What is the significance of Beersheba in the Bible?

This name, signifying well of the oath, was given to the place where Abraham and Abimelech made a covenant not to molest each other, and confirmed it by an oath. It afterwards became the dwelling place of Abraham and of Isaac, who also digged a well there, and a city is spoken of as bearing the same name. Gen. 21:14, 31-33; Gen. 22:19; Gen. 26:23, 33; Gen. 28:10. It became a part of Simeon's lot, Joshua 19:1-2; and after the settlement of the land it is constantly referred to as the most southern part of the land possessed, as Dan is pointed to as the most northern; thus 'from Dan to Beer-sheba' was the common expression for the whole territory even in the days of Solomon. 1 Kings 4:25.

The prophet Amos warns the people not to trust in any places of renown or of former blessing, as Bethel, Gilgal, nor Beersheba; the glory of all had faded: they must seek Jehovah, and they should live. Amos 5:5-6; Amos 8:14. On the return of the exiles some of them dwelt at Beer-sheba, and from thence northward to the valley of Hinnom. Neh. 11:27, 30. Beer-sheba is identified with Bir es Seba, 31 15' N, 34 48' E. There are still two principal wells in the district giving excellent water, besides five smaller ones.

"And thence he went up to Beersheba. And Jehovah appeared to him the same night, and said, I [am] the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I [am] with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake. And he built an altar there, and called upon the name of Jehovah, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac's servants dug a well. And Abimelech, and Ahuzzath his friend, and Phichol the captain of his host, went to him from Gerar. And Isaac said to them, Why are ye come to me, seeing ye hate me and have sent me away from you? And they said, We saw certainly that Jehovah is with thee; and we said, Let there now be an oath between us, between us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee; that thou wilt do us no wrong, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done to thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou [art] now blessed of Jehovah. And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink. And they rose early in the morning, and swore one to another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came and told him concerning the well that they had dug, and said to him, We have found water. And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

But Abimilech reminds Isaac that the Philistines had actually been good to him, and asks that Isaac should respond in the same way. Isaac had no reservations as to making such a covenant, however, and he makes his visitors a feast, while both parties make oaths to one another that they will remain peaceful (vs.30-31).

At the same time Isaac learns from his servants that they had dug a well and found water (v.32). They called the well Shebah, meaning "oath," and the place was therefore called Beersheba (v.33). but this must have been a confirmation of the fact that this was its name before, for Abraham and Abimelech had made a covenant at Beersheba, naming it this because of their oath (ch.21:31-32). These two covenants (between Abraham and Abimelech and Isaac and Abimelech) were the occasion of the well receiving its name, but it is symbolical of the far greater covenant that God made with Abraham and confirmed to Isaac.

But Abimelech reminds Isaac that the Philistines had actually been good to him, and asks that Isaac should respond in the same way. Isaac had no reservations as to making such a covenant, however, and he makes his visitors a feast, while both parties make oaths to one another that they will remain peaceful (vv. 30-31).

At the same time Isaac learns from his servants that they had dug a well and found water (v. 32). They called the well Shebah, meaning “oath,” and the place was therefore called Beersheba (v. 33). But this must have been in confirmation of the fact that this was its name before, for Abraham and Abimelech had made a covenant at Beersheba, naming it this because of their oath (Gen. 21:31-32). These two covenants (between Abraham and Abimelech and Isaac and Abimelech) were the occasion of the well receiving its name, but it is symbolical of the far greater covenant that God made with Abraham and confirmed to Isaac.

The name of "Beersheba" was confirmed by Isaac when he also established by oath his boundaries there with Abimelech, as Abraham had done. These circumstances both gave occasion to this name. Being the boundary-wall, the engagement was repeated; and both engagements contributed to give it this name. But here there is not the smallest ground whatever for supposing that it was inattention to some other document, for it is stated (Gen. 26:18), "And Isaac digged again the wells of water which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham. And he called their names after the names by which his father had called them;" and then it goes on to give an additional personal reason why the last had the same name.

This was a kind of pledge of the possession of the land, as also the tide he gives Jehovah. He was Jehovah olam for a future day yet hidden, save in promise; Beersheba was literally the bounds of the land.

In result a covenant was drawn up, and the well, Beer-sheba, was made sure to Abraham, a well that in later days became famous as the southern boundary of the land. There for some years Abraham made his dwelling, and there he called on the Lord as the everlasting God. When the promise of Isaac was given, God made Himself known as the Almighty. Now that the promised heir is born and the promise redeemed, Abraham recognizes Him to be the Everlasting as well as the Almighty. Abraham had to wait for the promise to be fulfilled, and man being a creature of brief years, this waiting is to the flesh a very trying business. But to God as the Everlasting One, time is not of prime importance. He moves with deliberate yet certain steps, to the accomplishment of that which He has counselled and promised.

After the Philistines had had much contention with Isaac respecting some wells of water which they claimed, they bade him depart from them, for he had become too great to dwell so near. He submitted and removed to Beer-sheba. He was thus again in the truth of his calling within the limits of the land of promise: there the Lord again appeared to him, and told him not to fear, He would bless him for his father Abraham's sake. Now the Philistines come to him, admitting that they saw that Jehovah was blessing him, and they desired a covenant with him that he would do them no hurt. Thus was he now in the true place of moral superiority, in the place of his calling, and as such having no disputes with the nations, but acknowledged as the blessed of the Lord — a word surely for world-borderers of to-day.

This is the position of Isaac; as the first half of chapter 12 is the position of Abraham. From verse 7 to the end we have his personal walk as to faith, as Abraham's in the latter part of chapter 12; and the settlement of what should be his portion in his posterity according to the faith that he had. He fails like Abraham, and yet more as to energy. He denies his wife, as Abraham had done, and he leaves in the hand of the enemy the wells which Abraham had dug: he had failed in faith in God before Abimelech, and, though God had said to him "Sojourn in this land," he has to recede before the will of Abimelech, then driven from well to well, and has room only where the Philistine has room. In Beersheba he meets with God, where he has pitched his tent, where Abraham had set his bounds with Abimelech when Isaac was born. But Abraham had not received direction as to sojourning in the land, and had reproved Abimelech, whose servants had taken the well and Abimelech had given it up. Abraham had dug all these wells as he needed, as a stranger, and they were not taken away: the only one contended for was Beersheba, and that Abimelech gave up. However Beersheba was, in divine providence, the limit of the land according to the faith of Israel. The Philistines did remain till David came, the representative of Christ. The otherwise heirs of the land possessed it not fully. There the Lord appeared and blessed Isaac: there Israel reposed and worshipped. This chapter is Isaac's history; it answers to Abraham's (Gen. 12, Gen. 20).

And now we have two sections which almost repeat the history of Abraham which we have considered. We are, as there, in the Philistines' land where Isaac denies his wife as Abraham did, and is exposed and rebuked by Abimelech in like manner; while the strife for the wells is found here as there, ending in the covenant at the same place — Beersheba, which receives its name again from the similar oath of the covenant. The numbers of the sections are also the same.

Isaac, however, does not lose Rebekah, even for a time, and grows very great during his stay in Gerar, so that they pray him to depart, as mightier than they. He digs again, and renames Abraham's wells, but gives up well after well rather than contend with the Philistines, at last finding one for which they do not contend.

At Beersheba, God appears to him once more, and blesses him. The Philistines make here a covenant with him, owning that Jehovah (not merely God, as in Abraham's case,) is with him in all he does.