Beer-sheva

The previous post, Fertile Crescent, told how Abraham responded to the call of God to leave the good life of Mesopotamia and travel to a place God would show him. Genesis 12 tells how “he set out for the land of Canaan and arrived safe and sound.”

After traveling through the land he settled in the Negev. Why he chose that challenging terrain we’re not told; perhaps because it was more sparsely settled than other areas.

Before long a severe famine in the area forced Abraham to travel east to Egypt in search of food, but he returned when he could to the Negev, settling in the eastern region near Beer-sheva. See Genesis 21:22-34. And to support his cattle and sheep-herding enterprise in an arid land like this, Abraham needed a significant amount of water, which meant he needed wells. So Abraham’s servants did a lot of digging.


When it became obvious that Abraham intended to settle in the region, the local ‘king’, Abimelech, proposed a treaty of friendship. This entitled Abraham to register a complaint about a recent conflict he had suffered when Abimelech’s servants had seized possession of a well Abraham had dug (v.25). Abimelech claimed to know nothing of the offense.

Digging a well was not the same as staking a claim to the land, but it entitled the one who dug the well to use the water that comes from it. The well served as a physical sign of grazing and watering rights. When Abimelech’s servants seized Abraham’s well and refused him access to the water, they were essentially robbing and expelling him, a significant violation of eastern hospitality.

With a generous gift of sheep and cattle, Abraham sealed a non-aggression covenant with his host Abimelech, with an explicit understanding that the well belonged to Abraham.

This covenant at Beer-sheva has great significance both in the Genesis story and in the unfolding complex history of Israel and the land. It marks the beginning of a historic cultural relationship with the land even while Abraham resided there as an alien. Abraham named the well Beer-sheva, ‘the well of the oath’ to commemorate his treaty with the resident king who recognized Abraham’s legitimacy.

Some years later, when his wife Sarah died, Abraham negotiated the purchase of a burial site at Hebron, along with official deeds for the property. To this day the Cave of the Patriarchs is considered a sacred site to Jews, Muslims and Christians.

Image Sources:
Negev - Unknown
Village Well - Lynsey Addario, National Geographic
Cave of the Patriarchs: Djampa - Wikipedia Commons