Wherefore he called that place Beersheba,.... Either Abraham or Abimelech, or both, called it so; or it may be read impersonally, "therefore the place was called Beersheba" t, for two reasons, one implied, the other expressed; one was, because of the seven lambs before mentioned; so the Targum of Jonathan,
"and therefore he called the well the well of seven lambs;''
"Beer" signifying a well, and "sheba" seven; the other, and which is more certain, being expressed, is as follows;
because there they sware both of them; by the living God, to keep the covenant inviolably they had made between them.
t יקרא "vocatus", V. L. Calvin, Piscator.