The Philistines stopped up all the wells that his father’s slaves had dug in the days of his father Abraham, filling them with dirt.

Isaac reopened the water wells that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham and that the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died. He gave them the same names his father had given them.

He replied, “You are to accept the seven ewe lambs from my hand so that this act will serve as my witness that I dug this well.”

Then Isaac’s slaves dug in the valley and found a well of spring water there.

Then they dug another well and quarreled over that one also, so he named it Hostility.

So he built an altar there, called on the name of Yahweh, and pitched his tent there. Isaac’s slaves also dug a well there.

On that same day Isaac’s slaves came to tell him about the well they had dug, saying to him, “We have found water!”

He moved from there and dug another, and they did not quarrel over it. He named it Open Spaces and said, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.”

He looked and saw a well in a field. Three flocks of sheep were lying there beside it because the sheep were watered from this well. A large stone covered the opening of the well.

When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the opening of the well and water the sheep. The stone was then placed back on the well’s opening.