Place · City
Beersheba
Also known as Shibah
Named in 32 verses across 11 books, first in Genesis 21:14.
In these stories
In the Bible
The first 10 of 32 verses, in Bible order. Text from the Berean Standard Bible; verse numbers follow the KJV.
Genesis
- Genesis 21:14
Early in the morning, Abraham got up, took bread and a skin of water, put them on Hagar’s shoulders, and sent her away with the boy. She left and wandered in the Wilderness of Beersheba.
- Genesis 21:31
So that place was called Beersheba, because it was there that the two of them swore an oath.
- Genesis 21:32
After they had made the covenant at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army got up and returned to the land of the Philistines.
- Genesis 21:33
And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called upon the name of the LORD, the Eternal God.
- Genesis 22:19
Abraham went back to his servants, and they got up and set out together for Beersheba. And Abraham settled in Beersheba.
- Genesis 26:23
From there Isaac went up to Beersheba,
- Genesis 26:33
So he called it Shibah, and to this day the name of the city is Beersheba.
- Genesis 28:10
Meanwhile Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran.
- Genesis 46:1
So Israel set out with all that he had, and when he came to Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.
- Genesis 46:5
Then Jacob departed from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel took their father Jacob in the wagons Pharaoh had sent to carry him, along with their children and wives.
Dictionary
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), as attached to this record by Theographic. Its geography and “modern” descriptions date from the 1890s. Easton wrote in 1897, and some of his views are now debated.
Read Easton’s entry
Well of the oath, or well of seven, a well dug by Abraham, and so named because he and Abimelech here entered into a compact (Gen. 21:31). On re-opening it, Isaac gave it the same name (Gen. 26:31-33). It was a favourite place of abode of both of these patriarchs (21:33-22:1, 19; 26:33; 28:10). It is mentioned among the “cities” given to the tribe of Simeon (Josh. 19:2; 1 Chr. 4:28). From Dan to Beersheba, a distance of about 144 miles (Judg. 20:1; 1 Chr. 21:2; 2 Sam. 24:2), became the usual way of designating the whole Promised Land, and passed into a proverb. After the return from the Captivity the phrase is narrowed into “from Beersheba unto the valley of Hinnom” (Neh. 11:30). The kingdom of the ten tribes extended from Beersheba to Mount Ephraim (2 Chr. 19:4). The name is not found in the New Testament. It is still called by the Arabs Bir es-Seba, i.e., “well of the seven”, where there are to the present day two principal wells and five smaller ones. It is nearly midway between the southern end of the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean.