Genesis 21:31: The verse that puts the name on the map, and says what it is made of
Read it →Commentary on Genesis 21:31
Abraham's dealings with king Abimelech end at a well, with an oath and a name. Why should a well and a spoken word be worth recording, and what does the name keep saying?
Name and Meaning
The name carries its own explanation. It points back to what the two men had just done at the well.
Abraham set seven ewe lambs apart from the other animals (v. 28) and explained this to Abimelech as being a witness that Abraham had dug the well (v. 30). By accepting them, Abimelech would publicly admit that this was true. Abraham then called the place "Beersheba" — "well of the oath" — because he and Abimelech both swore an oath to one another. It looks like a covenant of peace: neither man would trespass on the other's rights.
The name outlived both men.
This name means "well of the oath." It was given to the place where Abraham and Abimelech made a covenant not to harm each other, and confirmed it with an oath. Later it became the home of Abraham and of Isaac, who also dug a well there... Once the land was settled, it was known as the most southern point of the land Israel held, just as Dan was known as the most northern. So "from Dan to Beersheba" meant the whole territory, even in Solomon's day.
The Seven Lambs
The name can also mean "well of the seven." One writer counts the lambs as the price that made the water Abraham's own.
So we come to "Beersheba," "the well of the oath," or "of the seven" — the number of lambs that secured to Abraham the well he had dug. In the same way, God's promise secures the well of water to the delivered believer, and that promise rests on the perfection of what Christ is for God. All the fullness of the Spirit belongs to him. Yet he still needs diligence, as a well implies. A well is not a free-flowing spring — that picture fits at other times — but a well he must keep open, so that he can reach these living waters.
Secured, and a New Name for God
The oath settles the dispute. Then Abraham calls God by a title he had never used before.
So a covenant was drawn up, and the well, Beersheba, became securely Abraham's. There for some years Abraham made his dwelling, and there he called on the Lord as the everlasting God. When God promised Isaac, He made Himself known as the Almighty. Now the promised heir is born and the promise fulfilled, so Abraham knows Him as the Everlasting as well as the Almighty... But to God as the Everlasting One, time is not of prime importance.
Roles Reversed
Abimelech once had grounds to rebuke Abraham. By the time of this oath, that has turned around.
In the closing scene of the chapter the man of the world admits that God is with the man of faith who walks apart from the world. There was a time when the man of faith slipped, acted in unbelief, and was rebuked by Abimelech... Now Abimelech has to admit, "God is with you in all that you do." Once he rebuked Abraham; now Abraham rebukes him.
The same writer turns the scene into a warning, and into a way of answering the world.
Still, the world may have to admit that God is with His people who walk apart from it. Even so, it will try to rob God's people of what refreshes them spiritually. It will try to stop our wells. Like Abraham, we may well resist the world and rebuke it. But, like Abraham, let us mix grace with our rebukes — the grace that wants to give the world something of our own blessing, pictured by the seven ewe lambs.
A Larger Oath Behind It
Isaac later gives the place the same name. One writer looks past both treaties to something firmer.
These two covenants (between Abraham and Abimelech and Isaac and Abimelech) were the occasion of the well receiving its name, but it is symbolical of the far greater covenant that God made with Abraham and confirmed to Isaac.
Abimelech is a Gentile — a king outside Abraham's family — and one writer reads his request forward, to a day still to come.
In short, the Gentile king wants the support and protection of Abraham... So it is clear that here we see the heir of the world brought in as a picture... In that day the Gentiles will seek the protection of the faithful; in that day the Lord will show Himself the God of ages, the One who guards and blesses the true Heir.
Summary
- Oath — the name means "well of the oath." Both men swore there, in a covenant of peace that neither would trespass on the other's rights.
- Seven — the seven ewe lambs were public proof that Abraham had dug the well, and the name can also be read "well of the seven."
- Secured — the well was made sure to Abraham, and God's promise makes the believer's well of water just as sure.
- Everlasting — at that same place Abraham first called God the everlasting God, who is never hurried by time.
- Greater oath — writers see this human oath as a small picture of God's own covenant, and of a day when the nations seek the protection of the faithful.
