Bible Location
Meaning: the well of an oath; the seventh well · 32 cross references · Modern-day map available
Beersheba is the southern well-town of the patriarchs and one of the Bible's best-known boundary markers, located on the edge of the Negeb. It is important as a place of covenant, settlement, and worship in the stories of Abraham and Isaac, and as the southern limit in the expression "from Dan to Beersheba." First appears in Gen 21:14.1
Place meaning
the well of an oath; the seventh well
Coordinates
31.25, 34.84
First appears
Gen 21:14
AI summary: Beersheba carries significance both because of what happened there and because of what it came to represent. Patriarchal stories connect it with wells, oaths, settled life, and divine encounters, especially in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Over time the city also becomes a standard point of orientation, marking the southern reach of the land in one of the Bible's most familiar geographic expressions. Because of that role, Beersheba is remembered as more than one settlement among many: it becomes a symbolic edge of Israel's inhabited world. The cross references show it as a place of covenant memory, boundary identity, and enduring patriarchal association.1
Place meaning
the well of an oath; the seventh well
Latitude
31.25
Longitude
34.84
Bible references
32
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. 3
Source note: this 1893 dictionary language reflects its period and may be culturally insensitive or outdated. It is presented as historical source material, not as ai-BIBLE’s language, interpretation, or endorsement.
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Figure1: A table of cross references between the selected passage and other passages (Data from Robert Rouse, “Theographic Bible Information,” Theographic-Bible-Metadata, 2020, https://github.com/robertrouse/theographic-bible-metadata.)
AI-assisted summary prepared for ai-BIBLE and stored as page content, based on dictionary material, place metadata, and linked Bible cross references.
Alistair de Blacquiere-Clarkson, “ai-BIBLE Bible Names JSON Factsheet Aggregating Material from Smith’s Bible Dictionary & Hitcocks’s New and Complete Analysis of the Bible.” ai-BIBLE electronic edition, version 1.0.
M.G.Easton, Illustrated Bible Dictionary, ai-BIBLE electronic edition, version 1.0.
Robert Rouse, “Theographic Bible Information,” Theographic-Bible-Metadata, 2020, https://github.com/robertrouse/theographic-bible-metadata.