Genesis 21:29

29 Abimelech said, "What does this mean? These seven sheep you've set aside."

Genesis 21:29 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 21:29

And Abimelech said unto Abraham
Observing what he had done, and not knowing the design of it: what [mean] these seven ewe lambs which thou hast set by themselves?
he understood what the sheep and oxen were for, that they were presents to him, at least some of them, and the rest were for the solemnizing and ratifying the covenant between them; but what these were for he could not devise.

Genesis 21:29 In-Context

27 So the two of them made a covenant. Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech.

28 Abraham set aside seven sheep from his flock.

29 Abimelech said, "What does this mean? These seven sheep you've set aside."

30 Abraham said, "It means that when you accept these seven sheep, you take it as proof that I dug this well, that it's my well."

31 That's how the place got named Beersheba (the Oath-Well), because the two of them swore a covenant oath there.