Scenes From the Promised Land

Beer-sheba​—Where a Well Meant Life

“FROM Dan to Beer-sheba.” That is a familiar phrase to Bible readers. It describes all Israel, from Dan, near the northern border, to Beer-sheba, in the south. The peace of Solomon’s reign was pictured thus: “Judah and Israel continued to dwell in security, everyone under his own vine and under his own fig tree, from Dan to Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon.”​—1 Kings 4:25; Judges 20:1.

The differences between Dan and Beer-sheba, though, involved more than their distance from each other. For example, Dan enjoyed ample rain; water flowed from the ground to form one of the headwaters of the Jordan River, as seen in the photograph to the right. How different Beer-sheba was, for it was located in an arid region, between the seacoast and the southern end of the Dead Sea.

In the area of Beer-sheba, the yearly rainfall was only from six to eight inches [15 to 20 cm]. Knowing that, note the above photograph of the tell, or mound, of Beer-sheba. * The green you see indicates that the photograph was taken after the limited rains of winter, when for a short time the fields around Beer-sheba are green. The nearby plains were​—and still are—​fine for grain crops.

Because the area was dry, Bible accounts about Beer-sheba emphasize wells and water rights. The city lay near roads or caravan routes that crossed the desert wilderness farther south. As you can imagine, travelers passing or stopping here would need water for themselves and for their animals. Such water did not bubble out of the ground, as at Dan, but it could be obtained from wells. In fact, the Hebrew word beʼerʹ referred to a pit or a hole dug to tap an underground water supply. Beer-sheba means “Well of the Oath” or, “Well of Seven.”

Abraham and his family long resided in and around Beer-sheba, and they knew the importance of wells. When Sarah’s maidservant Hagar ran away to the wilderness, she may have planned to get water from wells or from Bedouin who use them​—such as the Bedouin woman on the following page, top, drawing water at a well in the Sinai Peninsula.  When Abraham later had to drive Hagar away with her abusive son, he kindly provided a supply of water. What happened once that ran out? “Then God opened her eyes so that she caught sight of a well of water; and she went and began to fill the skin bottle with water and to give the boy a drink.”​—Genesis 21:19.

From where did Abraham get the water to fill Hagar’s waterskin? Perhaps at the well he had dug, near which he planted a tamarisk tree. (Genesis 21:25-33) It might be said that scientists now see the appropriateness of Abraham’s choice of the tamarisk, for this tree has tiny leaves that lose little moisture, so it can thrive despite the dryness of this area.​—See picture below.

Abraham’s digging a well was mentioned in connection with a dispute between him and a Philistine king. A well was a valuable asset because of the general scarcity of water and the labor required to dig a deep well. In fact, back then it was an invasion of property rights to use a well without permission.​—Compare Numbers 20:17, 19.

If you visit Tell Beer-sheba, you can peer down a deep well on the southeastern slope. No one knows when it was first cut through solid rock and its upper section (seen below) then reinforced with stones. Modern archaeologists cleared it for a hundred feet [30 m] down without reaching the bottom. One of them observed: “It is tempting to conclude that this well was . . . the ‘Well of the Oath’ where Abraham and Abimelech made their covenant.”​—Biblical Archaeology Review.

Evidently Beer-sheba grew in size later in the Biblical period, becoming a fortified city with a large gate. But a key to its existence and success was the vital water from its deep well.

[Footnotes]

[Picture Credit Line on page 24]

Pictorial Archive (Near Eastern History) Est.

[Picture Credit Line on page 25]

Pictorial Archive (Near Eastern History) Est.