Page:A critical and exegetical commentary on Genesis (1910).djvu/429

 26$25$). Among the sacra of that famous shrine there must have been a sacred tamarisk believed to have been planted by Abraham (see on 12$6$). The planting of a sacred tree is no more a contradictio in adjecto (Sta. in v. Gall, 47) than the erecting of a sacred stone, or the digging of a sacred well. The opinion (KS. Ho.) that the subj. is Isaac, and that the v. should stand after 26$25$, rests on the incorrect assumption that no stratum of J puts Abraham in connexion with Beersheba.—'El 'Ôlâm] presumably the pre-Israelite name of the local numen, here identified with Yahwe (Gu.: see 16$13$). Canaanite analogies are (Eus. Præp. Ev. i. 10, 13 ff.), and (Damasc. Princ. 123).—34. The assumption that Beersheba was in Philistine territory being incompatible with $32b$, the v. must be an interpolation.—On the historical background of these legends, see after 26$33$.

Beersheba is the modern Bi'r-es-Seba´, in the heart of the Negeb, some 28 miles SW from Hebron, and 25 SE from Umm el-Ǧerār. Its importance as a religious centre in OT appears not only from its frequent mention in the patriarchal history (22$19$ 26$23ff. 31ff.$ 28$10$ 46$1ff.$), but still more from the fact that in the 8th cent. its oracle (cf. 25$22$) was resorted to by pilgrims from the northern kingdom (Am. 5$5$ 8$14$). V. Gall (44 ff.) questions the opinion that it was originally a group of 7 wells, holding that there was but one, whose name meant 'Well of the Oath.' But that "among the Semites a special sanctity was attached to groups of seven wells" is shown by Smith (RS$2$, 181 f.: cf. Nö. ARW, vii. 340 ff.); and the existence of a plurality of wells at Bi'r es-Seba´ has never been disputed. See Rob. BR, i. 204 ff.; Smith, HG, 284 f.; Robinson, ''Bibl. World'', xvii. (1901), 247 ff.; Gautier, ib. xviii. 49 ff.; Dri. ET, vii. (1896), 567 f.; Joel and Amos$2$ (1901), p. 239 f.; Trumbull, ET, viii. 89.

'''Ch. XXII. The Sacrifice of Isaac''' (E and R$JE$).

The only incident in Abraham's life expressly characterised as a 'trial' of his faith is the one here narrated, where the patriarch proves his readiness to offer up his only son

, Ass. ašlu; 1 Sa. 22$6$ 31$13$ [in 1 Ch. 10$12$ ]†, in both cases probably denoting a sacred tree. The word seems to have been strange to Vns.: G, Aq. , Σ. , V nemus, etc. The substitution of proposed by Sta. (v.s.) is uncalled for, though see EB, 4892 f.—] [E] .—34 is wanting in T$J$ (ed. Ginsburger).