Genesis 21:22
And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech and Phichol the chief captain of his host spake unto Abraham, saying, God is with thee in all that thou doest: And it came to pass at that time, that Abimelech and Phichol the chief captain of his host spake unto Abraham, saying, God is with thee in all that thou doest:
Abimelech, king of the Philistines, came with Phichol the chief captain or commander of his host and told Abraham that God was with him in all that he did. Abimelech sought a covenant with Abraham because he recognized that divine presence with him. The verse belongs to the account of Abraham's separation from Abimelech concerning a well at Beer-sheba, and the name Beer-sheba, meaning well of the oath, commemorated that agreement. In what followed Abraham made a sworn covenant of friendship with Abimelech and then calmly reproved him over the wrong his servants had done concerning the well, preserving their friendship while settling the dispute. That covenant was respected throughout Abraham's life.
The covenant Abraham made with Abimelech shows that the word covenant can mean a mutual agreement between people. The word can also have other senses including a promise, conditional promises, or a law. With the preceding chapter describing Abimelech as knowing the true God, his seeking a covenant from recognition of God's presence with Abraham shows that knowledge of the Lord existed among people beyond Abraham's family.
The recognition that God was with Abraham is an evident sign of God's overruling providence and providential care and interest among people during Abraham's sojourn and trials of faith. It belongs to God's progressive and providential dealings with Abraham, the father of the faithful, and with his family whose role was to preserve the chosen line of the Seed. The chapter to which the verse belongs shows that the promised Seed was to come through Isaac, Abraham's miraculous child of promise, rather than through Ishmael.