ABSTRACT
Genesis 26 begins with the third of the wife-sister ruses, and the similarities with chapters 20-1 are so striking that one wonders what the editors are seeking to achieve in retaining this variant of the tradition. Very little has changed, except that Abraham’s role is now played by Isaac. The son is the very image of the father, it seems. Not only is Abimelech still king of Gerar, but even ‘Phicol the troop captain’ appears in both narratives (21.22; 26.26). The divine speech in 26.2-6 reiterates the promises to Abraham and confirms that they have now been passed on to Isaac. Then Isaac replicates Abraham’s anxiety that the beauty of his wife might lead to his own death, and so he tells everyone in Gerar that she is his sister (26.7). This time the trick is not revealed to Abimelech in a dream, but it is discovered nonetheless: the king happens to see Isaac and Rebekah ‘playing’ or ‘laughing’ together (the verb is the same as the one used of Ishmael’s laughter in 21.9), and this mirth must have had enough erotic overtones to betray that they were not merely siblings. Abimelech is again depicted as righteous, and he cautions Isaac for allowing even the possibility of wrongful sexual relations. This time there is a more extended narrative concerning disputes over wells, but after another covenant with Abimelech is made (26.28; cf. 21.27), the naming of a well is, for the second time, associated with the name Beersheba (26.33; cf. 21.31).
