43. Customs Concerning Wells

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Genesis 26:1515For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth. (Genesis 26:15). All the wells which his father’s servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.
In the East, digging wells gives title to unoccupied lands. Isaac therefore owned by inheritance the land in the vicinity of which these wells had been dug by his father’s direction. In a pastoral country it is a serious matter to choke up the wells which have been dug for the convenience of flocks and herds. It is, in fact, a declaration of war, and has always been considered a hostile act. Thus the Israelites did according to Divine command when they invaded Moab (2 Kings 3:19,2519And ye shall smite every fenced city, and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all wells of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones. (2 Kings 3:19)
25And they beat down the cities, and on every good piece of land cast every man his stone, and filled it; and they stopped all the wells of water, and felled all the good trees: only in Kir-haraseth left they the stones thereof; howbeit the slingers went about it, and smote it. (2 Kings 3:25)). In some parts of Persia the people have a way of concealing their wells with boards covered with sand, so as to conceal them from the eye of an enemy.