(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)
“Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his friend, and Phicol the captain of his army. Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me, and have sent me away from you?” They said, “We saw plainly that Yahweh was with you. We said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, even between us and you, and let’s make a covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, as we have not touched you, and as we have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace.’ You are now the blessed of Yahweh.””
(Genesis 26:26-29)
The king and the head of his army came to visit Isaac. They saw that Isaac was prosperous. He had more resources than them. And he wasn’t taking action against them. They took advantage of this peaceful attitude and came to him. Previously, Abraham had made a covenant with the then ruler of the Philistines (Genesis 21:22-34). Now this ruler was coming to Isaac for the same thing. They were threatened by Isaac and didn’t want trouble. They didn’t want to be displaced. They wanted to keep what they had.
The reason they were so sure they needed a covenant with Isaac was that they could see the hand of the Lord in His life. They knew God had blessed him. And from their experience with Abraham, they knew that the blessing of the Lord carried some serious weight. They couldn’t force Isaac out. They couldn’t defeat Isaac. Their only recourse was a peace treaty. Unlike the previous one, they weren’t looking for generational peace. They were only looking at the here and now – their own necks.
Abimelech goes out of his way to point out that he personally had done nothing to Isaac (that he had nothing to do with the well incidents), which would have been a violation of the covenant between the Philistines and Abraham. However, since he was clearly aware there had been some strife and clearly had done nothing about it, the argument can be made that he had already violated the covenant but was trying to gloss over it to make sure they had a peace that benefited him.
Isaac hadn’t sought them out. He had left when they said leave. He had moved on when the people had refused him use of the wells his own father had originally dug. Isaac had moved until the Lord told him to stay. He wasn’t bitter toward them, but he didn’t allow them to hide behind false friendship. This wasn’t a friendly social visit and he made them speak to the heart of why they were come.
The sage Sforno writes: ‘And Avimelech went. After he got up to call in the Name of Hashem, the servants of Yitzchak dup a well successfully, without strife. And Avimelech went to him to seal a covenant, and not damage him further. כי היה ה’ עמך, we do not want to make a deal with you because we are afraid of you, but because G’d is on your side. אם תעשה עמנו רעה, “that you shall not do any evil to us.” אתה עתה, just as we did not harm you.’
The sage Chizkuni writes: ‘ראה ראינו, “we have seen repeatedly;” the fact that you have succeeded twice where we have failed has convinced us that your G-d is on your side;” clearly your success is due to you personally, and not to the quality of the earth that you have either planted seeds in or dug wells in. We have noted that since you departed this earth has failed to be blessed. It is clearly your G-d Who is the cause and Who is with you. בינותינו בינינו וביניך, “between us; the oath that we swear by our deities shall now be binding both between us and you;” he meant that although Yitzchok swears in the name of his G-d, such an oath shall also be binding for them who swear in the name of their own deity. ונכרתה ברית עמך, “and we are willing to conclude a binding treaty with you;” an offer to renew the covenant Avraham had made with Avimelech’s predecessor for three generations.” They felt the need for this, since their having breached it when they claimed the wells and when the expelled Yitzchok. לא נגענוך, “we have not harmed you bodily;” this was the reply to Yitzchok’s accusation that they had displayed their hatred for him. (verse 27) They used the fact that they had allowed him to leave unharmed as proof that they had not hated him, as they had made no attempt to harm him or his family physically. We may understand the words: לא נגענוך, as well as the words: “we have only done good with you,” as referring to the past as well as to the future. We find a similar formulation in the Scriptures in Psalms 9,19: כי לא לנצח ישכח אביון תקוות עניים תאבד לעד, “not always shall the needy by ignored, nor the hope of the afflicted forever lost.”’ אתה עתה ברוך ה, “you are now the one blessed by the Lord.” They wanted to forestall Yitzchok saying to them that before making him swear as the son of Avraham to keep the peace, they should first secure such a sworn undertaking from his brother Yishmael. By using the words ‘אתה עתה ברוך ה, they implied that they had reason to be afraid of him, whereas they had no reason to fear that they could not cope with Yishmael. G-d, after all, had not promised their land to Yishmael’s descendants. They were aware that G-d had bestowed the blessing He had given to Avraham, especially his power to bless and cure, to Yitzchok, as soon as Avraham had died. (25,11).’
The sage Rav Hirsch writes: ‘V. 26 This visit of Abimelech is very characteristic. Although he himself had broken faith with the son of Abraham and had been unfaithful to the covenant made with the father, he still placed value on obtaining a covenant confirmed by an oath from the son. In the later and last periods of Jewish National life too, it was just the Jewish nation which always, and in all circumstances kept faith with all treaties duly confirmed by oath in accordance with international laws and customs. Equally characteristic is the ונשלחך בשלום “that they sent them away unplundered” they reckon as highly benevolent. מרעהו, whereas רע from רעה designates a relationship of intimate friendship in which each one finds his “pasturage”, the satisfaction of his wants, in the other, מֵרֵעַ designates more boon companions, as by Samson. The מ seems to indicate more acquaintanceship than acquaintants. — אחוזה seems to mean, all that he possessed of friends. אחז does occur quite frequently of persons, ותאחזני ימינך etc. — פיכול as the field-marshal in Abraham’s time was also called פיכול, it must have been the same man, or פיכול is an official title, as אבימלך for the Kings, so פי כל “the mouth of everybody”, the commander, for the field-marshals.’
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