BIBLE PLACES
AND CITIES
BEERSHEBA
WAY DOWN SOUTH
PHOTOS, DRAWINGS
WOMEN IN
THE BIBLE
stories, historical background, and
some fresh ideas about these extraordinary women
BIBLE
PAINTINGS
famous artworks of the great heroes and heroines
of the Bible
BIBLE
PEOPLE
snappy biographies of the great men and women who
lived in the world of the Bible
TOP
TEN LISTS
worst villains, most gruesome murders, greatest heroes,
inspirational young people, etc. etc.
BIBLE
ARCHAEOLOGY
tombs, ziggurats, jewelry, war, houses...
BIBLE
WARFARE
battles, the army, weapons, engineering
EXTRA WEBSITES
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Archaeological Sites in Israel: Beersheba
LAST
CHANCE
TO FILL YOUR ENGINE
Beersheba is famous because of where it is, not what happened there. It lies at the southern extremity of ancient Israel, the last piece of fertile land before the hostile Negev Desert. It was, as it were, the last chance to fill your engine before the blistering heat of the desert.
The city of Dan in the north and the city of Besheba in the south - these were the two extremities. 'From Dan to Beersheba' was the common way of defining the limits of ancient Israel.
An ancient tamarisk tree in the Negev Desert
Beersheba is first mentioned in a story about watering rights. Abraham, head of a nomadic tribe, is traveling with his flocks through land controlled by the local king Abimelech of Gerar (Genesis 21:25-31).
There is a dispute over a valuable well, and Abraham enters into negotiations with the king: he digs a well in the dry river bed, and pays a tribute of sheep and oxen to Abimelech. As an extra incentive to the king, he offers seven eye lambs.
This seals the agreement between the two men, giving Abraham a permanent well and water rights in land he did not own. Abraham can now water his flocks whenever he wishes. It is 'his' well - the Hebrew word be'er means 'well', and sheva means 'promise', or possible 'seven'. Before he leaves, Abraham plants a tamarisk tree.
For Abraham's story, see BIBLE PEOPLE: ABRAHAM
Water rights were a continual source of friction between tribal groups.
Isaac, Abraham's son, had made a similar pact about water with the same king (or his son, the meaning is not clear).
But there was trouble ahead. Isaac was extraordinarily successful at what he did. His crops flourished, his flocks grew, and he began to amass considerable wealth. But his very success was his problem, since the local herdsmen thought he was using more than his fair share of available water resources. He was asked to leave the region.
However, Isaac was later allowed to enter the land again. The wells dug by his father had been filled with stones and earth, so he set about restoring them, and his fortunes as well. (Genesis 26:23-33).
For Isaac's story, see BIBLE PEOPLE: ISAAC
The stones of the Horned Altar after reconstruction. The figure at left shows the size of the altar.
Jacob is known to offered sacrifices to God at Beersheba, and this must have been a common practice for travelers, as they faced the rigors of the Negev. For Jacob's story, see BIBLE PEOPLE: JACOB
When archaeologists were excavating at Beersheba, they found several large, carefully shaped stones incorporated into the town walls, dating back to the late eighth century BC. When these stones were reassembled by the archaeologists, they formed a cubical altar with four tapered projections or 'horns'. One of the stone blocks had a snake carved onto it. The top stones were blackened, suggesting that sacrifices had been burnt there. The altar may have been dismantled at the time of King Hezekiah's religious reforms in the 8th century BC.
There have been various theories about why the altar had the projecting 'horns'. The most common is that they had a symbolic meaning related to the deity being worshipped.
There may have been a more practical reason: the high corner stones would provide a point of leverage for the ropes necessary to hold down a struggling animal as it was being killed. The practicalities of butchering an animal do not seem to have occurred to archaeologists.
(For more information on
ancient religions, go to
BIBLE ARCHAEOLOGY: ANCIENT RELIGIONS
Tel Beersheba from the south
Excavated buildings on the site, probably from
the latter part of the 8th century, the time of King Hezekiah
A model of a typical house, showing the rooms, courtyard and roof space
The top layer of excavations at Beersheba shows the city as it was in the 8th century BC. This is the city that Elijah would have seen when he fled from the wrath of Jezebel, after the murder of her priests. (I Kings 19:1-3)
It was a remarkable city, laid out in separate quarters, with orderly streets following the inside of the city wall and a main street through the center of the town. All these streets met in a square inside the main city gate - obviously the main meeting place of the city. There was
-
a drainage system which caught rainwater and funneled it outside the city
-
a communal cistern or well with a stone staircase going down into the foundation rock.
These water systems meant the city always had fresh water at hand.
There were storehouses for grain and oil collected as taxes from the surrounding countryside. Near the city gate there was a palace for the governor of the city, with three large reception halls.
Most of the houses in Bethsheba conformed to a pattern, with four sections, one of which was a courtyard, so necessary for daily living in that part of the world. All the houses were accessible via narrow streets.
Houses would have seemed very small to us - rooms could only be as wide as the beams that supported the roof. They would also have been stuffy, since there was a minimum of windows. There was of course no glass in the windows: lattice work and shutters covered the openings.
Stairs or a wooden ladder led up onto a flat roof, which was used as an outdoor room partly shaded by woven matting. This space and the courtyard were the main work areas, since they were the only well-lit places. Tasks performed here included
-
spinning and weaving
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food preparation
-
sleeping
-
drying food or textiles.
The houses would have been crowded with people at all times of the day and night. There was virtually no privacy - anything a person did, no matter how intimate, was done in the presence of others.
REFERENCES TO BEERSHEBA IN THE BIBLE
25
Then Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well of water
that Abimelech's servants had seized.
26 But Abimelech said, "I don't know who has done
this. You did not tell me, and I heard about it only
today."
27
So Abraham brought sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech,
and the two men made a treaty.
28 Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs from the
flock,
29 and Abimelech asked Abraham, "What is the
meaning of these seven ewe lambs you have set apart by
themselves?"
30
He replied, "Accept these seven lambs from my hand as a
witness that I dug this well."
31
So that place was called Beersheba, because the two men swore
an oath there.
23
From there he went up to Beersheba.
24 That night the LORD appeared to him and said, "I
am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am
with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of
your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham."
25
Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD.
There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well.
26
Meanwhile, Abimelech had come to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath
his personal adviser and Phicol the commander of his
forces.
27 Isaac asked them, "Why have you come to me,
since you were hostile to me and sent me away?"
28
They answered, "We saw clearly that the LORD was with
you; so we said, 'There ought to be a sworn agreement between
us'-between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you
29 that you will do us no harm, just as we did not
molest you but always treated you well and sent you away in
peace. And now you are blessed by the LORD."
30
Isaac then made a feast for them, and they ate and
drank.
31 Early the next morning the men swore an oath to each
other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they left him in
peace.
32
That day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well
they had dug. They said, "We've found water!"
33 He called it Shibah, and to this day the name of the
town has been Beersheba.
Genesis 46:1–3
1
So Israel set out with all that was his, and when he reached
Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father
Isaac.
2
And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said,
"Jacob! Jacob!"
"Here I am," he
replied.
3
"I am God, the God of your father," he said.
"Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make
you into a great nation there.
1
When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges for
Israel.
2 The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his
second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba.
3 But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned
aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted
justice.
1
Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he
had killed all the prophets with the sword.
2 So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say,
"May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by
this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of
them."
3
Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to
Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there,
The Bible designates Beersheba as the southern boundary marker of ancient Israel (Judges 20:1; 1 Samuel 3:20; 2 Samuel 3:10).
EXTRA WEBSITES - stories, pictures, reconstructions
The story of Abraham: BIBLE PEOPLE, ABRAHAM
The story of Isaac: BIBLE PEOPLE, ISAAC
The story of Jacob: BIBLE PEOPLE: JACOB
SUMMARY
_____________________________________________________________________
Lands and Cities of the Old and New Testament - Information
for Travelers in Israel and Palestine -
Bible Study Resource
Beersheba, southern limit of Israel - stories of Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob and Elijah - the excavated city