What Does Genesis 26:22 Mean?
And he pulled up from there, and dug another well, and over that they did not strive. And he called the name of it Rehoboth, the wide places, and he said, For now the LORD has widened a place for us, and we shall bear fruit in the land.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.THE KEY
Rehoboth and “made room” share the root רחב (r-ḥ-b), so the well’s name gives the widening itself a place to live, and fruitfulness room to grow.
THE MEANING
A place does not have to remain defined by the struggle around it. When room opens without strife, fruitfulness has space to take hold; the verse names that widening as something the LORD makes.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that every opening must be secured through conflict, and that fruitfulness cannot come without the fight, dissolves here: the verse holds unopposed room and fruitfulness together.
THE ROOT
הִרְחִיב
hirḥiv
GROWS FROM
רחב
r-ḥ-b
To be wide or become spacious; in this verb form, to make wide.
“Rehoboth, the wide places” in this verse is hirḥiv. “Made room” and Rehoboth grow from the same root of widening. The name is not separate from what happens: the well becomes a place where the widening can be lived, and where contention no longer defines the space for fruitfulness.
ALSO GROWS
Reḥovot: Broad places; the name given to the well.
רְחֹבוֹת
The well’s name preserves widening as a place that can be inhabited.
merḥav: A broad or open space.
מֶרְחָב
This same root names the spacious place in Psalm 18:19, linking the well to a wider scriptural image of room.
THE PATTERN
When constriction gives way to room, life can expand without contention.
He brings me out into a broad place; he pulls me loose, because he delights in me.Widen the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your dwellings stretch out. Do not hold back; lengthen your cords, and grip your pegs.O Corinthians, our mouth is open toward you, our heart is widened.THE THREAD
He brings me out into a broad place; he pulls me loose, because he delights in me.The Hebrew word לַמֶּרְחָב (la-merḥav), “into the broad place,” comes from רחב (r-ḥ-b), the same root behind Rehoboth and “made room.” The shared root makes Isaac’s naming tangible: spaciousness is a place where life is no longer defined by contention.
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