Genesis 26:1

Summary

The verse reports a famine occurring in "the land," explicitly distinguished from an earlier famine that had happened in Abraham's time, and states that Isaac then went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar.

Key words

• ra'av ("famine", H7458) — masculine singular noun, repeated twice (once bare, once with the article as ha-ra'av), marking the two famines being compared.
• mi-le-vad ("besides", from H9006/H9005 + H0905J) — a compound preposition built on the construct noun bad, meaning "apart from" or "in addition to," which sets up the comparison with the earlier famine.
• ha-ri'shon ("the former/first", H7223H) — an ordinal adjective with the definite article, modifying ha-ra'av ("the famine") to specify which famine is meant: the first, earlier one.
• va-yehi ("and it was", H1961) — qal narrative form of the verb "to be," opening the verse and marking the onset of a new narrated event.
• va-yelekh ("and he went", H1980G) — qal narrative form of "to go," marking the second main action of the verse: Isaac's movement toward Gerar.

What the text says

The verse is built as two linked clauses joined by the narrative vav. The first clause, va-yehi ra'av ba-'aretz ("and there was a famine in the land"), states the event, then immediately qualifies it with milevad ha-ra'av ha-rishon 'asher hayah bi-yemei 'Avraham — "besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham." The phrase milevad creates an explicit comparison, marking this famine as distinct from and additional to an earlier one already known from the Abraham narrative; the ordinal ha-rishon ("the former") functions to distinguish two chronologically separate famines rather than referring to the same event.

The second clause shifts to a new subject, Isaac, with the verb va-yelekh ("and he went"), directed 'el 'Avimelekh melekh Pelishtim ("to Abimelech, king of the Philistines"), with the destination named as Gerarah — Gerar with a directional he suffix indicating motion toward that place. The construct chain melekh-Pelishtim ("king of the Philistines") identifies Abimelech's title, and the whole clause connects the famine notice causally in sequence with Isaac's journey.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders milevad ha-ra'av ha-rishon as chōris tou limou tou proteron ("apart from the former famine"), preserving the comparative sense of the Hearth. The Vulgate uses post eam sterilitatem ("after that barrenness"), shifting the nuance from "besides/in addition to" (spatial-comparative) toward a temporal sequence ("after"), which is a different logical relation than the Hebrew milevad expresses.