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BEER-SHEBA

(Heb. bĕʾēr šeḇaʿ)

Residential quarter in the western part of Tell Beer-sheba (Iron II, late 8th century b.c.e.). A royal administrative center, the city was inhabited by civil service elite, with ordinary citizens dwelling in surrounding villages and farms (Phoenix Data Systems, Neal and Joel Bierling)

A major city in the Negeb. Beer-sheba, meaning either “well of an oath” (Gen. 21:25-31) or “well of seven” (26:26-35), is mentioned prominently in OT accounts from the patriarchs in Genesis to resettlement after the Exile.

Beer-sheba is often used to indicate the southern extent of the land: e.g., from Dan, in the north, to Beer-sheba, in the south (e.g., Judg. 20:1; 2 Sam. 24:2). In the assignment of tribal territories Beer-sheba went to Simeon, but Simeon’s territory was assimilated into Judah. Beer-sheba was often considered the “capital of the Negeb.” Brief references include the appointment of Samuel’s sons as judges in Beer-sheba (1 Sam. 8:2); Elijah passing through Beer-sheba when fleeing from Jezebel (1 Kgs. 19:3); its high place destroyed by Josiah (2 Kgs. 23:8); Amos condemning the worship at Beer-sheba (Amos 5:5; 8:14); its reoccupation by returning exiles (Neh. 11:27).

The identification of the site of the well of Abraham and Isaac is not certain. Some contend for a well in modern Beer-sheba (Bir es-Sebaʿ; 130072), others for a well found at Tell es-Sebaʿ/Tell Beer Shevaʿ (134072) to the east. References to the city in the stories from Israel’s period of occupation and control of the land are almost certainly to the city excavated at Tell es-Sebaʿ under the direction of Yohanan Aharoni from 1969 to 1976. The city was occupied in the Iron Age probably beginning in the 12th century b.c.e. The first fortified settlement was built ca. 1000 and continued until ca. 700, perhaps destroyed by Sennacherib.

Large areas of the tell were excavated, revealing public and private buildings, defensive walls, and, in more recent excavations, a water supply system. Aharoni identified, among many other finds, a stone horned altar — the stones of which were dismantled and in a secondary context. The tell was unoccupied for ca. 300 years, then reveals evidences of occupation in the Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, and Early Arab periods.

Bibliography. Z. Herzog, Beer-sheba 2 (Tel Aviv, 1984); J. Perrot, et al., “Beersheba,” NEAEHL 1:161-73.

Bruce C. Cresson

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

BEER-SHEBA

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)