Abraham at Beersheba

Beersheba (also spelt Beersheva, and Be’er Sheva) is Hebrew, meaning either “Well of the Oath”, or “Well of the Seven”. Both possible meanings refers to the Biblical story recounted in Genesis 21:25-33:

“And Abraham reproved Abimelech because of a well of water, which Abimelech’s servants had violently taken away. 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 Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them unto Abimelech; and both of them made a covenant. And Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves. And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What mean these seven ewe lambs which thou hast set by themselves? And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well. Wherefore he called that place Beer-sheba; because there they sware both of them. Thus they made a covenant at Beer-sheba.”

The well is named after the oath and the seven sheep of the oath that was between Abraham and Abimelech (a Philistine king).

Beersheba is referred to as the southern most city of Israel (1 Samuel 3:20). It was from Beersheba that Abraham set off with Isaac to Mount Moriah to offer Isaac as a sacrifice.

Here Isaac built altar unto the Lord and offered sacrifices. When the Israelite city of Beersheba was excavated they found an Israelite sacrificial altar.

It was here that Isaac’s son Jacob stole the birthright from his brother Esau.

But it all started with Abraham. He is the man credited with starting modern monotheism; Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all trace their origins to Father Abraham.

The city of Beersheba was first established during the Canaanite period (between 1700 to 1400 BC) next to the well dug by Abraham and sometime after Jacob and his twelve sons had moved from here to Egypt (about 1700 BC). After the Israelite conquest under Joshua, Beersheba became the main city for the small tribe of Simeon, about 1400 BC (Joshua 19:2). Although Beersheba is in the northern region of the Negev Desert, it offers good pastoral land and limited agriculture with irrigation.

From archeological excavations, the below photo is a model of what Israelite Beersheba looked like in the 8th Century BC before the Babylonian conquest.