And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water.
Isaac's servants ... said unto him. We have found water. And he called it Shebah, [Hebrew, Shib`aah (H7651), Shibeah] - indicating that the compact between Abimelech and Isaac was ratified by the solemn obligation of a mutual oath, as formerly in Abraham's time (Genesis 26:31: see the note at Genesis 21:32). This was not the restoration of an old, but the sinking of a new well; and hence, by the formal ceremony of inauguration gone through with Abimelech, Isaac established his right of possession to the adjoining district.
'Upon the northern side of Wady es-Seba, a wide water-course, close upon the bank, are two deep wells, still called Bir es-Seba, the ancient Beer-sheba. They are conspicuous objects on the borders of Palestine. These wells are some distance apart; they are circular, and stoned up very neatly with solid masonry. The larger one Isaiah 12:1 /2 feet in diameter, and 44 1/2 feet deep to the surface of the water, 16 feet of which at the bottom is excavated in the solid rock. The other well lies 55 rods west-southwest, and Isaiah 5 feet in diameter, and 42 feet deep. The water in both is pure and sweet, and in great abundance. Both wells are surrounded with drinking troughs of stone for camels and flocks, such as were doubtless used of old for the flocks which then fed on the adjacent hills. The curb-stones were deeply worn by the friction of the ropes in drawing up water by the hand' (Robinson's 'Biblical Researches,' 1:, pp. 300, 301).
Bonar ('Land of Promise,' p. 8) says that 'the western well seems to have been the one dug by Abraham. It is much the smaller of the two, and sufficed for him and his household and flocks. The larger was added by Isaac, as needed by the increasing numbers of his establishment (Genesis 26:13-14), and perhaps the gathering population of the place' (see also, 'Tent and Khan,' p. 214; 'Handbook of Syria and Palestine,' p. 63; 'Van de Velde,' pp. 136-9).
Therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba unto this day. One would naturally imagine that the place received this name now for the first time from Isaac. But it had been so called long before by Abraham (Genesis 21:31), in memory of a solemn league of alliance which he formed with a contemporary King of Gerar. A similar covenant, in similar circumstances, having been established between Isaac and the successor of that Gerar monarch, gave occasion to a renewed proclamation of the name; and it is accordant with the practice of the sacred writer to notice an event as newly occurred, while in point of fact it had taken place long before (cf. Genesis 35:6-7 with 28:18-19; 35:10 with 32:28; Judges 10:4 with Numbers 32:14).
There is a striking appearance of similarity between the brief notices given of the life of Isaac and the leading events in the history of Abraham; insomuch that some writers, as Von Lengerke, have questioned the personal existence of the former. But since father and son lived in the "south country," on the same pasture lands, amid the same pastoral scenes, and led the same simple mode of life, incidents of a similar character to those which had chequered Abraham's life, could not but occur in the experience of Isaac, and exactly the same course be followed. But though the resemblance is striking, there is not identity; and a close examination brings out such a substantial difference, as to prove that Isaac's experience was quite distinct, and his personality undoubted.