Genesis 21:32

WEB

So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Abimelech rose up with Phicol, the captain of his army, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.

KJV

Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba: then Abimelech rose up, and Phichol the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.

Commentary

Thus they made a covenant at Beersheba,.... Which took its name from the oath annexed to the covenant there made; and which is observed for the sake of what follow s, to show that when they finished their agreement, and the ceremony of it: then Abimelech rose up, and Phichol, the chief captain of his host; from the place where they had been conversing and covenanting with Abraham: and they returned into the land of the Philistines; from Beersheba, which was in the extreme border of it, unto Gerar, which lay in the midst of it, and was the capital city in it; otherwise both places were in Palestine, or the land of the Philistines, a people that came out of Egypt originally, and settled here: in Jerom's (u) time Beersheba was a large village, twenty miles from Hebron to the south. (u) De loc. Heb. fol. 89. F.