Beersheba

Beersheba is Israel’s southernmost city, located on the edge of the wilderness that stretches south to Mount Sinai and southwest to Egypt. The phrase “from Dan to Beersheba” traditionally refers to the entire extent of the Promised Land (2 Samuel 17:11).

Beersheba means “well of the oath” or “well of seven.” It was an ancient town, twenty miles south of Hebron, and is now a desolate ruin. Within its territory were two deep wells, surrounded by stone watering troughs. Hagar and her son wandered lost in the wilderness of Beersheba after being expelled. When Abraham sojourned in Gerar, this well was seized by the servants of King Abimelech. Abraham confronted Abimelech, and they made a covenant there, naming the place Beersheba.

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree there as evidence of the covenant and called upon the name of the Lord under it. Later, when Isaac sojourned in Gerar, he also made a covenant with Abimelech. On the day of the covenant, Isaac’s servants dug a well and found water, and Isaac named this well Shibah, and so the city was called Beersheba.

When the land of Canaan was divided among the Israelites, this city was given to the tribe of Simeon, named Shema (Joshua 15:28, 26) and also Shibah (Joshua 19:2). Samuel’s two sons served as judges in this place (1 Samuel 8:1, 2). In the time of the prophet Amos, this city was a notorious place of idolatry (Amos 5:5, 8:14). It was not until Governor Nehemiah returned from Babylon that the remnant of Judah settled in this city (Nehemiah 11:27, 30).

In 70 AD, Beersheba became an important border town for the Roman army, defending against the Nabataeans. However, from the 1st to the 6th centuries AD, Beersheba lost its former prosperity and was merely a large village.

During the Arab occupation of Palestine, the rulers established a small administrative center and market here, which served as the prototype for today’s city. In 1917, during World War I, Beersheba was the first city recaptured by General Allenby from the Turks; at that time, it had only two thousand inhabitants. In 1948, when Israel was re-established, it had only three thousand people. However, it has now developed into a large city with 200,000 inhabitants, complete public facilities, and a university. Its transportation network is extensive, with a railway passing through it, making it a major metropolis in southern Israel today.