Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

SOJOURN IN THE NEGEB 20 : 1-2 1 : 3 4
and gave them unto Abi7nelech; and they two made a
covenant. 28 And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the
flock. by themselves. 29 And Abimelech said unto Abra-
bum, What mean these seven ewe lambs which thou hast
set by themselves? 30 And he said, These seven ewe lambs
shalt thou take of my hand, that it may be a witness unto
?ne, that I have digged this well. 31 Wherefore be called
that place Beer-sbeba; because there they sware both of
them. 32 So they‘ made a covenant at Beer-sheba: and
Abimelech rose up, and Phicol the captain of his host, and
they reYurned into the land of the Philistines. 33 And
Abraham plaizted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, aizd called
there oryt the name of Jehovah, the Everlasting God. 34
And Abraham sojouwned in the land of the Philistines
many days.
“At that time,” that is, about the time Isaac was born,
Jewish scholarship explains this incident-the dialogue
between Abimelech and Abraham-substantially as follows
(SC, 106-107). Abimelech recognized that God was with
Abraham, as evident by the latter’s escape from Sodom
(and his abandonment of that area as his place of resi-
dence), and the birth of Isaac in Sarah’s declining years.
On these grounds Abimelech sought peace between them
by means of a covenant (in this sense, a pact, a treaty),
not on the ground of Abraham’s wealth and power. The
king reminded the patriarch of his kindness in permitting
the latter to live in the land surrounding Gerar, seat of
the royal residence, and sought from him a formal declara-
tion of reciprocal courtesy. To give support to this ap-
proach and to the proposed pact, the king brought with
him, Phicol, the leader of his army (cf. 26:26). Me now
learn that the reason for Abimelech’s proposal was the
fact that a strained relationship had arisen; this, said he,
should not be allowed to persist. Whereupon Abraham
replied that his only cause of complaint was the theft by
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