town or village

Beersheba

• Today Tel Beer Sheva

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History

Beersheba lies in the northern Negev, on the edge of the desert, where wells along a broad wadi made settled life possible. The town of the Israelite kings stood on a mound now called Tel Sheva, about 4 km east of the modern city; the Roman and Byzantine town grew up on the site of the modern city. Villages of the Copper Age flourished in the area in the fifth and fourth millennia BC. The excavations directed by Yohanan Aharoni from 1969 found that the mound itself was first settled early in the Iron Age, as a small village of pits and houses.

In Genesis, Abraham and Abimelech made a covenant here, and the place was called Beer-sheba, "because there they sware both of them"; Abraham planted a grove there and called on the name of the Lord. Isaac's servants dug a well here, and Jacob set out from Beersheba for Haran and later offered sacrifices here on his way to Egypt. "From Dan to Beer-sheba" became the phrase for the whole land of Israel. Samuel's sons were judges in Beersheba, and Elijah fled here from Jezebel.

In Iron Age II, from about the tenth century BC (the exact date is disputed), the mound became a small walled town of Judah, with a gate, storehouses, a ring of houses built into the wall and a large rock-cut water system. Its last Iron Age city was burned in the late eighth century BC, probably in Sennacherib's campaign of 701 BC. The stones of a large horned altar were found built into a later wall; Aharoni linked its dismantling with Hezekiah's reform, while Yadin linked it with Josiah's reform a century later. Amos warned Israel not to go to Beersheba, and Josiah defiled the high places from Geba to Beersheba.

After the exile Jews lived again in Beersheba and its villages, as Nehemiah records. In Eusebius' day Beersheba was a large village twenty miles south of Hebron with a garrison of Roman soldiers, and it was counted the southern end of Judaea. In the Byzantine period it grew into a town with several churches on the desert frontier.

Scripture: Gen 21:31–33; Gen 26:32–33; Gen 28:10; Gen 46:1; Judg 20:1; 1 Sam 8:2; 1 Kgs 19:2–3; Amos 5:5; 2 Kgs 23:8; Neh 11:27

Checked against its sources; not yet read by a historian.

Verses (23)

Josh 15:28

And Hazar-shual, and Beer-sheba, and Bizjothjah,

Josh 19:2

And they had in their inheritance Beer-sheba, or Sheba, and Moladah,

Judg 20:1

Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, with the land of Gilead, unto the LORD in Mizpeh.

1 Sam 3:20

And all Israel from Dan even to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the LORD.

1 Sam 8:2

Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abiah: they were judges in Beer-sheba.

2 Sam 3:10

To translate the kingdom from the house of Saul, and to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to Beer-sheba.

2 Sam 17:11

Therefore I counsel that all Israel be generally gathered unto thee, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that thou go to battle in thine own person.

2 Sam 24:2

For the king said to Joab the captain of the host, which was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people.

2 Sam 24:7

And came to the strong hold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites: and they went out to the south of Judah, even to Beer-sheba.

2 Sam 24:15

So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men.

1 Kgs 4:25

And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon.

1 Kgs 19:3

And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.

2 Kgs 12:1

In the seventh year of Jehu Jehoash began to reign; and forty years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba.

2 Kgs 23:8

And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba, and brake down the high places of the gates that were in the entering in of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man’s left hand at the gate of the city.

1 Chr 4:28

And they dwelt at Beer-sheba, and Moladah, and Hazar-shual,

1 Chr 21:2

And David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.

2 Chr 19:4

And Jehoshaphat dwelt at Jerusalem: and he went out again through the people from Beer-sheba to mount Ephraim, and brought them back unto the LORD God of their fathers.

2 Chr 24:1

Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Zibiah of Beer-sheba.

2 Chr 30:5

So they established a decree to make proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the passover unto the LORD God of Israel at Jerusalem: for they had not done it of a long time in such sort as it was written.

Neh 11:27

And at Hazar-shual, and at Beer-sheba, and in the villages thereof,

Neh 11:30

Zanoah, Adullam, and in their villages, at Lachish, and the fields thereof, at Azekah, and in the villages thereof. And they dwelt from Beer-sheba unto the valley of Hinnom.

Amos 5:5

But seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Beth-el shall come to nought.

Amos 8:14

They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beer-sheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

King James Version

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