Commentaire sur La Genèse 21:25

והוכח AND [ABRAHAM] REPROVED — it means he argued with him about it.

אשר גזלו עבדי אבימלך, he criticised him precisely in his position of king, seeing that robbery had been tolerated in his country and there was no one to protest this. He also criticised him for the evildoers in his own entourage. He did not act according to the norms of righteous people. Psalms 101,7 suggests that righteous people have no business dwelling in the proximity of people who practice deception.

והוכיח אברהם, seeing that they had both agreed to a pact and had confirmed it by a mutual oath, Avraham now complained about the servants of Avimelech having stolen his wells, especially the well he had dug in Beer Sheva. Beer Sheva was on the border between the land of Canaan and the land of the Philistines, and Avimelech’s servants had argued that Avraham had dug the well on land belonging to the Philistines. In response to Avraham’s complaint both Avimelech and Avraham went from Gerar to Beer Sheva to inspect the area and find out who had been wronged. Seeing that they saw that Avraham’s shepherds were grazing their cattle in that region it was natural that they had dug for water there in order to provide water for their livestock. Even though the Torah did not spell out precisely what occurred, it is reasonable to accept the scenario which I have described.

Avimelech’s servants. His ministers and officials. Had taken by force. Avraham was concerned not about the injustice done to him but about the lack of fear of Heaven on the part of Avimelech’s men and presumably Avimelech himself. How could he propose swearing in Hashem’s Name if he had no fear of Him?

והוכח, nicht ויכח. Es scheint, Abraham hatte bereits früher dem Abimelech darüber Vorstellung gemacht, dass man ihm einen Brunnen geraubt, ohne, aus Bescheidenheit, ihm zu sagen, dass es seine eigenen Diener getan. Abimelech hatte die Vorstellung unbeachtet gelassen. Abraham erinnert ihn daran, und sagt ihm, wer es getan. Abimelech entschuldigt sich damit, er habe deshalb nichts weiter darin getan, weil er nicht gewußt habe, wer es gethan.