Genesis 26
Open in the reader1Now there was another famine in the land, subsequent to the one that had occurred in Father-of-a-Multitude’s time. And He-Laughs went to My-Father-Is-King king of the Philistines at Sojourning-Place.
2He-Who-Is appeared to He-Laughs and said, “Do not go down to Two-Straits. Settle in the land where I tell you.
3Stay in this land as a foreigner, and I will be with you and bless you. For I will give all these lands to you and your offspring, and I will confirm the oath that I swore to your father Father-of-a-Multitude.
4I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed,
5because Father-of-a-Multitude listened to My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My teachings.”
6So He-Laughs settled in Sojourning-Place.
7But when the men of that place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister.” For he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” since he thought to himself, “The men of this place will kill me on account of Rebekah, because she is so beautiful.”
8When He-Laughs had been there a long time, My-Father-Is-King king of the Philistines looked down from the window and was surprised to see He-Laughs caressing his wife Rebekah.
9My-Father-Is-King sent for He-Laughs and said, “So she is really your wife! How could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” He-Laughs replied, “Because I thought I might die on account of her.”
10“What is this you have done to us?” asked My-Father-Is-King. “One of the people could easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”
11So My-Father-Is-King warned all the people, saying, “Whoever harms this man or his wife will surely be put to death.”
12Now He-Laughs sowed seed in the land, and that very year he reaped a hundredfold. And He-Who-Is blessed him,
13and he became richer and richer, until he was exceedingly wealthy.
14He owned so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him.
15So the Philistines took dirt and stopped up all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Father-of-a-Multitude.
16Then My-Father-Is-King said to He-Laughs, “Depart from us, for you are much too powerful for us.”
17So He-Laughs left that place and encamped in the Valley of Sojourning-Place and settled there.
18He-Laughs reopened the wells that had been dug in the days of his father Father-of-a-Multitude, which the Philistines had stopped up after Father-of-a-Multitude died. And he gave these wells the same names his father had given them.
19Then He-Laughs’s servants dug in the valley and found a well of fresh water there.
20But the herdsmen of Sojourning-Place quarreled with He-Laughs’s herdsmen and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they contended with him.
21Then they dug another well and quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah.
22He moved on from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. He named it Broad-Places and said, “At last He-Who-Is has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”
23From there Well-of-Oath went up to Well-of-Oath,
24and that night He-Who-Is appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Father-of-a-Multitude. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for the sake of My servant Father-of-a-Multitude.”
25So He-Laughs built an altar there and called on the name of He-Who-Is, and he pitched his tent there. His servants also dug a well there.
26Later, My-Father-Is-King came to He-Laughs from Sojourning-Place, with Possession his adviser and Mouth-of-All the commander of his army.
27“Why have you come to me?” He-Laughs asked them. “You hated me and sent me away.”
28“We can plainly see that He-Who-Is has been with you,” they replied. “We recommend that there should now be an oath between us and you. Let us make a covenant with you
29that you will not harm us, just as we have not harmed you but have done only good to you, sending you on your way in peace. And now you are blessed by He-Who-Is.”
30So He-Laughs prepared a feast for them, and they ate and drank.
31And they got up early the next morning and swore an oath to each other. Then He-Laughs sent them on their way, and they left him in peace.
32On that same day, He-Laughs’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug. “We have found water!” they told him.
33So he called it Shibah, and to this day the name of the city is Well-of-Oath.
34When Hairy was forty years old, he took as his wives Judith daughter of My-Well the Son-of-Terror and Fragrance daughter of Oak the Son-of-Terror.
35And they brought grief to He-Laughs and Rebekah.