Genesis 21:26
And Abimelech said, I wot not who hath done this thing: neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to day. And Abimelech said, I wot not who hath done this thing: neither didst thou tell me, neither yet heard I of it, but to day.
Genesis 21:26 belongs to the account of God's dealings with Abraham and his family, showing His providential care and giving repeated lessons in faith with the promised Seed in view. That family was the one chosen as progenitor of the Seed, and the verse falls within God's providential dealings with it. More specifically, it belongs to the account of Abraham's agreement with Abimelech concerning the well at Beersheba, whose name means well of the oath and commemorated that agreement. In that dealing over the well, after entering a friendship covenant with Abimelech, Abraham reproved him for the wrong that Abimelech's servants had done concerning the well. The verse records Abimelech's reply that he did not know who had done this thing, that Abraham had not told him, and that he had heard of it only that day.
The surrounding account uses covenant for this mutual agreement between Abraham and Abimelech. It therefore illustrates that a covenant can be an agreement rather than a law. That agreement between Abraham and Abimelech was respected while Abraham lived. After Abraham's death, however, the Philistines stopped up the wells Abraham had dug.