Genesis 26:1

_AND THERE WAS A FAMINE IN 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 there was a famine in the land ... Isaac went unto Abimelech ... unto Gerar. A pressure of famine forced Isaac to leave Hebron, whither he had returned from Lahai-roi (Genesis 25:11), with the view, it appears, of seeking for his family and flocks, as Abraham had done at a similar crisis, the means of provision in Egypt, which Canaan did not afford. The great central road from Canaan into that country lay through Gerar, the capital of the early Philistine kingdom (see the note at Genesis 20:1); and though that city was usually a stage for traveling caravans, the arrival of so great an emir as Isaac, with so large a number of fl

1._And there was a famine_. Moses relates that Isaac was tried by nearly the same kind of temptation as that through which his father Abraham had twice passed. I have before explained how severe and violent was this assault. The condition in which it was the will of God to place his servants, as strangers and pilgrims in the land which he had promised to give them, seemed sufficiently troublesome and hard; but it appears still more intolerable, that he scarcely suffered them to exist (if we may so speak) in this wandering, uncertain, and changeable kind of life, but almost consumed them with hunger. Who would not say that God had forgotten himself, when he did not even supply his own children, — whom he had received into his especial care and trust, — however sparingly and scantily, with food? But God thus tried the holy fathers, that we might be taught, by their example, not to be effem...

1-5 Isaac had been trained up in a believing dependence upon the Divine grant of the land of Canaan to him and his heirs; and now that there is a famine in the land, Isaac still cleaves to the covenant. The real worth of God's promises cannot be lessened to a believer by any cross providences that may befall him. If God engage to be with us, and we are where he would have us to be, nothing but our own unbelief and distrust can prevent our comfort. The obedience of Abraham to the Divine command, was evidence of that faith, whereby, as a sinner, he was justified before God, and the effect of that love whereby true faith works. God testifies that he approved this obedience, to encourage others, especially Isaac....

CHAPTER XXVI _A famine in the land obliges Isaac to leave Beer-sheba and_ _go to Gerar_, 1. _God appears to him, and warns him not to go to Egypt_, 2. _Renews the promises to him which he had made to his father_ _Abraham_, 3-5. _Isaac dwells at Gerar_, 6. _Being questioned concerning Rebekah, and fearing to lose his_ _life on her account, he calls her his sister_, 7. _Abimelech the king discovers, by certain familiarities which he_ _had noticed between Isaac and Rebekah, that she was his wife_, 8....

- The Events of Isaac’s Life 5. משׁמרת _mı̂shmeret_, “charge, ordinance.” מציה _mı̂tsvâh_, “command,” special order. חק _choq_, “decree, statute,” engraven on stone or metal. תירה _tôrâh_, “law,” doctrine, system of moral truth. 10. עשׂק _‛__êśeq_, ‘Eseq, “strife.” 21. שׂטנה _śı̂ṭnâh_, Sitnah, “opposition.” 22. רחבית _r__e__chobôt_, Rechoboth, “room.” 26. אחזת...

EXPOSITION GENESIS 26:1 AND THERE WAS A FAMINE IN THE LAND (of Canaan), BESIDE THE FIRST (_i_._e_. first recorded) FAMINE THAT WAS IN THE DAYS OF ABRAHAM—at least a century previous (_vide _Genesis 12:10). AND ISAAC—who, since his father's death, had been residing at Hagar's well in the wilderness of Beersheba (Genesis 25:11)—WENT UNTO ABIMELECH KING OF THE PHILISTINES UNTO GERAR (cf. Genesis 20:1, Genesis 20:2;...

AND THERE WAS A FAMINE IN THE LAND,.... In the land of Canaan, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it; BESIDES THE FIRST FAMINE THAT WAS IN THE DAYS OF ABRAHAM; of which see Genesis 12:10; which was an hundred years before this; AND ISAAC WENT UNTO ABIMELECH KING OF THE PHILISTINES, UNTO GERAR; where his father Abraham had sojourned before he was born; and therefore the present king of this place can scarce be thought to be the same Abimelech that was king of it in Abraham's time; but it is highly probable that this Abimelech was the son of the former king, and that this was a common name to the kings of Gerar or the Philistines, as Pharaoh was to the kings of Egypt. Isaac came to this place from Lahairoi, where he had dwelt many years, see Genesis 24:62

FAMINE (_ See Scofield) - (Genesis 12:10). _...

CHAPTER 26 ISAAC IN GERAR _ 1. The famine (Genesis 26:1)_ 2. Jehovah appears unto Isaac (Genesis 26:2) 3. Isaac in Gerar where he denies Rebekah (Genesis 26:6) 4. Isaac's prosperity and the digging of wells (Genesis 26:12) 5. Jehovah appears at Beersheba (Genesis 26:23) 6. Isaac and Abimelech (Genesis 26:26) 7. The wives of Esau ...

GENESIS 26. ISAAC AND THE PHILISTINES. Apart from Genesis 26:34 f. this chapter belongs to J. The original has been expanded in Genesis 26:1, and Genesis 26:15; Genesis 26:18 are harmonistic insertions. Apart from Genesis 26:12 the incidents are parallel to incidents recorded of Abraham. On the relation to the earlier adventures of Sarah in Egypt and Gerar, see Genesis 26:20 *. The incident is misplaced; obviously it is earlier than the birth of Esau and Jacob.