Discovery BoxGenesis 21:23 
Context21:23 Now swear to me right here in God’s name 1 that you will not deceive me, my children, or my descendants. 2 Show me, and the land 3 where you are staying, 4 the same loyalty 5 that I have shown you.” 6
Genesis 21:31-32
Context21:31 That is why he named that place 7 Beer Sheba, 8 because the two of them swore 9 an oath there.
21:32 So they made a treaty 10 at Beer Sheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, returned 11 to the land of the Philistines. 12
1 tn Heb “And now swear to me by God here.”
2 tn Heb “my offspring and my descendants.”
3 tn The word “land” refers by metonymy to the people in the land.
4 tn The Hebrew verb means “to stay, to live, to sojourn” as a temporary resident without ownership rights.
5 tn Or “kindness.”
6 tn Heb “According to the loyalty which I have done with you, do with me and with the land in which you are staying.”
7 tn Heb “that is why he called that place.” Some translations render this as an impersonal passive, “that is why that place was called.”
8 sn The name Beer Sheba (בְּאֵר שָׁבַע, bÿ’er shava’) means “well of the oath” or “well of the seven.” Both the verb “to swear” and the number “seven” have been used throughout the account. Now they are drawn in as part of the explanation of the significance of the name.
9 sn The verb forms a wordplay with the name Beer Sheba.
10 tn Heb “cut a covenant.”
11 tn Heb “arose and returned.”
12 sn The Philistines mentioned here may not be ethnically related to those who lived in Palestine in the time of the judges and the united monarchy. See D. M. Howard, “Philistines,” Peoples of the Old Testament World, 238.
