Genesis 26:15 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Genesis 26:15
For all the wells which his father’s servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.
a pit · definite article + noun, common feminine plural absolute
father’s
אָבִ֔יו'a.Viv
H1
father · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
servants
עַבְדֵ֣י'av.Dei
H5650
a servant · noun, common masculine plural construct
digged
חָֽפְרוּ֙cha.fe.Ru
H2658
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
days
בִּימֵ֖יbi.Mei
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
Abraham
אַבְרָהָ֣ם'av.ra.Ham
H85
Abraham · proper noun, a man's name
father
אָבִ֑יו'a.Viv
H1
father · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Philistines
פְּלִשְׁתִּ֔יםpe.lish.Tim
H6430
a Pelishtite or inhabitant of Pelesheth · noun, gentilic masculine plural absolute
stopped
סִתְּמ֣וּםsi.te.Mum
H5640
to stop up · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person common plural + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
filled
וַיְמַלְא֖וּםvay.mal.'Um
H4390
to fill or (intransitively) be full of · conjunction + verb, piel sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
earth
עָפָֽר'a.Far
H6083
dust (as powdered or gray) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Genesis 21:30 And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well.
Genesis 21:25 And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water, which Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Genesis 26:12-25
Here we have,
I. The tokens of God's good-will to Isaac. He blessed him, and prospered him, and made all that he had to thrive under his hands. 1. His corn multiplied strangely, Gen 26:12. He had no land of his own, but took land of the Philistines, and sowed it; and (be it observed for the encouragement of poor tenants, that occupy other people's lands, and are honest and industrious) God blessed him with a great increase. He reaped a hundred fold; and there seems to be an emphasis laid upon the time: it was that same year when there was a famine in the land; while others scarcely reaped at all, he reaped thus plentifully. See Isa 65:13, My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry, Psa 3…
all the wells which his father's servants had digged . . . the Philistines had stopped, &c.--The same base stratagem for annoying those against whom they have taken an umbrage is practiced still by choking the wells with sand or stones, or defiling them with putrid carcases.
Adam Clarke on Genesis 26:15
For all the wells - the Philistines had stopped them - In such countries a good well was a great acquisition; and hence in predatory wars it was usual for either party to fill the wells with earth or sand, in order to distress the enemy. The filling up the wells in this case was a most unprincipled transaction, as they had pledged themselves to Abraham, by a solemn oath, not to injure each other in this or any other respect. See Gen 21:25-31.
John Gill on Genesis 26:15
For all the wells which his father's servants had digged, in the days of Abraham his father,.... For the watering of his flocks and herds, see Genesis 21:25,
the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth; that they might be of no use; and this they did through envy to him, and is mentioned as a proof of it.
John Calvin
The Church Fathers
There are, then, wells which the servants of Abraham dug, but these the Philistines had filled with earth. These, therefore, Isaac first sets about to cleanse. The Philistines hate waters, they love earth; Isaac loves waters, he always seeks wells, he cleanses the old, he opens the new. Behold our Isaac, who "was offered as a victim for us," coming into the valley of Gerar, which is interpreted as "a wall" or "a hedge"—coming, I say, that he might "break down the middle wall of the hedge, the enmities in his flesh"—coming to take away the wall, that is, sin, which separates between us and God, the wall which stands between us and the heavenly powers, that he might make "both one" and carry back the sheep that had strayed "upon his shoulders" to the mountains and restore it to the other "ninety-nine that had not strayed." This Isaac, then, our Savior, when he had come into that valley of Gerar, wills first of all to dig those wells which the servants of his father had dug; that is, he wills to renew the wells of the law and the prophets, which the Philistines had filled with earth. Who are these who fill the wells with earth? Those, without doubt, who place an earthly and carnal understanding in the law and shut up the spiritual and mystical, so that neither do they themselves drink nor permit others to drink. Hear our Isaac, the Lord Jesus, saying in the Gospels: "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, because you have taken away the key of knowledge, and neither did you enter yourselves nor did you permit those who wished." These, then, are they who filled with earth the wells "which the servants of Abraham had dug," who teach the law carnally and defile the waters of the Holy Spirit; who have wells for this purpose, not that they may bring forth water, but that they may put earth in. These wells, then, Isaac sets about to dig. And let us see how he digs them. When Isaac's servants, who are the Apostles of our Lord, were passing, it says, through the grainfields on the sabbath, "they plucked the ears and, rubbing them with their hands, ate them." Then these men, who had filled with earth his father's wells, said to him: "Behold, your disciples do on the sabbath what is not lawful." He, that he might dig their earthly understanding, says to them: "Have you not read what David did, when he himself was hungry and those who were with him—how he entered to Abiathar…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Abimelech — My father a king, or father of a king, a common name of the Philistine kings, as “Pharaoh” was of the Egyptian kings. (1.) The Philistine king of Gerar in the time of Abraham (Gen. 20:1-18). By an…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
on Genesis 26:14-15
And the Philistines envied him. We are taught by this history that the blessings of God which pertain to the present earthly life are never pure and perfect, but are mixed with some troubles, lest quiet and indulgence should render us negligent. Wherefore, let us all learn not too ardently to desire great wealth. If the rich are harassed by any cause of disquietude, let them know that they are roused by the Lord, lest they should fall fast asleep in the midst of their pleasures; and let the poor enjoy this consolation, that their poverty is not without its advantages. For it is no light good to live free from envy, tumults, and strifes. Should any one raise the objection, that it can by no m…
Isaac's Increasing Wealth. - As Isaac had experienced the promised protection ("I will be with thee," Gen 26:3) in the safety of his wife, so did he received while in Gerar the promised blessing. He sowed and received in that year "a hundred measures," i.e., a hundred-fold return. This was an unusual blessing, as the yield even in very fertile regions is not generally greater than from twenty-five to fifty-fold (Niebuhr and Burckhardt), and it is only in the Ruhbe, that small and most fruitful plain of Syria, that wheat yields on an average eighty, and barley a hundred-fold. Agriculture is still practised by the Bedouins, as well as grazing (Robinson, Pal. i. 77, and Seetzen); so that Isaac'…
The Philistines envied Isaac’s prosperity and filled his wells with dirt. The king then ordered Isaac to leave that region because he was too powerful for them (cp. 21:22-23).
Rashi on Genesis 26:10
והבאת עלינו אשם AND YOU WOULD HAVE BROUGHT GUILT UPON US — If he had lain with her already, YOU WOULD HAVE BROUGHT GUILT UPON US.