Biblical Geography

The Negev Desert

Desert · Old Testament · The Negev

Scripture first

Genesis 21:14-16 · WEBU

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Hagar wanders in of Beersheba with the water gone, and God opens her eyes to a well.

The Negev is semi- running to true desert, watered by wells and flash floods. The patriarchs pastured it, the spies crossed it, and its dryness made every well a , a quarrel or a rescue.

The dry southland below Beersheba: Abraham's wells, Hagar's flight, and the threshold of the promised land.

Biblical names
the Negev, the wilderness of Beersheba
Modern identification
The Negev · Israel

In the Negev, water is not a background detail; it is the plot. Beersheba's oath at a well is how were made where water was life.

  • Hagar wanders in the wilderness of Beersheba with the water gone, and God opens her eyes to a well.
  • Isaac digs a well at Beersheba and calls on the Lord
  • David's Ziklag, on the Negev's edge, burned by the Amalekites
  • Amos, a shepherd of Tekoa, looking south into the dry country

What we know

Certain

  • The Negev's identity as the dry southland of the patriarchs is clear throughout Genesis.