37 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Isaac's servants digged in the valley,.... In the valley of Gerar, as the Septuagint version expresses it: and found there a well of springing water; or "living water" (l), which continually flows, as Aben Ezra rightly interprets it: hence this phrase is used of the perpetual and ever living graces of the Spirit of God, John 4:10. (l) מים חיים...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen,.... About the well which was dug in the valley; and this shows it was near Gerar or at least was upon the border of the country, and so it was a disputable point to whom it belonged: saying, the water [is] ours; though the well was dug by Isaac's servants, yet they laid claim to the water,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they digged another well,.... That is, Isaac's servants: and strove for that also; the herdsmen of Gerar disputed their right to that also, and strove to get it from them: and he called the name of it Sitnah; which signifies "hatred", it being out of hatred and malice to him that they gave him so much trouble; from this word Satan has his...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he removed from thence,.... A little further from their border, to cut off all pretence, and put a stop to all dispute and controversy for the future: and digged another well; in the place he removed to: and for that they strove not; it being at such a distance from their border, they could not have the face to claim any right to it: and he...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he went up from thence to Beersheba. From the place he last, removed unto Beersheba; the famine being over, he returns to the place where he and his rather formerly lived, Genesis 21:33.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord appeared to him in the same night,.... The first night he came to Beersheba, in a dream or vision, in which the Lord was represented as speaking to him: and said, I [am] the God of Abraham thy father; though he was dead, he remembered the covenant he made with him, and the promises he made unto him: and besides, though Abraham was...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he builded an altar there,.... At Beersheba, where his father Abraham had planted a grove before, and very probably had built an altar also, though it might not be now standing, Genesis 21:33; and called upon the name of the Lord; and gave him thanks for all his mercies to him; for the care he had taken of him, and provision he had made for...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar,.... After Isaac was settled at Beersheba, and was still increasing in his family and substance, of which Abimelech very probably was informed; and fearing lest he should resent his being sent out of his country by him, and the ill treatment he met with afterwards from the herdmen of Gerar in the valley about...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Isaac said unto them, wherefore come ye to me,.... What is the meaning of this visit? what has brought you hither? it cannot be from affection and friendship to me: seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you? the latter he mentions as a proof of the former; they envied his prosperity, and hated him on that account, and therefore...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they said, we saw certainly that the Lord was with thee,.... Not only while he was among them, by the fruitfulness of the land he sowed, by the increase of his family, his flocks and herds, but also since he was gone from them, in the valley of Gerar, and now in Beersheba: and we said; one to another, assembled in privy council, in which this...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
That thou wilt do us no hurt,.... Neither to our persons nor properties, to our kingdom and subjects, by invading our land, and seizing on our kingdom, all which was feared from Isaac's growing wealth and power: as we have not touched thee; not done the least injury to him, to his person, family, and substance, but suffered him to go away with all...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he made them a feast,.... Made a feast like a king, for the king and his grandees; he treated them in a generous way, according to their dignity, and agreeable to his own disposition and substance: and they did eat and drink; freely, cheerfully, and in a friendly manner; for both having spoken their minds, they agreed to bury all former things...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they rose up betimes in the morning,.... Abimelech and his friends, in order to return home, and Isaac to take his leave of them, and both to make the covenant between them in form, and confirm it by an oath, for which the morning was the fitter time; when the mind is quite free and composed, and attentive to what is done, as so solemn a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it came to pass the same day,.... That the above things were transacted: that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged; they had dug it before Abimelech came to Isaac, but they had not had an opportunity of acquainting him with it until he was gone, and then they came to give him an account of it, what sort...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he called it Sheba,.... Which, according to Jerom, signifies "fulness", as if it had its name from the abundance of water in it; but rather it signifies an "oath", and was so called from the oath, which he and Abimelech had just took to one another; and these circumstances meeting together, the taking of the oath, and the account of the well,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Esau was forty years old,.... The same age his father was of when he married, Genesis 25:20: when he took to wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite; Josephus (m) makes her to be the same with Aholibamah; but her father's name was Zibeon, and an Hivite, and must therefore be another person, not only the name being different, but the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac, and to Rebekah. The marriage of them itself was a trouble to them, it being contrary to their will that any of their children should marry with the Canaanites, and those the worst sort of them, the Hittites; it having been the care of Abraham, the father of Isaac, that his son should not marry with them, and...