness to me, that I have dug this well.”Genesis 21:30Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because they both swore an oath there.Genesis 21:31So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Abimelech rose up with Phicol, the captain of his army, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.Genesis 21:32Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and called there on the name of Yahweh, the Everlasting God.Genesis 21:33Abraham lived as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines many days.Genesis 21:34Abraham lived as a foreigner in the land of the Philistines many days.
Genesis 26:1Yahweh appeared to him, and said, “Don’t go down into Egypt. Live in the land I will tell you about.Genesis 26:2Live 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.Genesis 26:3I 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,Genesis 26:4because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”Genesis 26:5Isaac lived in Gerar.Genesis 26:6The 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.”Genesis 26:7When 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.Genesis 26:8Abimelech 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.’ ”Genesis 26:9Abimelech 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!”Genesis 26:10Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death.”Genesis 26:11Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh blessed him.
Genesis 26:26Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me, and have sent me away from you?”Genesis 26:27They said, “We saw plainly that Yahweh 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,Genesis 26:28that 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 Yahweh.”Genesis 26:29He made them a feast, and they ate and drank.Genesis 26:30They 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.Genesis 26:31The same day, Isaac)’s servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”