BEERSHEBA (Beer-Sheba) bĭr she’ bə (בְּאֵ֥ר שָֽׁבַע; LXX Βηρσαβέε; the well of seven/swearing). A town in the Judean Negeb district. The site of Biblical Beer-sheba has been identified with Tell es-Saba’, located at the juncture of the Wâdī Saba’ and the Wâdī Khelîl. Chalcolithic remains in the immediate vicinity of Beer-sheba have been discovered in numerous small mounds on both sides of the Wâdī es-Saba’.

While Abraham was located on the highway connecting Shur (the famous Egyp. defense line on the E) and Kadesh (-barnea), he enjoyed the status of a sojourner at Gerar (Gen 20:1). The area of Hagar’s wanderings is called “the wilderness of Beer-sheba” (21:14). Abraham enjoyed water rights in the Beersheba area by agreement with Abimelech, the ruler at Gerar (21:22-32). Soon after his covenant with Abimelech, Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba; the religious nature of this act is stressed by the added statement that there he called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God (21:33). He evidently continued to reside in that region for some time (cf. 22:19). A similar situation existed with regard to his son, Isaac. Isaac dwelt for a time in Gerar itself (26:1-16), but the envy of the local inhabitants forced him to move, first to the “valley of Gerar” (26:17) and eventually to Beersheba (26:23). Here he also made an agreement with Abimelech (26:23-33). Isaac must have remained in the Beersheba region for a long time; the disputes between his grown sons, Jacob and Esau, apparently took place there (28:10); but Jacob returned to Canaan only to find his father at Hebron (35:27).

Beersheba was allotted to the tribe of Simeon (Josh 19:2; 1 Chron 4:28); but since that tribe had become so closely affiliated with Judah (Judg 1:3), the towns of Simeon including Beersheba also appear among the towns in the “Negeb district” of Judah (Josh 15:28; cf. vv. 21, 32). In the pre-monarchial period Samuel had stationed his sons there to act as judges (1 Sam 8:2). From early in the Israelite period Beersheba was reckoned as the southernmost extremity of Israels’ territory; cf. the familiar phrase “from Dan to Beersheba” (Judg 20:1; 1 Sam 3:20). This also applied to Saul’s kingdom (2 Sam 3:10).

The position of Beersheba as capital of the southernmost district in David’s kingdom (2 Sam 24:2, 15; 1 Chron 21:2), is evident from the fact that Joab’s census officials went “to the Negeb of Judah at Beer-sheba” (2 Sam 24:7). The same was apparently true under Solomon (1 Kings 4:25). When the prophet Elijah fled S his first stop was at “Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah” (19:3). A wife of Ahaziah, king of Judah, named Zibia came from Beersheba (2 Kings 12:1). Under King Jehoshaphat Beersheba was apparently still the administrative center of southern Judah (2 Chron 19:4). The prophet Amos seems to indicate that a shrine was located there (Amos 5:5; 8:14). Beersheba was still singled out as the southern extremity of Judean territory during the reigns of Hezekiah (2 Chron 30:5) and Josiah (2 Kings 23:8). There was a Judean population at Beersheba in the postexilic period (Neh 11:27), and Judean occupation extended from “Beer-sheba to the Valley of Hinnom” (11:30).

Bibliography A. Musil, Arabia Petraea, I-III (1907-08), 2, 165ff.; W. F. Albright, “Egypt and the Early History of the Negeb,” JPOS IV (1924), 131-161; A. Alt, “Beiträge zur Historischen Geographie und Topographie des Negeb,” JPOS XV (1935), 294-326; D. H. Kallner-Amiran, “Geomorphology of the Central Negev Highlands,” IEJ, I (1951), 107-120; J. Perrot, “The Excavations at Tell Abu Matar, near Beersheba,” IEJ, V (1955), 17-40, 73-84, 167-189; R. B. K. Amiran, “The ‘Cream Ware’ of Gezer and the Beersheba Late Chalcolithic,” IEJ, V (1955), 240-245; T. Josien, “La faune chalcolithique des gisements Palestiniens de Bir Es-Safadi et Bir Abou Matar,” IEJ, V (1955), 246-256; M. Negbi, “The Botanical Finds at Tell Abu Matar, near Beersheba,” IEJ, V (1955), 257-261; M. Dothan, “Radioactive Examination of Archaeological Material from Israel,” IEJ, VI (1956), 112-114; Y. Aharoni, “The Negeb of Judah,” IEJ, VIII (1958), 26-38; A. F. Rainey, “The Merchants at Ugarit and the Patriarchal Narratives,” Christian News from Israel XIV, No. 4 (July, 1963), 17-26; Israel Department of Antiquities, “Notes and News,” IEJ, II (1952), 253; III (1953), 262, 263; IV (1954), 125, 126; V (1955), 125, 126, 174, 175; VI (1956), 126, 127; VIII (1958), 131-133; IX (1959), 29, 141, 142, 267; X (1960), 120, 121; XIII (1963), 145, 146, 260, 261.