Bible Verses About Patriarchal Government: Forming treaties and alliances

One who had escaped came and told Abram, the Hebrew. Now he lived by the oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner; and these were allies of Abram.

At that time, Abimelech and Phicol the captain of his army spoke to Abraham, saying, “God is with you in all that you do.

Now, therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, nor with my son, nor with my son’s son. But according to the kindness that I have done to you, you shall do to me, and to the land in which you have lived as a foreigner.”

Abraham said, “I will swear.”

Abraham complained to Abimelech because of a water well, which Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away.

Abimelech said, “I don’t know who has done this thing. You didn’t tell me, neither did I hear of it, until today.”

Abraham took sheep and cattle, and gave them to Abimelech. Those two made a covenant.

Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.

Abimelech said to Abraham, “What do these seven ewe lambs which you have set by themselves mean?”

He said, “You shall take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, that it may be a witness to me, that I have dug this well.”

Therefore he called that place Beersheba, because they both swore there.

So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Abimelech rose up with Phicol, the captain of his army, and they returned into the land of the Philistines.

They said, “We saw plainly that the LORD was with you. We said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, even between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you,

that you will do us no harm, as we have not touched you, and as we have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace.’ You are now the blessed of the LORD.”

He made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

They rose up some time in the morning, and swore one to another. Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

The same day, Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”

He called it Shibah. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.