Jerome : (Verse 32 and 33.) And the servants of Isaac came and told him about the well that they had dug, and they said to him, 'We have found water.' So he called it Shebah. I don't know how it is translated in the Septuagint: 'And the servants of Isaac came and told him about the well that they had dug, and they said to him, 'We have not found water.' So he called it Oath.' What is the etymology behind calling it Oath just because they did not find water? On the contrary, in Hebrew, which Aquila and Symmachus agree with in interpretation, this signifies that they found water, and therefore the well itself was called Saturation, and the city was called Beersheba, which means well of saturation (Gen. XXI): for although above we asserted that Beersheba was called so from the word of the oath, or from the number seven of the sheep, which is called Sabee, now because water was found, Isaac turned slightly the letter to the name of the city, which was thus called alluding, and instead of the harsh sound of the Hebrews Sin, from which Sabee begins, he placed the Greek sigma, which is the Hebrew Samech: otherwise, according to the law of allegory, after so many wells at the end of virtues, it does not at all agree that Isaac did not find water. — Hebrew Questions on Genesis Augustine of Hippo : THE NAME GIVEN TO THE WELL DUG BY ISAAC. — Why is it written that the servants of Isaac came and said to him, We have dug a well and found no water ; Isaac called that well "an oath"? Although it had happened this way, there is no doubt that there is a spiritual meaning here, because it literally makes no sense to call that well 'oath ', precisely because there was no water found in it. Other translators have said that Isaac's servants told him rather the opposite, that is, that water had been found. But even supposing this, why is it called an "oath," if no oath had been made? [ — QUESTIONS ON GENESIS, Q. 77 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)