And Abraham sojourned in the Philistines' land many days.
Abraham sojourned in the Philistines' land many days. Beer-sheba itself was not in the Philistine territory, but the wilderness-the great wide plain was a common-where the flocks of Abimelech and Abraham equally pastured. The patriarch, whose large establishment required an extensive circuit of pasture land, had more room in Beer-sheba than at Hebron, and hence, it became a chief and favourite residence, his numerous bands of retainers enabling him to keep at bay the Amalekite plunderers, who were settled on the borders of the desert. Wilton has shown ('Negeb') that the expression "many days" signifies at least three years, from a comparison of 1 Kings 2:38 with Gen. 21:39 , and of Acts 9:23 with Galatians 1:18.