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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Genesis 21:31 - 21:31
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From this circumstance, the place where it occurred received the name שֶׁבַע בְּאֵר, i.e., seven-well, “because there they sware both of them.” It does not follow from this note, that the writer interpreted the name “oath-well,” and took שֶׁבַע in the sense of שְׁבֻעָה. The idea is rather the following: the place received its name from the seven lambs, by which Abraham secured to himself possession of the well, because the treaty was sworn to on the basis of the agreement confirmed by the seven lambs. There is no mention of sacrifice, however, in connection with the treaty (see Gen 26:33). נִשְׁבַּע to swear, lit., to seven one's self, not because in the oath the divine number 3 is combined with the world-number 4, but because, from the sacredness of the number 7, the real origin and ground of which are to be sought in the number 7 of the work of creation, seven things were generally chosen to give validity to an oath, as was the case, according to Herodotus (3, 8), with the Arabians among others. Beersheba was in the Wady es-Seba, the broad channel of a winter-torrent, 12 hours' journey to the south of Hebron on the road to Egypt and the Dead Sea, where there are still stones to be found, the relics of an ancient town, and two deep wells with excellent water, called Bir es Seba, i.e., seven-well (not lion-well, as the Bedouins erroneously interpret it): cf. Robinson's Pal. i. pp. 300ff.