Beersheba (Be'er Sheva)
בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע
Where was biblical Beersheba? At Abraham's Well, Old City of modern Beersheba. I mark it debated. The case for the main rival site is below.
Abraham dug a well here and gave Abimelech seven ewes as witness that it was his. The two men swore an oath, Abraham planted a tamarisk, and the place took its name from that day.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Abraham's Well, Old City of modern Beersheba
- How sure
- Debated Two or more serious candidates.
- Other names
- Be'er Sheva, Beer-sheba, Bir es-Seba', Bersabee, Abraham's Well
- Location
- 31.2373° N, 34.7930° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
The name never left this valley. The Bedouin called the old well here Bir es-Seba'. Eusebius knew Beersheba as a large village with a Roman garrison, and the Madaba Map shows it. Nobody doubts that the patriarchs' Beersheba lay along this streambed. The question is which spot.
The Torah plays on the name twice. Abraham's well takes its name from sheva, seven, for the seven ewes. Later Isaac's servants dig a well he calls Shivah, from shevuah, an oath, and the Torah says that is why the city is called Beersheba. The Bible is being very exact here, and it is telling us there were two wells.
Joshua confirms it. He lists Simeon's towns as "Beersheba and Sheba." Critics call that a copyist's duplication. I think it means two places. Isaac's well is at the tel to the east, which this map labels Sheba. Abraham's Well lies about an hour's walk down the same streambed, in the Old City of today's Beersheba. Abraham lived in tents with flocks. His Beersheba was a place of wells, not walls. No Bronze or Iron Age city walls have turned up under the modern city, and Genesis never needs them. Roman and Byzantine Beersheba stood here too.
The tamarisk belongs here as well. It is the only tree in this desert that grows tall and shady on brackish water. It pushes the salt out through its needles. When I filmed the Walking Tanach episode Jacob's Ladder at the tel, we tasted it. Salt.
From Beersheba Jacob offered sacrifices before going down to Egypt. Samuel's sons sat here as judges. Elijah fled here from Jezebel and left his servant behind. And "from Dan to Beersheba" became the Bible's phrase for the whole length of the Land.
Most scholars and most guidebooks call the tel Beersheba, and the Abraham's Well shown today is a traditional site. I hold the two-well reading. The page on Sheba makes the other half of the case.
Watch: Jacob's Ladder
Walking Tanach, Episode 5. Filmed at Tel Be'er Sheva, tasting the salt on a tamarisk.
Visiting today
The Abraham's Well visitors center in the Old City shows the traditional wells. I filmed across the valley at the tel for the Walking Tanach episode Jacob's Ladder.
Read it in the Bible
Verse numbers follow the Hebrew Bible. In a handful of chapters English Bibles count one verse off.
See Beersheba on the interactive map →
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- Sheba (Tel Be’er Sheva) 5 km east
- Aroer in the Negev 20 km southeast
- Ziklag 20 km northwest
- Gerar 24 km northwest
- Jattir 25 km northeast
- Anim 29 km northeast