Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. Abimelech said to Abraham, “What do these seven ewe lambs, which you have set by themselves, mean?” He said, “You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, that it may be a witness to me, that I have dug this well.” Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because they both swore an oath there.”
(Genesis 21:28-31)

These are separate lambs from the previous animals. Those were about their covenant together. These were only about the well.

They were making a generational covenant of peace. Here Abraham is also making sure, in the presence of witnesses, that he has rightfully paid and has possession of something. This is to reduce conflict. This is to make sure everyone is on the same page. This is preemptively nipping more conflict in the bud.

Abimelech didn’t understand the action. In his mind, the well was already Abraham’s. This was double-purchasing it. But Abraham was making sure that it was clear to ALL people. This extra price was a small one to pay to eliminate strife in the future.

Beersheba means ‘well of an oath’. Abraham named it for their two oaths that day (their covenant of peace and his ownership of the well). His son, Isaac, also later made an oath there (Genesis 26:30-33).

The sage Rav Hirsch writes: ‘V. 28. et. seq. Out of the total mass of the symbols of the agreement, Abraham separated out seven ewe lambs and set them aside as special ratification for his legal right of possession of the well. Neither the sex nor the kind of animal, nor the number may have been just haphazard. The significance of the number seven at an oath we have indicated on V.23. (In verse 31 we also see the interplay of both seven and oath in the word and name given to the well). It was all about a well, the most fundamental condition for possessing herds and flocks. But ewes, כבשות, not כבשים, are the animals on which the whole future of the flock depends. Hence they are very suited to represent the wealth of possession of flocks in general. Now if השבע means nothing else but, to place himself with his whole “six” i.e. his whole material possessions, under the invisible Power that rules over all visible, which will not tolerate anything dishonest, and so stamping his possessions with the number “7”, then, “placing ewes to the number of seven” would express nothing else than: submitting his whole wealth of flocks to the Power of God punishing dishonesty if the well out of which they drink is not honestly his own. This would be an oath of innocence for the honesty of his property, נשבע ונפטר, and by accepting the seven ewes from Abraham’s hand Abimelech recognises his honest legal right to the possession of the well. His acceptance of these sheep becomes an עדה, a witness and memorial for the legality of this posession. עדה from עוד to endure (related to עות from which we get עת, time, לעות את יעף (Is. 50,4) although the plural עתת and בעתו seem to come from העיד .(עתת to make something endure, to give permanence to something which otherwise would escape being recognised. But this is the business of a witness. Hence also memorial. העיד ב- is also to warn, i.e. to bring to the mind of somebody the duty and the consequence of transgressing it which had escaped his mind. V. 31. שניהם, the future and the present rulers shake hands. And this event — the first recognition of, the first desire for allegiance with, the future Abrahamitic nation — was important enough for its memory to be perpetuated by the name of the place for the descendants, especially as thereby at the same time they would be reminded of the duty which the oath of their ancestor imposed on them.’