And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his camp in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Isaac dug again the wells of water that they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and that the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham; and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.
Abimelech sends Isaac away, and Isaac settles in the valley of Gerar. There he reopens wells his father had dug, which the Philistines had filled in after Abraham died. Why does Scripture record something as ordinary as digging? And why does Isaac keep the old names?
The verse names the Philistines as the ones who blocked the wells. One writer explains who they were, and why Isaac's blessing stirred them up:
The Philistines occupy the place — here the territory — of the people of God, without any right to it. They are enemies at heart, and they always seek to oppress God's people and bring them into bondage. The Lord was with Isaac and blessed him in both goods and cattle, "and the Philistines envied him." God's clear blessing on His own always stirs up the ill-will of those who are not His, but push into their privileges. Their envy showed itself in stopping up all the wells Abraham's servants had dug, and at last in driving Isaac away.
Isaac invents nothing; he clears out what others blocked. Writers see here the pattern for recovering truth the enemy has buried:
Isaac was still in the land where the Philistines lived. Yet the moment he moved some distance away, he showed spiritual power. In Scripture, and especially in Genesis, wells are always sources of life and blessing. That is why the enemy tries to "fill them with earth." The reopening of the truths of Scripture at the Reformation answers to the wells Abraham's servants dug. Satan has been trying to choke those wells ever since, acting through the Philistines. But Isaac cleared them and called them by their old names. He is an example for men of faith and energy in every age. Take, for instance, justification by faith, or the truth of the one body of Christ, the presence of the Holy Spirit on earth, or the coming of the Lord for His people.
Isaac kept his father's names. One writer takes that as a refusal of anything sold as new:
Isaac did not give these living wells new names. He "gave them the names that his father had given them." God has given us a perfect and full revelation, yet on all sides there is a cry for something "new." Let us hold to what God has already revealed. No one can improve on it. Let us pay no attention to the empty boasting about "new light," "new conceptions," "advanced thought," and the rest.
Another writer names what the earth in those wells stands for, and why the one who clears them cannot boast:
The Philistines picture a Christian religion that is all form and no living power. They do not value the pure word of God. They mix it with earthly, material teachings. Such religion may hide from us some of the most precious truths of God's word, as has happened widely across the Christian world. The energy of faith, however, will work to restore them. Isaac also called the wells by the same names Abraham had given them. When we get to recover any truth, let us not think we have done something original. Instead, let us remember that the truth was in Scripture before we discovered it. We have nothing to boast about. Let us give it the same name it had long ago.
God promised the blessing, but the wells still needed hands to reopen them:
The children of God will do well to hold what Isaac held so firmly: God takes care of His own promises and covenants with His people, for He will not give His glory to another. And they must take care to dig their wells. They must uncover the ones the enemy has stopped by cunning or by force. God counted His blessing in cattle. So what use was a growing flock and herd if the Abrahams and Isaacs did not do their part and dig wells of water for them to drink? This is their responsibility… Faith reproduces itself. How precious it is when faith gets its title from God to do the strongest things — as Isaac did with his father's wells, claiming his right again by restoring their original names.
Some writers also read Isaac here as a picture of Christ. The blocked wells then stand for a break in blessing that did not last:
The Philistines had stopped the wells and filled them with earth. But Isaac dug them again, and "gave them the names that his father had given them." Later there were other "Philistines" who tried to destroy Christ. For a time they seemed to succeed in checking the streams of blessing. But Isaac — Christ in resurrection — unstops the fountains of grace, and He calls them by the same names. That is, Christ in resurrection carries on His usual work of mercy on the same basic principles as from the beginning.
- Water — wells stand for sources of life and blessing. That is why the enemy targets them.
- Earth — the Philistines dig nothing. They fill in what others dug, and blessing on God's people makes them envious.
- Again — faith does not invent; it clears. Truths like justification by faith and the coming of the Lord are old wells reopened.
- Names — the old names refuse "new light." The truth stood in Scripture before anyone found it, so no digger can boast.
- Ours — God guards His promises, but He leaves the digging to His people's own hands.
And Isaac's servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.
Isaac has left Gerar and settled in the valley, where his father's old wells lie filled in with earth. His servants dig, and what they find — water that rises on its own — shapes the rest of the chapter and pictures both what God gives and what it costs to keep.
The place matters as much as the find. One writer draws attention to the fact that the spring turned up at the bottom of the land rather than on its heights:
"A well of spring water" — in Hebrew, living water. It is in the low places that the living water is found.
Another writer looks at what the valley lacked at first, and at our own low seasons:
The valley was a good place, but there was no water; the wells that Abraham his father had dug had been stopped by the Philistines. (Sometimes the valley is a valley of tears for us, but even then the Lord can fill the pools, and give us joy in the place of sorrow.)
Living water is not stored water. The difference between a well and a man-made tank is the point:
The word is sometimes used in other ways, yet in Proverbs 5:15 the well is distinct from the cistern as the place of "running," or "living," water. Such wells were those that Isaac dug, not mere artificial cisterns, as we find in Genesis 26... Should not all the children of God want to live beside such wells? — where not only our energy shows itself, but much more, the energy of the Spirit of God... May not, and should not, every one of God's Isaacs be, in his measure and way, a well-digger? What blessedness for him who has in this way not simply the ministry of others, but his own springing well!
Flocks and herds are no use without water. One writer turns the digging into a plain duty for God's people:
The children of God will do well to hold what Isaac held so firmly — that God takes care of His own promises and covenants with His people, for He "will not give His glory to another." And they must take care to dig their wells, and to uncover those which the craft or power of the enemy may have stopped. Of what use was the increase of flocks and herds... if the Abrahams and Isaacs did not do their part by digging the wells of water for them to drink? This is their responsibility.
One writer looks at who Isaac was as he found this well:
Isaac stood as a picture of two things at once: the heir of all promise, and the heir in resurrection too, for Abraham received this son back from the dead in a figure. How fitting, then, that he is the one who finds this well of living water! And we may truly say that good well-digging is only possible for us as we realise and take the place of union with Christ in resurrection-life and power... All other springs are dry.
One writer follows the picture through to Christ Himself:
The Philistines had been stopping the wells and had filled them with earth, but Isaac dug them again and called them by his father's names. So there were later "Philistines" who sought to destroy Christ, and for a time they seemed to succeed in checking the streams of blessing. But Isaac (Christ in resurrection) unstops the fountains of grace, and he calls them by the same names. That is, Christ in resurrection carries on His usual work of mercy on the same essential principles as from the beginning.
Gerar's herdsmen claim the water as soon as it appears, and Isaac names the well after the quarrel. He would not fight for it:
Isaac named the spring Esek, meaning "contention," but "the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome" (2 Timothy 2:24), and instead of continuing the strife, Isaac dug another well. However, this too became a matter of contention (v. 21), to the point that Isaac named it Sitna, meaning "hatred."
The next well brought no fight at all:
Driven further and further away, he dug another, "and for that they strove not"; and he named it Rehoboth, for the Lord had made room for him, and he added, "we shall be fruitful in the land." There is always room, together with blessing, for the people of God in the place of separation.
- Low. The living water turns up in the valley, not on the heights. Even when the valley is one of tears, the Lord gives joy in the place of sorrow.
- Living. A well is not a cistern. This water springs up of itself: we supply the digging, and the Spirit of God supplies the flow.
- Dig. The water was already there, but under the enemy's earth. Isaac's work was to uncover it, and the same responsibility rests on God's people.
- Risen. Isaac is the heir received back from the dead in a figure. The well fits him, and good well-digging follows only as we take our place with Christ in resurrection.
- Room. Every well was fought over — contention, then hatred — until Isaac reached Rehoboth. There is always room and blessing for God's people in the place of separation.
But the shepherds of Gerar strove with Isaac's shepherds, saying, The water is ours. And he called the name of the well Esek, because they had quarrelled with him.
Isaac's servants dig in a valley and strike fresh water, and at once the local herdsmen claim it. The name he gives the well records the quarrel, not the victory — and that choice tells us much about the man and about what God was teaching him.
Here is the well in short — where it was, who dug it, and how it got its name.
A well in the valley of Gerar, dug by the servants of Isaac, and fought over by the servants of Abimelech; so it got its name, which means "strife." Gen. 26:20.
Both sides had a claim to the water. One writer traces the trouble to that clash.
Of all disputes, perhaps the hottest are those that break out between herdsmen and herdsmen, among the flock of God. The right that came from digging clearly belonged to Isaac, for his servants found the well of flowing water. But the right that came from owning the land still belonged to Abimelech. Out of this came the confusion and strife of that day. The same clash keeps the quarrels among herdsmen going today.
Isaac names the strife but does not join it. A commentator sets his response beside a rule for the Lord's servants.
Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found a spring of living water. But the herdsmen of Gerar fought over it, claiming that the water was theirs. Isaac named the spring Esek, meaning "contention," but "the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome" (2 Tim. 2:24). So instead of continuing the strife, Isaac dug another well.
Another writer weighs what that restraint says about Isaac's character.
But Isaac did not turn from the meekness that suits the man of God, gentle to all, and patient with those who opposed him. Nor was his dependence on God left long without an answer. For moving on from there he dug another well, and they did not quarrel over that one. Contention was as far from his spirit as ingratitude would have been toward the Almighty Protector of the man who must not strive.
The three wells form a sequence. One writer reads it as God moving Isaac out of a place outside his calling.
A slow and painful process teaches Isaac that he must leave the land of the Philistines for good. Each well he had to dig marks a stage in that process. First came "contention"; then "hatred"; then "room." Having found "room," and shut out from the company that hampered him, he moves on to Beersheba, at the edge of the land. He again takes the place of a stranger and pilgrim, depending on God; and the moment he does, he gets his reward. "The Lord appeared to him the same night," and blessed him. The discipline had produced sanctification, and he builds an altar and worships. It had taught him one lesson: better to have a little with God than great possessions in a place outside his calling.
The digging carries a picture beyond Isaac's own lifetime.
The Philistines had blocked the wells (v. 15) and filled them with earth. Isaac dug them out again (v. 18), and "he called their names after the names by which his father had called them." Later there were "Philistines" who tried to destroy Christ, and for a time they seemed to succeed in blocking the streams of blessing. But Isaac (Christ in resurrection) unstops the fountains of grace, and he calls them by the same names. That is, Christ in resurrection carries on His usual work of mercy on the same essential principles as from the beginning.
A warning follows, for those who argue for years instead of moving on.
These two wells, Esek and Sitnah, set instructive lessons before us. How many of the Lord's people shrink from separation as they would from a snake! They keep on with the quarrels and disputes, until the arguers grow worn out by everything that first gave their conflict its character. Then they give in, and say when they are fainting that the birthright is of no use to them — and sell it like Esau for a bowl of stew!
- Esek — the name means "strife." It marks the well Isaac's servants dug in the valley of Gerar and Abimelech's servants claimed.
- Two claims — Isaac's right came from digging; Abimelech's came from owning the land. Commentators note that the hottest disputes break out between herdsmen and herdsmen among God's flock.
- Digging, not disputing — Isaac answers the claim by moving on and digging again. He keeps the meekness of a man who depends on God.
- Room — contention, then hatred, then room, then Beersheba. God used the loss to bring Isaac out of Philistine land into worship and blessing.
- Reopened wells — blocked springs opened again picture Christ in resurrection. He unstops the fountains of grace and works on the same principles as before.
And they dug another well, and they strove for that also; and he called the name of it Sitnah.
Isaac has reopened his father's wells and found fresh water, but each one has drawn sharper opposition. Why does a man God has blessed keep meeting a fight, and what does he do about it?
Translators give the name more than one shade of meaning, and all of them are hostile.
This is the name of a well that Isaac's servants dug and Abimelech's servants then seized. Gen. 26:21. Fürst says it means "strife." Gesenius says "contention." In Ezra 4:6 the same word appears as an ordinary noun, and there it means "accusation."
Read alongside the first well, the two names mark a rising temperature. One writer sets them side by side:
"And the herdsmen of Gerar strove with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, The well is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek [conflict]. They dug another well and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah [hatred]."
Digging again did not solve the problem, because the problem was where Isaac was standing. Commentators see God pressing a man who would not leave Philistine country.
God told Isaac to live in the land as a stranger, but Isaac does not obey. He does not go until Abimelech tells him to leave... He tries three times in a row to stay among the Philistines, and fails each time. God would force him back to his right place. He reopens the wells that Abraham had made. He acts as if the Philistines would be kinder to him than they were to his father. He digs for himself, and finds contention (Esek). He digs again, and feels their hatred (Sitnah). At last he gets within the border, and there he finds room (Rehoboth).
Losing ground to opposition is not the end of the story.
Notice also that every new well dug stirred up further enmity from the Philistines (vv. 19-21). Driven farther and farther away, he dug another well, and "they did not quarrel over it." He named it Rehoboth, because the Lord had made room for him, and he added, "we shall be fruitful in the land." There is always room, and blessing with it, for the people of God in the place of separation.
What Isaac did not do carries the weight of the verse. He had the better claim — his servants had done the digging — yet he let it go.
Isaac did not lose the meekness that suits the man of God. He was gentle to everyone, and patient with those who opposed him... Strife was as far from his spirit as ingratitude would have been toward the Almighty who protects the man who must not strive.
Giving way was not weakness. Isaac kept working, and he moved instead of fighting.
Isaac named the spring Esek, meaning "contention." But "the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome" (2 Tim. 2:24), so instead of keeping up the strife, Isaac dug another well. This well too became a matter of contention (v. 21), and Isaac named it Sitna, meaning "hatred." The wise thing for him to do then was to move away from the place before digging another well.
There is a cost to staying in a fight instead of separating from it:
These two wells, Esek and Sitnah, set instructive lessons before us. How many of the Lord's people shrink from separation as they would from a snake! So they go on with the contentions and strifes. In the end the disputants grow weary of everything that first gave their conflict its character. They give in and say, when exhausted, "Of what use is a birthright to me?" Then they sell the birthright, like Esau, for a bowl of stew!
The names mark stages, and the discipline had an aim:
By a slow and painful process, Isaac learns that he must leave the land of the Philistines completely. Each well he had to dig marks one stage of that process. First "contention," then "hatred," then "room." Having found room, he is free from the association that held him back. He takes the place of a stranger and pilgrim again, depending on God. The moment he does so, he gets his reward: "the LORD appeared to him the same night," and blessed him. The discipline had produced sanctification, and he builds an altar and worships. It had taught him this: better a little with God than great possessions in a place outside his calling.
Commentators differ in emphasis. One writer reads the stopped and reopened wells as a picture of Christ:
Later there were "Philistines" who sought to destroy Christ. For a time they seemed to succeed in checking the streams of blessing. But Isaac — Christ in resurrection — unstops the fountains of grace, and He calls them by the same names. That is, Christ in resurrection carries on His usual work of mercy, on the same principles as from the beginning.
- Esek — the first well named the quarrel: conflict over water Isaac's own servants had found.
- Sitnah — the second name goes further: hatred, even accusation. The fight grew.
- Wrong ground — the repeated strife marked a place Isaac was never meant to settle, and God used it to move him.
- No striving — Isaac stayed gentle, kept digging, and gave up well after well instead of fighting for his rights.
- Rehoboth — room, fruit, an altar, God appearing. All of it came after he let the disputed ground go.
And he removed thence and dug another well; and they did not strive for that. And he called the name of it Rehoboth, and said, For now Jehovah has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.
Isaac's servants had already dug twice, and twice the local herdsmen had claimed the water. The names he gave the wells tell the story of that stretch of his life, and the third name breaks the pattern.
Isaac's servants dug in the valley and found a spring of living water. But the herdsmen of Gerar fought them for it, claiming that the water was theirs. Isaac named the spring Esek, meaning "contention," but "the servant of the Lord must not strive" (2 Tim. 2:14), and instead of continuing the strife, Isaac dug another well. But this one led to a fight as well (v. 21), so Isaac named it Sitna, meaning "hatred." The wise thing to do was to move away from that place before digging another well (v. 22). It seems this was far enough off that the Philistines no longer claimed the well for themselves. Isaac called it Rehoboth, meaning "room," considering that the Lord had made room for him to be fruitful and expand.
Isaac never fought back when others seized his wells. He moved on each time, and he credits the room he finally found to the LORD.
But Isaac did not change from that meekness which becomes the man of God, gentle to all, and forbearing to such as opposed themselves. Nor was his dependence on God without a speedy answer. He moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. He called it Rehoboth, and explained the name: "For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land." His spirit was as far from contention as it was from ingratitude toward the Almighty Protector of the man who must not strive.
The record shows him losing ground repeatedly without a word of protest.
For instance, in Isaac. The world was against him. But he does not strive with it either in deed or in word. He neither answers nor resists. The Philistines tell him to go from them. He goes at their bidding. They spoil him of his labours. He yields and takes it patiently, as Esek and Sitnah tell us. Gen. 26.
This quiet surrender of what was rightfully his makes Isaac a model for those who follow Jesus.
Once it is pointed out, we cannot help seeing how well Isaac pictures the Christian who is not of the world, just as Christ is not of the world. He does not resist evil. Struck on the right cheek, he offers the other also. He does not contend for the goods of which he was deprived, but when his cloak was taken away, he does not fight even for his coat. Neither Abraham nor Jacob was so tested, nor did their patience shine so brightly; the one fought for Lot (Gen. 14), the other for himself (Gen. 48), but never Isaac.
The space opened up only after Isaac had been pushed further and further from the Philistines. Writers read this as a principle that outlasts Isaac's own story.
Notice, also, that every new well he dug stirred up more hostility from the Philistines. (vv. 19-21.) Driven further and further away, he dug another well, "and they did not quarrel over it." He named it Rehoboth, for the Lord had made room for him, and he added, "we shall be fruitful in the land." There is always room, together with blessing, for the people of God in the place of separation.
Commentators differ here. One calls the move wise; another reads the three wells as a slow lesson Isaac had to be taught.
By a slow and painful process, Isaac is taught that he must leave the land of the Philistines completely. Each well he had to dig marks a stage in that process. First "contention," then "hatred," then "room." Having found room, and being kept from the company that hampered him, he moves on to Beersheba, on the edge of the land... It had taught him that a little with God is better than great possessions in a place outside his calling. Now he enjoys his mercies and his well in peace.
A well here is more than a water supply.
In Scripture, and especially in Genesis, wells are always sources of life and blessing. So the enemy seeks to "fill them with earth" (v. 15)... Take, for instance, the doctrine of justification by faith. Or the truth of the one body of Christ, the presence of the Holy Spirit on earth, the coming of the Lord for His people. Who are they who have sought to "stop up" these blessed wells of water? In every case they have been the "Philistines." So there is a constant need for the Isaacs to dig them out again, and to call them by their old names — that is, by their scriptural names.
- Esek. Isaac named the first well for the quarrel it caused — dig for what refreshes and you will meet opposition, not gratitude.
- Sitnah. Contention hardened into hatred, and still Isaac refused to fight back. He lived out the rule that the Lord's servant must not strive.
- Rehoboth. God gave the room; Isaac did not win it. He gained space by giving ground, and the name he chose credits the Lord, not his own patience.
- Fruitfulness. Room and fruit come together. There is always room, and blessing with it, for God's people in the place of separation.
- Beersheba. Rehoboth was not the destination. Isaac moved on to the edge of the land, and learned that a little with God beats great possessions outside his calling.