Isaac Settles in the Negev: Genesis preserves only a few of the traditions about Isaac. The episodes in which Isaac is the main actor cluster primarily in this chapter, which opens by identifying him as the true heir of the promises to Abraham (vv. 3–5). These accounts picture Isaac as following in the footsteps of Abraham. Both face famine in the land (26:1–6 // 12:10); during the famine both go to live in a foreign setting and identify their wives as sisters for self-protection (26:7–11 // 12:10–20); both identify their wives as their sisters in Gerar, ruled by an Abimelech (26:7–11 // 20:1–18); both dig wells and face opposition from the Philistines (26:12–25 // 21:25–26, 28–30); both make a treaty with an Abimelech, king of Gerar (26:26–31 // 21:22–32); and both name a well Beersheba (…