Genesis 26

1. The first famine. See xii. 10.—Abimelech. See xx. 2. This transaction was eighty years afterwards. It is unlikely that the same Abimelech and Phichol (ver. 26) were still in office.

2. Egypt. The hundredfold harvest (ver. 12) would confirm Isaac’s attachment to the land, and his faith in the Divine promises.

10. lightly. Easily.

12 sowed. This change in Isaac’s habits seems to have alarmed the Philistines, as showing a design on his part to settle in their land.

19 water. Literally, “living water,” an expression frequently used in Scripture for flowing, in distinction from still or stagnant water. See John iv. 10.

23. Beer-sheba. Although the strife about the wells had ceased, Isaac withdrew, probably to ensure peace, to the place where his father had made a treaty with the chief of Gerar for the possession of the wells (xxi. 23-34); and his movement seems to have been appreciated by Abimelech, who came to him there to renew the treaty.

24 sake. Isaac had been made to feel that though bidden to stay in the land, he was to be a stranger in it; now, lest his faith should fail, he is assured of the certainty of the promise.

26. Phichol. See xxi. 32.

33 unto this day. The old well may have been stopped, as others had been (ver. 18); and this was probably opened close by. The name now again given to the well, Beersheba, differs slightly from that in xxi., referring more expressly to the oath of the treaty: see xxi. 32. In Wady-es-Seba, which answers to this locality, two large wells, besides other small ones, have been found near the ruins of an ancient town. The British troops in the Great War drew water from these wells.

34. Hittite. These women were Canaanites; and Esau’s marriage with them was a further proof that he disregarded the traditions of his family.