place · also Sheba · Shibah
Beersheba
בְּאֵר שֶׁ֫בַע
- verses
- 33
- first named
- Genesis 21:14
- last named
- Amos 5:5
- feature
- settlement
- coordinates
- 31.24°N · 34.84°E
Tel Beer Sheva (OpenBible)
Scholarship offers 3 identifications for this place. The leading one is shown; the others are recorded in the gazetteer.
Description
Beersheba in the text
Beersheba, also known as Sheba or Shibah, was a significant city located in the Negev region of southern Israel. It is mentioned numerous times throughout the Old Testament and is closely associated with the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Israel (or 'Jacob').
The name "Beersheba" first appears in Genesis 21:31, where Abraham named the place after making a covenant with Abimelech, the king of Gerar. The name means "well of seven" or "well of the oath," referring to the seven ewe lambs that Abraham gave to Abimelech as a witness to the covenant (Genesis 21:28-31).
Abraham lived in Beersheba for a time (Genesis 22:19), and it was from there that he set out to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice in the land of Moriah (Genesis 22:1-19). Isaac also lived in Beersheba, where he built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord (Genesis 26:23-25, 33). Jacob left Beersheba to go to Haran (Genesis 28:10) and later returned there to offer sacrifices to God before going to Egypt (Genesis 46:1, 5).
In the later history of Israel, Beersheba marked the southern extent of the nation, as seen in the phrase "from Dan to Beersheba" (Judges 20:1; 1Sa.3.20; 2Sa.3.10; 17:11; 24:2, 15; 1Ki.4.25). The city was allotted to the tribe of Simeon (Joshua 19:2) and became part of the kingdom of Judah (2Sa.24.7).
Beersheba was also a center of idolatry, as evidenced by the references to the "way of Beersheba" (Amo.8.14) and the "sin of Samaria" (Amo.5.5). King Josiah removed the idolatrous priests and destroyed the high places from Geba to Beersheba as part of his religious reforms (2Ki.23.8).
In summary, Beersheba was a prominent city in the Negev, serving as a key location in the lives of the patriarchs and later as a boundary marker for the nation of Israel. Its history was marked by both faithfulness to God and idolatry.
Relations
Direct connections
Every entity the graph places in a stated relation with this one, grouped by the kind of link. Each relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends always agree. Rows marked “registry” come from the identity spine rather than from a verse, and a row marked “which bearer is the source’s decision” is one where the name could have meant more than one person. The last group is not a relation at all — it counts the events two entities stand in together.
The pattern
Where Beersheba is named
Every book of the corpus in the order it is read, each as wide as the chapters it holds. A bar is the verses of that book which write the name, and the flat stretches are as much of the answer as the bars.
33 verses across 11 of 66 books; 55 write the name nowhere. Named in Genesis (10), Joshua (2), Judges (1), 1 Samuel (2), 2 Samuel (5), 1 Kings (2), 2 Kings (2), 1 Chronicles (2), 2 Chronicles (3), Nehemiah (2) and Amos (2).
Read it
Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — 33, across 11 books. The name is written 36 times in them.
Onward
Where this page goes
Not the direct relations above — these are one hop further out, ranked so that a rare shared connection outweighs a common one. Descriptions by STEPBible TIPNR.
Where they appear
What happened here
Atlas's reading of each chapter this place appears in, in canonical order. One line per chapter, and each leads to the whole of it.
- Genesis 21Beersheba was where Abraham and Abimelech swore their oath, and where Abraham planted a tamarisk tree.
- Genesis 22Beersheba receives Abraham after he returns from the mountain, and there he settles.
- Genesis 26Beersheba received Isaac’s altar, tent, servants, and well, and was named after the water found there.
- 1 Samuel 8Beersheba was where Joel and Abijah served as judges.
- 2 Samuel 24Beersheba marks the southern end of the census journey and the plague’s reach.
- 1 Kings 19Elijah came to Beersheba, left his servant there, and went on into the wilderness.
- 2 Kings 23Beersheba marked the southern end of the high places where priests had burned incense.
- 2 Chronicles 19Beersheba marked the southern end of Jehoshaphat’s journey among the people.
1 more chapter, from Amos 5 to Amos 5
Sources