Genesis 26:20, commentary and pictures

Famine brought Isaac into Philistia, where his farming and keeping of livestock prospered under divine instruction and abundant blessing, so that neighbors and rulers recognized that God was with him. The well in dispute was a newly dug well opened by his servants in the valley of Gerar, yielding springing water, after they had redug the wells of Abraham that the Philistines had stopped with earth. The herdsmen of Gerar strove with Isaac's herdsmen and disputed his claim, saying the water was theirs. The same strife arose between herdmen on both sides over the well, the men of Gerar claiming its water as their own.

He called the name of the well Esek, meaning contention or strife, because they strove and quarreled with him over it. The name marked it as contention because Gerar's herdsmen disputed with Isaac's herdsmen over whose water it was.

He did not strive for his rights but yielded the well and committed his cause to God, yielding more than justice required even at inconvenience and apparent loss. The Philistines' claim was unjust because the wells were doubly his by inheritance from Abraham and by digging them again, and triply his because by filling them the Philistines had shown they did not want them, yet he let them have the well without striving. Such submissive, lamb-like disposition was the opposite of what Ishmael would have done, setting before the reader the choice of which of Abraham's two sons to be like, for these are the two covenants.

In this conduct he was following in his father's way and illustrating willingness to yield to persecutors for the sake of peace. God rewarded and encouraged his self-sacrifice, worked for him and blessed him in consequence, giving him room and prosperity elsewhere and ultimately peace with his enemies.