Genesis 21:25-31
Seven ewe lambs
A stolen well produces a treaty. The lambs are set apart specifically as a witness that Abraham dug this well.
Places of the Bible
Beersheba
A well in the dry south that two generations had to dig, argue over, and swear about twice.
The name is explained twice and both explanations turn on the same two words, a well and an oath. Abraham digs a well and Abimelech’s servants seize it, so Abraham reproves him, sets seven ewe lambs apart as a witness, and they swear. He calls the place Beersheba, plants a grove there, and calls on the name of the everlasting God. It is the southern edge of the land, the last water before the desert.
Scroll down to the story
The movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of Beersheba
- 01
- 02
Genesis 21:33
He planted a grove
Planting trees is what a man does when he intends to stay. He calls there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.
- 03
Genesis 26:18-22
He called their names after the names his father had called them
Isaac reopens stopped wells and keeps the old names. Two are contested and he moves on rather than fight, until Rehoboth.
- 04
Genesis 26:23-25
He went up from thence to Beersheba
The promise comes the same night he arrives, and he builds an altar, pitches his tent, and his servants dig a well.
- 05
Genesis 46:1-4
Fear not to go down into Egypt
Jacob stops here to offer sacrifices on his way out of the land, and is told at the last water that God will go down with him and bring him up again.
Why it matters
A generation later Isaac is doing the same work in the same country. He reopens his father’s wells, which the Philistines had stopped, and keeps the names his father gave them. He is driven from Esek and Sitnah, digs Rehoboth where there is finally room, and goes up to Beersheba, and the same night the LORD appears to him with the promise. Abimelech arrives the next morning wanting an oath, and Isaac makes one, and his servants come in that same day and tell him about water.
1 song
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
