XXVI.

ADVENTURES OF ISAAC AT GERAR.

(1) Isaac went . . . unto Gerar.--Following the stream of Semitic migration (Genesis 12:15), Isaac had originally purposed going to Egypt, but is commanded by God to abide in the land, and upon so doing he receives the assurance that he will be confirmed in the inheritance of the promises made to his father. Isaac was now dwelling at the well Lahai-Roi, and though the exact site of this place is unknown, yet it lay too far to the south for Isaac to have gone to Gerar on his direct way to Egypt.

Verse 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, 2; Genesis 21:22). Seventy or eighty years having elapsed since Abraham's sojourn in Gerar, it is scarcely probable that this was the monarch who then reigned.

26:1-5 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.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; which was at or near Beersheba, and was about eight miles from Gerar (a).

(a) Bunting's Travels, p. 70.