פרשת תולדות תש"כ - הבארות

Now all the wells which his father’s servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.

Now all the wells which his father’s servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.

סתמום פלשתים, the Philistines had stopped up these wells to ensure that Avraham’s descendants would not be able to use them and to claim the land around them. as their grazing land. The Torah had to record this for us since Avraham’s shepherds had in the meantime pitched their tents a distance from there. We have a parallel to this when the Torah writes in 9,18 חם אבי כנען, Cham, the son of Canaan, although at the time, Canaan had not been born yet. Here too, the verse serves as background to the facts in verse 18, explaining that the servants of Yitzchok were not annexing land for their use which had not already belonged to Avraham with the full consent of Avimelech the king at time.

The Philistines plugged them. Since the king had forbidden them to harm Yitzchok physically, they gave vent to their jealousy by plugging up the wells.

2. And God blessed Abraham [with everything] - this is to inform/explain to us about what is said in [the text in] front of us, that Abraham did not send his servant to take a wife [for Isaac] on account of lack of women in the Land of Canaan or because no one wanted to mate with him, because Abraham had been blessed with everything and the entire world desired to mate with Isaac, but because he only wanted a spouse for Isaac from his family. This is why Abraham's servant said: "And Adonai blessed my master very much and he has become wealthy." And it is for this reason that the text needed to explain first that God had blessed Abraham "with everything," as in a similar instance: "And Ham was the father of Canaan" (Genesis 9:18).

And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham; and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.

And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham; and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.

And they digged another well, and they strove for that also. And he called the name of it Sitnah.

ויבן שם מזבח AND HE BUILDED THERE AN ALTAR — in thanksgiving for the good tidings that he would have children, and for the good tidings that they would possess the land of Israel.

unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first; and Abram called there on the name of the LORD.

And Abraham planted a tamarisk-tree in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God.

And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants digged a well.