Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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30 And he said, for these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand,
that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well.
31 Wherefore he called that place Beer-sheba [the well of the oath];
because there they sware both of them.
He ratified the covenant by an oath, and registered it by giving a new name to the place (Ge 21:31), Beer-sheba, the well of the oath, in remembrance of the covenant they swore to, that they might be
ever mindful of it; or the well of seven, in remembrance of the seven lambs given to Abimelech, as a consideration for his confirming Abraham's title to that well. Note, Bargains made must be remembered, that we may make them good, and may not break our word through oversight.
32 Thus they made a covenant at Beer-sheba: then Abimelech rose up,
and Phichol the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.
33 And Abraham planted a grove in Beer-sheba, and called there on the
name of the Lord, the everlasting God.
Observe,
1. Abraham, having got into a good neighbourhood, knew when he was well off, and continued a great while there. There he planted a grove for a shade to his tent, or perhaps an orchard of fruit-trees; and there, though we cannot say he settled, for God would have him, while he lived, to be a stranger and a pilgrim, yet he sojourned
many days, as many as would consist with his character, as Abraham the Hebrew, or passenger.