¹³ Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the ^(A)Hebrew, for ^(B)he dwelt by ^[a]the terebinth trees of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner; ^(C)and they were allies with Abram.

A Covenant with Abimelech

²² And it came to pass at that time that ^(A)Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, ^(B)“God is with you in all that you do. ²³ Now therefore, ^(C)swear^[a] to me by God that you will not deal falsely with me, with my offspring, or with my posterity; but that according to the kindness that I have done to you, you will do to me and to the land in which you have dwelt.”

²⁴ And Abraham said, “I will swear.”

²⁵ Then Abraham rebuked Abimelech because of a well of water which Abimelech’s servants ^(D)had seized. ²⁶ And Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, nor had I heard of it until today.” ²⁷ So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them ^(E)made a ^[b]covenant. ²⁸ And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.

²⁹ Then Abimelech asked Abraham, ^(F)“What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves?”

³⁰ And he said, “You will take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, that ^(G)they may be my witness that I have dug this well.” ³¹ Therefore he ^(H)called that place ^[c]Beersheba, because the two of them swore an oath there.

³² Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba. So Abimelech rose with Phichol, the commander of his army, and they returned to the land of the Philistines.

²⁸ But they said, “We have certainly seen that the Lord ^(A)is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a ^[a]covenant with you, ²⁹ that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. ^(B)You are now the blessed of the Lord.’ ”

^30 (C)So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank. ³¹ Then they arose early in the morning and ^(D)swore an oath with one another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

³² It came to pass the same day that Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.” ³³ So he called it ^[b]Shebah. ^(E)Therefore the name of the city is ^[c]Beersheba to this day.