Sheba (Tel Be’er Sheva)
שֶׁבַע
Where was biblical Sheba? At Tel Be'er Sheva, east of modern Beersheba. I mark it debated. The case for the main rival site is below.
Isaac's servants dug a well here and came back to tell him they had found water. He named it Shivah, and centuries later the kings of Judah built a walled city around it.
By Aaron Shaffier, licensed Israel tour guide and mapmaker · About the mapmaker
- Site today
- Tel Be'er Sheva, east of modern Beersheba
- How sure
- Debated Two or more serious candidates.
- Other names
- Shema, Tel Be'er Sheva, Tell es-Seba', Tel Sheva
- Location
- 31.2448° N, 34.8409° E (Google Maps)
How we know where it was
Joshua's list of Simeon's towns opens "Beersheba and Sheba and Moladah." Read plainly, that is two places, and I read it that way. The Arabic name of this tel, Tell es-Seba', still carries the name Sheba. Judah's Negev list has a town called Shema right beside Moladah, which may be the same place in another spelling.
So Isaac's well is here, and Abraham's Beersheba lay a few kilometers west, in today's city. Isaac came here from Gerar with tents and flocks. Esau hunted ibex in the desert around the camp. Jacob set out from here for Haran. Jewish tradition says Jacob was cooking red lentils on the day Abraham died, and Jewish mourners are still served lentils and eggs, round foods for the round of life.
The well on the tel is real. The stone structure over it is about 2,800 years old, built by the kings of Judah. They walled this small hilltop to tax the nomads and the farmers and to guard the road up from the desert. The well itself may go back to Isaac. Excavators also uncovered a city gate, storehouses, houses, a deep water system, and the stones of a horned altar that someone had taken apart.
Most guidebooks and most scholars call this tel Beersheba. They read "Sheba" as a scribal repeat or another name for the same city. Their best argument is arithmetic. Joshua totals the list at thirteen towns, and the count only works if Sheba is not counted on its own. Chronicles leaves Sheba out of the same list.
Watch: Jacob's Ladder
Walking Tanach, Episode 5. Filmed at the well on this tel.
Visiting today
Tel Be'er Sheva National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, preserves the gate, the street plan, the storehouses, the water system and a replica of the horned altar. I filmed at the well on this tel for 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 Sheba on the interactive map →
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Get the print + free ebookNearby places
- Beersheba (Be'er Sheva) 5 km west
- Aroer in the Negev 17 km southeast
- Jattir 21 km northeast
- Ziklag 22 km northwest
- Anim 24 km northeast
- Debir (Kiriath Sepher) 27 km northeast