BEERSHEBA 1/3•:..) "NZ, Well of the oath; Sept. BThocrage€),* a place in the southernmost part of Canaan, celebrated for the sojourn of the patri archs. It seems to have been a favourite station of Abraham, and here he planted one of those groves' which formed the temples of those re mote times (Gen. xxi. 33). A town of some conse quence afterwards arose on the spot, and retained the same name. It was first assigned to the tribe of Judah (Josh. xv. 2S), and afterwards transferred to Simeon (Josh. xix. 2), hut was still popularly ascribed to Judah (2 Sam. xxiv. 7). As it was the southernmost city of the land, its name is of fre quent occurrence, being proverbially used in de scribing the extent of the country, in the phrase from Dan (in the north) to Beersheba ' (in the south), and reversely, ` from Beersheba unto Dan' (j udg. xx. I ; 2 Sam. xvii. l I ; t Chron. xxi. 2 ; 2 Chron. xxx. 5). When the land was divided into two kingdoms, the extent of that of Judah was in like manner described by the phrase ' from Beersheba to Mount Ephraim' (2 Chron. xix. 4). It was at Beersheba that Samuel established his sons as judges for the southernmost districts (I Sam. viii. 2): it was from thence that Elijah wandered out into the southern desert (I Kings xix. 3) : here was one of the chief seats of idola trous worship in the time of Uzziah (Amos v. 5 ; viii. 14); and to this place, among others, the Jews returned after the captivity (ea. xi. 27, 30). This is the last time its name occurs in the Old Testament. In the New Testament it is not once mentioned ; nor is it referred to, as then existing, by any writer earlier than Eusebius and Jerome, in the fourth century, who describe it as a large village (Euseb. Kam i...c.iiov-77; Jerome, virus grandis), and the seat of a Roman garrison. In the centuries before and after the Moslem conquest it is mentioned among the episcopal cities of Palestine (Reland, Pa/aut. i. 35); but none of its bishops are anywhere named. The site seems
to have been forgotten till the 14th century, 1,17hen Sir John Maundeville, Rudolf de Suchem, and William de Baldensel, recognised the name at a place which they passed on their route from Sinai to Hebron. It was then uninhabited, but some of the churches were still standing. From that time till the recent visit of Dr. Robinson, the place re mained unvisited and unknown, except for the slight notice obtained by Seetzen from the Arabs (Zach's Monad. Corresp. xvii. 143). Dr. Robin son says:— `In three-quarters of an hour we reached Wady es-Leba, a wide watercourse or bed of a torrent, running here W.S.W., upon whose northern side, close upon the bank, are two deep wells, still called Bir-es-Leba, the ancient Beer sheba. 'We had entered the borders of Palestine !' These wells are 55 rods apart. They are circular, and stoned up very neatly with masonry, apparently very ancient. The largest of them is 124 feet in diameter, and 44, feet deep to the surface of the water, 16 of which, at the bottom, are excavated in the solid rock. The other well is 5 feet in dia meter by 12 feet deep. The water in both is pure and sweet, and in great abundance; the finest, in deed, we had found since leaving Sinai. Both wells are surrounded with drinking-troughs of stone for camels and flocks, such as were doubtless used of old by the flocks which were fed on the adjacent hills' (Robinson, i. 30,). No ruins were at first visible ; but, on examination, foundations of forme' dwellings were traced, dispersed loosely over the low hills, to the north of the wells, and in the hol lows between. The site of the wells is nearly mid way between the southern end of the Dead Sea and the Mediterranean at Raphaea, or twenty-seven miles south-east from Gaza, and about the same distance south-by-west from Hebron. Its present Arabic name, Bir-es-Seba, means well of the seven,' or of lions.'—J. K.